It is beautiful out there today! Blue Blue Skies and warm. There may even be a blush of green on the lawn. Horny little gangs of squirrels everywhere. (Squirrels are still a novelty to us, so we think they're cute. But I think that will wear off. I commented on how cute they were to our realtor, and she narrowed her eyes and growled I hate squirrels à la Clint Eastwood.)
A little more swatch show and tell.
The yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy 41% Cotton 34% Hemp 25% Rayon. Although it has the yardage of a sport weight, it knits up as a DK with about 21 or 22 stitches over 4 inches. Like any yarn with linen or hemp, it has a slightly raw look and feel. It's beautifully strong and after washing is very soft. Lovely muted colour palette with lots of choice.
The swatch: This was the proposal swatch for the Ladysmith Cardigan. A simple knit-in sawtooth edging with some stockinette. The publisher picked a different yarn, Louisa Harding Ondine (a pretty variegated cotton DK) which changed the character of the cardigan quite a bit from my original plan.
Poor little pattern, it barely saw the light of day with the Knit magazine debacle. I've tried to keep unprofessional rants off the blog, but here's the summary: I was contracted by the magazine to write, knit, and ship 4 sweaters, which I did (Floral Pocket Jacket, Trestle Hoodie, Ladysmith Cardigan and Kitsilano Cardigan). Shipping 4 insured, trackable packages to the UK cost me about $300. Then the magazine only paid me for 2 of the 4 contracts. Only 2 1/2 patterns published. Why do I say 2 1/2? Ladysmith was sort of published around the time the magazine went into receivership. One last gasp. I saw a digital version of the magazine, but I'm not sure it was ever printed or if the printed magazine got distributed.
I do own the rights to the written patterns, but don't have the samples, and can't use the photography. So I would have to re-knit and re-shoot to publish them myself.
And the Kitsilano Cardigan is ready to go with a few photos and nicely tech edited... but, sigh, the whole Knit magazine experience left a sour taste.
So anyways, I think the Ladysmith would look very nice in my charcoal-grey Hempathy.
