radio resurgence.

After the much needed period of radio silence, I have been able to catch up on things. This included focusing for the final months of 2011 on finishing my master’s degree and fighting off feeling sick for three months. I’m sure you can guess why – yes, I am almost 4 months pregnant. We are very excited and I am due in the middle of July.

Now that I am feeling caught up and definitely better, I am able to start thinking about knitting and crafting again. Looking forward to knitting for a growing family, as well as starting to design a little bit, I am hopeful that this space will once again be busy.

I have finished quite a few things during my radio silence. One of my favourite projects is Gamine, a cardigan-vest from designer Tori Gurbisz. Another one of her patterns I am looking forward to knitting is Zephyr, a simple contiguous yoke cardigan. I am, however, on a yarn diet, and will not be purchasing the yarn for this sweater for a while!

One of my ‘projects’ this January has been to empty out my ‘office’ as it will morph into the nursery. In rearranging and preparing to store much of my yarn and notions, I have been able to cull my stash of a large bag of yarn for donation. It is strangely liberating. If the remaining has not been touched by December 2012, the rest  is being donated as well.

So, Gamine. I used stash yarn – which will be an ongoing trend here at Chez Welfordpurls for the rest of the year!

Berroco Flicker is a relatively new yarn that is very pretty. Odette, the colourway I chose, is a soft cream with flecks of green-gold in it. The flicker is not overpowering and because it’s gold, it’s very subtle against the cream. Gold buttons set it off nicely. As I mentioned on my rav page, though, the yarn is quite splitty.

In terms of modifications, I added about 2.5 inches of length to the body. Flicker’s gauge is strange. It’s listed as a worsted weight but when knit up on 5.00mm needles, it’s quite stiff. Even with washing, I wasn’t too happy with the look or feel of it after. On 6.00mm needles, it’s light and airy – I think it shows off the yarn nicely. And that gave me gauge too.

I hope this finds you happily knitting, enjoying the new year and looking forward to the projects you have planned.

r.