My WIP Wednesday is hairier than yours

Last night I looked down at the slightly random bundle of woolly things I was working on and thought the colours looked kind of nice together. Then I thought, what is happening to me? Those colours look a tiny tiny bit… whisper it…

Like neopolitan ice cream. Without the chocolate and with green instead

Pastel. Oh, God forbid. I think I am still ok, though, I think they are a tiny bit more intense than traditional pastels. I am going to call them ‘sorbet colours’ and put it down to Spring madness. Anyway, this is what I am working on.

The thing at the bottom is my skirt (I knelt down to take the picture, which doesn't entirely convey the Proud Hairiness of this yarn)

Do you remember the hairy green yarn that Loretta gave me? Well, I am knitting Liesl with it, and, this is the exciting thing, when you knit it, the hairiness is multiplied exponentially. I feel as if a small green monster is being born from my needles as I knit. Partner squeaks in alarm like a Big Girl’s Blouse if it touches him while he is sitting on the sofa (‘Susie! I can feel it! It’s on my leg!’). I do not know what I will look like when I am wearing it – I may look like a big scary green furball – but I am going to pretend that I am the She Hulk, who is on the television at the moment every night about 11:30, and of whom I am very fond. Anyway I have finished the yoke and am now working on the body, it goes very quickly. The yarn is a bit of a sod to work with (you can’t see what you’re doing) but it is terribly soft and also the fur doesn’t shed so I will not be leaving a furry green trail. Which is good, because, I mean, I won’t need too. I’ll be making quite enough of an impression.

I am ashamed of my scruffy fingers, yes. I'd just been digging in the garden

Although it looks a bit rubbish, this is actually something very special and exciting. I am trying to teach myself stranded knitting (for you non-knitters, this is essentially fairisle, although there are other kinds as well), and I am not finding it easy. Here is my problem. Lots of instructions for stranded knitting assume you do not mind holding a yarn in each hand, however I would rather do almost anything in the world than knit continental. I hate it! Take that, Elizabeth Zimmerman! Right-handed english thrower TO THE DEATH! I can actually do it (continental knitting), but it feels completely unnatural. It is the knitting equivalent of nailing a jelly to the ceiling. Over and over. I hate it. So I have worked out how to hold both yarns in my right hand, but I cannot work out how to twist them together to weave in floats (you have to do this if your colours are more than about 4 stitches apart so you don’t have a lot of unwieldy strands in your work). So I am poking about on the internet and asking on Ravelry. I find it very difficult to learn things from videos, which is going to complicate things, so, what I think will happen is that someone who understands right-handed stranded knitting will come to my house and perform a Vulcan Mind Meld. I mean, I’ll make them a cup of tea afterwards, I won’t exploit them or anything. Then I shall be straightaway knitting up wildly colourful woolly things like a storm, with none of that awful tedious learning first. Thank goodness for that! I shall get off and clear the books off the sofa for us to do the Mind Meld on, and then perhaps that person will help with the recycling as well, because it’s Bottle Day and one of us has generated bottles (it isn’t me). Good job I made some digestives, eh? Always be prepared!

While I’m waiting for the special Mind Meld person (hurry up, person! Mittens to knit!), you might want to check out some more Works In Progress (yes! It’s WIP Wed) at Tami’s blog (thanks, Tami!). If, on your travels, you see a WIP that is hairier than mine, could you please come back and let me know, because if such a thing exists I will be quite fascinated.