Thinking Time

I've been on a flying trip to Belfast. Literally flying actually - first time in about 18 months and the security stuff was rather a drag. Leaving belfast all my stuff got fingertip searched because I'd forgotten a can of deodorant. And then once I'd repacked everything I had to go back through security again. The posters at City Airport had a list of things you couldn't have in your bag and one of them was knitting needles. But during the minute search of everything she rummaged in my knitting bag and never said a word. I knitted on the plane there and back so all was well really.

They say travelling expands the mind, and it certainly gives you time to think. I have been spending much time thinking about the Kauni jumper. I got this lot out of the bookcase and had a rummage for ideas, answers and inspiration.

I ended up finding this in the Designing Knitwear book.

So that gave me the neckline and how many stitches to cast on IF I was going to go top down. But then while I was away I got thinking. It went something like this...

1. I'll knit it top down - then I can try it on as I go.
2. That means I'll need to map out the pattern including the increases from the neck down.
3. Ah. That's quite complicated.
4. Wait, this is a steeked cardigan, so trying it on as I go is going to be difficult.
5. What am I going to do about the arms? Whether I go top down or bottom up I'll need to get the colours to match where the arms join the body.
6. I'll probably need an extra ball to get this to work. But I've got 600g so that might be enough. Maybe.
7. So wait - if going top down doesn't bring the benefits I thought, should I just go bottom up. I've already worked out the waist and bust inc/dec to do that.
8. I still need to map out the pattern, but can play it a bit more by ear with the shaping.
9. If I do a fake side seam of a purl stitch I can use that to disguise mismatches in the pattern. ...Or I could forget that and have the pattern matching all the way round.
10. Oh my god. We're all going to die.

Which reminds me - remembering my previous post, has anyone seen this? http://www.hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

Meanwhile I've been slogging away on the noro socks. I really really don't like the yarn. I had a knot which changed purple to turquoise - and my opposing stripe was already turquoise so it wasn't working on so many levels.

I went to see Tropic Thunder at the cinema this afternoon. It was brilliant. The premise is one that has been done before but they did it well. I do like a lot of Ben Stiller's films and this was definitely his film. I don't mean in terms of screentime because everyone got a good amount, but he directed, wrote, produced, created, thought up etc etc the whole thing, although I did see one of the coen brothers credited for something at some point. They very cunningly got you to watch the end credits by having them accompanied by a dance. Not just any dance either. This is the dance of dances. And the dancer is someone so unexpected - the biggest surprise is that he doesn't just not appear on the posters, even as a name, but isn't menioned on the imdb site either. It's staggering since he's known for having a high profile even though he has gone a bit weird recently. I won't say anymore - but look out for him and his hairy knuckles. I didn't believe it was him the first time he appeared on the screen. Took a few minutes for me to finally believe it. Genius casting. Robert Downey Jr was very good too. I watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang the other day too - I really rather like his acting.

The walk back from the cinema was rather lovely as it was just starting to get dark and the dock looked lovely.

It's been a lovely warm day. Guess there won't be many more, although on the plus side this means more scope for wearing handknits!