Knitting in Lockdown. . .

We've now been in lockdown for nearly two months. How is everyone doing?

When it was first anticipated and especially when I started working at home, the staying-in bit didn't bother me at all. I knew I'd miss my long hikes, but on the plus side, I thought I'd have oodles of time to crack down and finish all my knitting wips and even get out the sewing machine. I had visions of tackling a really big, time-consuming project, maybe finishing a fair isle cardigan or my intarsia jumper, or even making huge headway with my Tarantella millefiore quilt (nope, that's never going to be completed - I admit defeat now).

In the end, most of my sweater wips have remained in their lonesome project bags and I've been drawn to easier and smaller projects. And despite a goal to really crack down on all my wips from the last decade (my challenge is to finish 20 by the end of the year),  all I've felt like doing is casting on the new. And so I have.

I started with hats:

The top two -  Foglie Nascoste and the Gradient Mesh  - are from the new book of accessories, Colour Moves by Claudia Fiochetti.  It's the first book in Kate Davies' new venture Make/Mark in which she is helping to mentor and publish new designers and writers.  In look and execution, it is very much in line with the quality of Kate's own books, but the designs are very much Claudia's and it's a lovely collection of mittens, hats and cowls, many with a strong graphic sensibility.  I will be knitting more from this book in the future - my Gradient Mesh hat, which uses a Crazy Zauberball for the colour changes, is one of the best fitting hats I've ever knitted.

I also knit Kate's Brilliant Corners hat because it was fun to play with the colours and textures.

And I needed a hat to go with the very first pair of gloves I knitted back in February. These were a really fun project and the fingers much easier than I thought they would be.  After fiddling around with dpns that were too long and magic loop which was difficult with such small circumferences, I tried some Addi Crasy Trios and they worked a charm. The pattern is Blue Interference by the aforementioned talented Claudia Fiochetti but from the new book Warm Hands, edited by Kate Davies and Jeanette Sloan.

The book has some really beautiful colourwork mittens and some fun patterns with new-to-me techniques, such as the calliper cables in Jeanette Sloan's Toasty Cosy mitts that I knit to match a previous cowl.

And because I enjoyed the gloves so much, I knit a pair for a birthday gift - the pattern is Nancy's Gloves by Donna Smith.  I really like the simple but elegant lace pattern.  I think I might need to cast on a pair for myself.

Heads and hands out of my system, I drifted towards shawls.  Now I DO NOT need another shawl, but I just can't seem to stop knitting them. They are probably my favourite type of project because they grow quickly (mostly), are the perfect stashbuster, especially for single skeins, the gauge is usually not an issue, and they are a great canvas for trying out some new techniques.

I used the rest of my Crazy Zauberball to knit a Moonraker shawl by Melanie Berg.  This was lots of soothing garter stitch followed by some rows of colourful clusters.

And then I cast on Gudrun Johnston's beautiful Loren shawl. I had always wanted to try the Shetland Bird's Eye lace pattern (which involves knitting lace on both sides, but is quite intuitive once you get into the rhythm of it), and I'm really happy with the result.  The yarn is merino laceweight dyed by Canadian Riverside Knits,  from very old stash. I do like a light lace shawl for summer.

And my final shawl (I do seem to be knitting things in threes these days), is still in progress. It's a Mystery Knit-A-Long shawl designed by Kieran Foley who is a master of colour, although his patterns use a lot of intarsia. I had a pile of mini balls of Shetland yarn in stash from Wee County Yarns (very convenient as ready-made bobbins), and some gorgeous, rustic Donegal yarn that I picked up from Rosa Pomar's Retrosaria last year in Lisbon so thought I would give this a go.

The pattern is inspired by Moroccan embroideries and while my colours don't have as much contrast as I would normally like,  I think they give an over-all effect of a faded carpet or sun-bleached blanket which I find quite pleasing.  I still have two more clues to complete but have worked out a system of knitting this on my bed, with all the bobbins spread out so that they are easily untangled after every row. It's very slow and steady knitting but I'm pleased after admiring his patterns for so long to be actually tackling one.  And I think his Bloomsbury Swirl  is definitely destined for my future queue.

Ahem. . . and lockdown has apparently turned me into a sock knitter!  Who knew?  But maybe that's a post for later.

I hope you are all finding comfort in your knitting or other crafty projects.   The Liverpud, not known for spending time in creative endeavours,  has already finished putting together a model airplane and is talking about taking a sketchbook out to the garden.