Last night I made several attempts to cast on for Thermal. My first try was twisted, and then I messed up the stitch pattern, and then I actually pulled the cable out of my needle. But I still love Thermal! And Gloss is so wonderful to work with.  So here’s what I’m doing…

Yes indeed… I am knitting Thermal flat, to be seamed up at the end. Yes, I know you all think I’m crazy, but having over 200 stitches on the needle at a time just does not work well for me! Besides, knitting flat gives more variation to the pattern, and hopefully my hands won’t get as upset. I think the reason I like knitting in pieces is that it gives me nice goals. I can’t stand how long it takes to complete a body in the round, at least not at this gauge.

The other sweater I’m having issues with is the Tangled Yoke cardigan, for the same basic reasons. But since that sweater involves shaping, I will probably knit it in one piece. At least it isn’t in the round. And… it won’t be in felted tweed. Why? Because I am allergic to felted tweed. Yup. I was going to start Salina, but I immediately started getting the sniffles after casting on. I soldiered on, but it turns out it wasn’t my imagination. Apparently even 25% alpaca is too much for me.

*sniff* goodbye, felted tweed! At some point soon, I will have to sell mine. I have sweater amounts of rage, watery and sigh, and a few balls of herb as well. I’m going to make Salina out of Silky Wool instead, and the Tangled Yoke cardi in Reynolds Whiskey. Does anyone have any other nice felted tweed subs?
I completed a few more repeats of the lozenge socks. I highly recommend this pattern so far – it’s easily memorized, and the effect is really nice.

I’m going to go to 6 repeats, I think, and then start the heel. These are going pretty quickly!

In even more exciting news, I went to Kim Hargreaves’ website today, to look at the kits, and on the front page it says she will have a book coming out soon. I’m so excited – I have really been turned off by the kit thing, but her designs are so pretty!