Oh The Instant Gratification Of An Immediate Download!

I succumbed to temptation last night. (Cries of, 'Oh really?') I'd been wandering around Ravelry you see (yes yes, it's all true, it is a black hole and it does take up all your time, hadn't you noticed how SOME people haven't posted in a month since they got their invite?) and had been sneaking a peek at what other people had queued in their Works Yet To Start (it's great fun, you feel like you're peering in the window or going through their stash basket while they're out in the kitchen making coffee). Anyway, I saw this AMAZING little jacket on Angeluna's page. Yes, it's all your fault, Angeluna, as usual, you knew I'd see it and fall head over heels in love straight away, didn't you? You do this all the time. You do it just to annoy, don't you?






This is the Halfobi jacket by Ivete Tecedor and the best bit about it is that you can download the pattern for a very reasonable amount right away! Now how good is that? OK, some of you, a lot younger than me, probably don't know a time when you couldn't see something, click a button or two, and own the pattern immediately, but some of us remember the bad ol' days when you yearned and desired, planned for the next long trip, sought out a shop, bought the cherished item, and carried it back to the homeland in triumph. Now, joy of joys, it can be Sunday night, or the start of a long holiday weekend, or the beginning of Lent or whatever, but when you suddenly know you can't live without a pattern, the instant gratification is there at your fingertips! Gosh, how I love the world of technology when it works!

Now, lest you think I'm going mad altogether and planning to make a cute little pink jacket, more appropriate for a Barbie-lookalike than an Attila-the-Hun doppelganger, the plan is (was?) to knit this up in Noro Silk Garden certainly (as the pictured one is) but to use the big stash of Noro yarn which was reclaimed from a Klaralund sweater which, although certainly delivering on the colour drama, did little in the way of structure and shape, and so was relentlessly frogged. It's a beautiful blend of blues, greens, turquoises, and will look stunning in this.

I said the plan was... because to tell the truth (as do all of us on our blogs, don't we?) having succumbed to the temptation of instant gratification and downloaded the pattern, I kind of got the taste for that instant grat (like the first heavily salted potato crisp) and began thinking how nice it would be to - well, just - just cast on, you know? Not do anything else. Not work any rows or anything. Just cast on, to see what it would look like.

And then, having cast on, I very virtuously remembered all those sage knitters who intone from their ivory towers that we must check gauge, get gauge, swatch for gauge. No matter if the world is ending, CHECK GAUGE. And for that you do need to work a few rows, right?

OK, so the Halfobi jacket is under way. Not very far, just a few rows up the arm, but it's under way.

So - she's started another project, you chortle. What a wreck, this Celtic Memory is! How many does that make?


HahahahaHA!


What you DIDN'T know was -


I'VE FINISHED TWO!!!!!

Yes, even I got sick of myself and my ever-increasing stack of WIPs. I really lay awake at night and called myself all kinds of things. And finally I got stuck in and knitted constantly. At home, out shopping, in the kitchen, in the garden. Queuing, on the phone, walking the dog, having coffee. Yes, in bed too. (Can you knit successfully in bed? I haven't got the hang of it yet. Either you lie on your back and knit above you, or you lean uncomfortably on one elbow, or you prop yourself up... But I digress) Anyway it paid off. It took a bit of time but it paid off.

Flourish of trumpets The First:






Gazebo Lace crop cardi, front view.



Gazebo Lace crop cardi, back view.

I'm fairly pleased with this. It looks good. I could have made the sleeves a little shorter (and saved myself a few rows) but I'm sure as heck not going back and frogging from the sleeve cap. It's nice and I'll wear it. My own design, progressed from the initial edging pattern by Nicky Epstein in Knitting On The Edge.

Flourish of trumpets The Second.




The Fawkes socks are DONE! Yes, the phoenix rises triumphant from the ashes and soars aloft, glittering feathers fluttering in the breeze and magnificent beak opening in a cry of triumph. This is a superb pattern and I loved it all the way. It's a snug fit, though - to tell you the truth yet again, I could have finished these last night. I finished the first one, grafted the toe stitches and tried it on. Um. It was just that tiniest bit too snug. Could have done with a few more rows before the toe shaping. Tried to persuade myself that negative ease (the new catchphrase) was what I needed. But not that much negativity. On the second sock, reluctantly put in another four rows before toe shaping, and it was divine. Oh all right. Spent this morning painstakingly unpicking the grafting (and had I ever hidden the loose yarn end well inside the first sock...) and ripping back to the beginning of the shaping before repeating as before. But it was worth it. They are beautiful and I will wear them tomorrow with pride and my best clogs.

So that justified starting the Halfobi, don't you think? (Yes, yes, yes, I know there are other projects on the go, don't be a nag, I'm GETTING ON WITH THEM.)

Nice surprise in the post the other day. Dawn Brocco's divine book, Curvaceous Cables, arrived in a far shorter time than I could ever have believed possible. This woman has the most fiendish mind when it comes to cables and how to treat them weirdly and creatively. I can't rest until I've made all the projects in her book. Do you have it? If you do, you know what I'm on about. They are positively addictive!


And then, I was checking out Jane Thornley's blog, as I frequently do, and saw this absolutely incredible free pattern for a wrap she's designed. The things Jane can do with yarn and the way her mind envisages capturing things like leaves or trees or seaweed or rockpools in fibre - I don't know how she does it. There is no help for it, the Green Before The Gold Free Free Range Pattern has got to go on my To Do list.

(And that was before I saw the amazing Noro Ekeby vest listed in several people's Queued lists on Ravelry. Now there's a pattern...)




I don't have this particular Noro pattern book right now, and no prospect of nailing it down in the near future, but I live in hope. Actually I think this vest would look even more effective in shades of silky chenille, don't you?


An afterthought. I love, love, LOVE this idea of downloading patterns instantly and having them right there at the moment you most desire them, but isn't there a risk (as in all instant gratification) that once you've got them you might forget you have them? Downloaded designs aren't quite the same, after all, as thick paper sheets or laminated folders. They tend to get lost in one of your crammed computer files, don't they? I am reminded of this because someone somewhere mentioned Cookie A's amazing Twisted Flower Socks, and I realised that I had downloaded them almost a month ago. A whole month and I hadn't tried a new Cookie A sock pattern!

Now those are going to be a challenge! Lucky I joined the Cookie A group on Ravelry...