Instant Gratification

I can't be the only knitter this happens to: you see a pattern you just HAVE to knit. Immediately. This happened to me last Saturday at the yarn shop where I work. It's a very dangerous place for a knitter to work, surrounded by constant temptation. Usually I can resist impulsive cast ons - but not this time.

I was flipping through Kim Hargreaves' 'Heartfelt - the Dark House collection' and came upon this.

Cherish

Cherish is a lovely fitted bolero with picot edging, knit in super-bulky Rowan big wool. You only need four balls for the small size. Talk about instant gratification! I bought the wool and started that very day.

Normally I'm not tempted by bulky wool, because it is too expensive to knit a whole garment, and I prefer more form-fitting clothing, which you don't usually get with thick wool. But this bolero is nicely fitted, with short-row shaping on the bust, and with my discount the total yarn cost was less than £30 (my preferred limit for knitted projects).

I wavered between purple and red, but finally went with red Rowan drift, an unplied marled version of big wool, which will make this shrug perfect for Christmas parties. With spring bursting out all over, it is hardly the time to be thinking of Christmas, but I knew if I waited until December to knit this, it would never happen. And I wanted to knit it NOW.

Rowan drift under stealth kitty attack

This bolero could easily be completed in less than a week, but I soon got sidetracked finishing up my Killing sweater (which I will discuss in a future blog post, once it has finished drying and I have fixed up the pattern a bit). But now I've picked up my enormous 12mm needles again, and am steadily knitting away. I've already finished the back and the left front, and am well on track to completing it this weekend.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, there is Kusha Kusha, a felted scarf in Habu wool/steel and fine merino.

This is my third Kusha Kusha, but I knit the other two with malabrigo lace instead of fine cobweb-weight merino, because I couldn't find the Habu merino in the UK. I can see why this yarn is not more widely available - it is so thin it would deter everyone but the most serious knitter. Me, I'm obviously a glutton for punishment, because knitting with micro-thin merino and thread-weight steel yarn is not a lot of fun. But as I know the finished product is going to be amazing, in this case I'm willing to wait for delayed gratification.