fair isle baubles

Harriet’s cowl is coming along nicely but I really did fancy a change.  Strangely enough I have only one other WIP!  I apologise if I have caused any injuries as readers fell to the floor in shock, hitting their heads on sharp objects on the way down.  Arnica for bruises and comfrey for healing, turmeric, ginger and chilli for inflammation and pain control (recipe here).  Back to the knitting.  Apart from Stuart’s socks which I was going to take to Glasgow with me this weekend, but I really do want to finish my cowl, so his feet will remain chilly for a few more days, I have no other UFOs/WIP, call them what you will.

However I do have a very long list of projects waiting for me to start and one of them is this, or to be more grammatically correct, these.

Christmas baubles for the Shetland MRI appeal.  Perfect, an evening project that is a change from the cowl but will not become a UFO!  Out came the box of shetland yarn and it was on the needles.

I knit pretty much everything in the round and even now I twist cast ons.   When there are hundreds of stitches I blame the fact that there are too many stitches.  But when there are only 12?  There are too few.  Believe me, when you have more needle than stitches there is a twist waiting to happen.

I used this pattern for my first attempt.   The pattern calls for 4.5 needles.  I tend to knit fairly loose and wasn’t going to bother with a swatch for something that is about the size of a swatch when completed so just went down to 3.5 needles and spindrift yarn from Jamiesons.   Apart from my inability to count to three (as evidenced by the number of times I had to tink back …) it was a dream to knit.

And within no time at all I had a flat bauble.

Some stuffing, an icord hanger and it’s bottom sewn up and we have a Christmas bauble. Hopefully the first of many.  I may pop my 3.5s into my bag this weekend in case I need a break from the cowl again!

Love Gillie x