St. Brigid modifications

St. Brigid in progress: shoulder join, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

Never hesitating (anymore) to start yet another project, I cast on to knit Alice Starmore's design "St. Brigid" last month.

The original design has a shoulder strap, the middle braid on the sleeve continuing to the collar, but I decided to join the back and front without it simply to see how it would turn out.

Then I picked up stitches to knit the sleeves top-down instead of casting on to start at the wrist and having to sew the sleeves to the body. So far, so good. However, a modification that was not that successful was finishing the braid when it was about to be eaten up be the decreases (to the left in the picture below). I think it looks amputated. Therefore, I decided to test something else knitting the second sleeve and then rip and reknit one of them.

St. Brigid: two sleeve versions

Knitting the second sleeve I've made the braid slimmer as the sleeve decreases get nearer, and I think it looks a lot better. I don't mind having to do quite a lot of reknitting: I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy knitting cables, and Starmores infinite cable patterns are wonderful.

The yarn is Cascade 220 and I use 3½ mm needles (US 4).

Domino sweater: back

Domino sweater progress, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

This construction is quite unlike any sweater I've knitted before, and I'm in complete awe of Marianne Isager's skills as a designer.

I've knitted the shapes that make up the main part of the front (some of them halves to get straight sides and to shape the neck) and have started knitting the back. It's like the front: you start in an upper corner and add the shapes diagonally.

I spent Easter away from temperatures below zero and snow. No sign of yarn stores, but that doesn't really matter when you can bring your own yarn - even if it would have been nice to add some Maltese yarn to my stash. Instead I returned to Sweden with freckles, stronger legs from hours of walking instead and memories of new sights and new flavours. (When I'm abroad I always get interested in food in a way I never am at home and want to try things not likely to be found in Sweden. Sea urchin, for example, which was a treat.)

Valletta, Malta