Shortly before Christmas, shamelessly egged on my Twitter, I cast on a sweater. It’s by one of my favourite designers, Ruth, aka rock+purl.
It’s not a quick knit. The back was quick, the front was sloooow. Partly because of all of the cables, partly because when a cable goes the wrong way (which can only happen, of course, if you knit it the wrong way) and you don’t notice til quite a bit later on, it takes a bit of time to put right. (Or rather, it takes a bit of time to swear, curse, talk your mother into taking it back for you because you can’t bear to undo all of those hundreds of stitches, then sulk at it for a week before you can bear to look at it again.) The sleeves were slower than you’d think because I decided to knit them both at once. (Also, because these things always take longer than I think they will, but that’s another issue altogether.) It was too big to take on my travels, and French navy isn’t a great colour to knit I the evenings. I got distracted by the need to knit a colour affection shawl, and socks. So really, it’s not so much that it was a slow knit, as I didn’t give it the undivided attention that, now it’s done and I wish I’d had it a month ago, I feel it deserved.
But, it’s done, and I’ve enjoyed knitting it.
And I love it.
It fits, it suits, it was definitely worth the effort. The pattern was clear and interesting and well written.
And I started it just a few days ahead of my novel. Which has not been quick, or straightforward either, and has needed bits of wrangling and taking back and redoing and sulking at too.
I should finish the novel today. I think I’m going to like it as much as I like the Agnes sweater. Fingers crossed.
(Stuff knitters want to know: Agnes Pullover by rock+purl. Ravelry page is here. Yarn is Louise Harding Ianthe from Treacle Wool Shop.)