Parallax

I started this on Christmas Eve. I haven't done much knitting for the hell of it in a very long time because now I prefer to weave for fun. Besides, I've been busily learning to spin, which it turns out is even more fun than knitting or weaving, contrary to expectations. I knit a baby surprise jacket for Sarah and Michele's baby in the summer, but the last project I started for fun was a sweater last January, which still isn't done. Another sweater has been on the go for two years. Needless to say, I enjoy starting knitting projects more than finishing them.

So here we have another new one. I wanted to try a double-knitting project since we took Alasdair Post-Quinn's workshop a few weeks ago. The skills are a little different from what I'm used to, so they need practice to get the memory into my hands. For one thing, I find double-knitting much easier if I throw with the right hand. I learned to knit that way but switched to Continental several years ago and much prefer it. Here is a good example of why it is handy to be verstatile. Continental is awkward for purl stitches, but double-knitting involves alternating knit and purl with two different threads, and Continental totally sucks.

At the workshop Alasdair had a sample scarf of a more advanced Parallax pattern he hasn't published yet, so I settled for the Parallax v0.5. I liked the idea of using a solid colour and a variegated one with long colour repeats. The pattern itself has an optical illusion going on, so changing contrast freaks the eyes out even more. Last week I found yarn I want to use and bought two skeins each of Cascade 220 Heathers #4010 and an unfamiliar Cascade product, nicely variegated Casablanca. Its a wool/silk/mohair blend and the colourway, Sea Glass, is a pastel range of yellow, green, blue and violet. I like long colour repeats, and it makes a nice change from Noro Silk Garden.

The Casablanca presented some problems during cast on. It tended to unspin and break, then it did not have enough grab to easily spit-and-splice. It broke at least four times and two more during the first row of knitting. I thought I was going to have to give up on it. But casting-on must have been the part it hated, because it eventually forgot about that, pulled itself together and started playing nicely.

Unfortunately double-knitting is slow going. The little bit shown here represents about two hours of work. I have several big spinning and weaving projects with spring deadlines, so I can easily see this one dragging into 2014. A pattern like this would be much easier to weave. Best not to think about it.