For the blog, all for the blog...

Wednesday, I spent an hour walking. To take pictures. I've had a wee bit of guilt for days, because I realize that I didn't really meet expectations on Saturday with my last door picture. I'm tempted to apologize, but I won't. You get what you pay for, and on my blog, you get me. No hostility, honest. All Cassie, all the time.

In the last week or so, Mary Beth has been on a gansey kick (to augment her prodigious  Aran sweater knitting). And I've been on my nattrojer kick. I think I found out about ganseys first; nattrojer came later. I read Beth Brown Reinsel's Knitting Ganseys and made my first sweater from it. Nattrojer are, more or less, the same technically (knit in the round, knit/purl patterning, underarm gussets, etc) as ganseys. But made for a woman - 'manly yes, but I like it too'. The traditional ones are quite cropped and made to be worn with higher waist lines than you see nowadays. Similarly, the old fashioned fishermens ganseys are also often cropped or short-waisted.

After all of the public agonizing over yarn, etc, I'm going to be 100% honest here. I chose the yarn I liked better. Not the one that photographs well. The Frangipani guernsey shows pattern on camera much better. To add insult to injury, its also knit at a larger gauge. I knit the same pattern with two different yarns for two days, and I chose the one that felt better on my hands. That made me just want to keep on knitting. I went on intuition with this one.

In order to be true to myself, I've chosen to make the nattrøje with the Blackberry Ridge crimson fingering weight wool. The one that knits up at 8 spi on 2.25mm needles. The one that really doesn't photograph to its true color, or show any stitch definition on my digital camera, because of the color.

Please trust me when I say that I've knit an extra 4 rows because my stitch and row gauge are tighter than the pattern calls for; I know you can't see it. And that the pattern really does show up very well in the yarn, in spite of all appearances to the contrary here. And that the feel of it is amazing. And that the monumental 27 rows here only amounts to 2" of knitting. I've knit both of the welts, joined them, and knit 8 rows into the pattern already. Two. inches.

It seems as though the BB Ridge crimson wool has met Alice's approval.

This picture is the closest to true, in color, of any that I've taken. I couldn't have set this up if I wanted to. She really loved touching this wool.

Comments

[Norma]

Go, Alice! Maybe she can do a few rows for you, help you along, you know....

[LauraJ]

You took over my body yesterday at the LYS and when I got it back I had bought _Making Ganseys_. Thank you! Maybe I will even make one, the sample at the very least. And I got Sheila MacGregor's _Traditional Scandinavian Knitting_ last week and it has considerable information about nattrøjer, if you needed more.

My regards to Alice. I wonder if she wants you to make her a bird cosy?

Laura J

[Wendy]

Clearly, Alice is a connosseur.

[Cara]

Wonderful! Nothing better than going with your gut. I'm glad you're on your way - and I think you are too. Alice knows - you chose wisely.

[Mary Beth]

Yes! You've committed! Alice is saying "told you so!"

[Emma.]

Fab !
That was my choice,but I didn't want to push it ! Better to follow your heart.
It'll be fantastic.

[Lauren]

Wait. Huh? You knit a gansey? Why haven't we seen a picture of it?

[stephanie]

Sometimes photographing (digitally) red on top of another colour helps. Red on blue, red on green etc. It's like it confuses the camera into giving you a more accurate colour, doesn't get all hung up trying to manage red...or something. That might be part of why the picture with Alice is the most accurate. My camera is a old piece of junk so I've figured out some tricks.

[Beth S.]

Blackberry Ridge makes such wonderful yarn, I'm not surprised you couldn't resist its siren call. Good for you for choosing the one your heart spoke up for, even if it isn't blog-friendly.

[erin]

Wunderbar! Sorry I don't know Danish, just German. See you should have jusyt started out by asking Alice, and all would have been well.

[Vicki]

Intuition, being true, using what feels better -- and Alice likes it, too? Sounds like you're on the right track!

[patti]

Excuse me a moment while I reel at the thought of knitting a whole sweater in fingering weight.

ok, better. whew.

I liked the picture Saturday. Layer on layer of people leaving their mark on an environment that doesn't give them opportunities to leave their marks in more socially acceptable ways. People who don't have the skill to do beautiful iron doors and archways.

I have an elaborate tattoo, a whole sleeve of koi and water and leaves. It opens up conversations sometimes that I would prefer to not be in, an unanticipated side effect. I met a guy once who was in the process of getting his whole body tattooed. Three times over. Layers, just like that picture. You couldn't see anything anymore, you could make out tiny tiny bits of sense, but mostly it was chaos. That picture reminded me of him.

[Julie]

Nice choice on the yarn - it's not what I thought it would look like. I thought that red was too glaring when photographed next to the claret, but on its own it's very nice. And I can see that pattern there - such tiny stitches!

Alice is too sweet - glad to see she's feeling better.

[Margene]

I love Stephanie's hints about photos of red. I always have trouble. If Alice approves it you must have made the right choice. It's going to be stunning.

[rams]

I thought I was clear on the proportions, given the needle and stitch marker. Then I saw the giant finger, and the universe tottered on its foundations. It will be a masterpiece which lasts.

[Rachel]

I heart Alice :)

My own sweet cockatiel (Madeline -- Maddy for short) often tries to be "helpful" with the knitting (and other things, like wrapping presents). Mostly that consists of her attempts to bite through and/or unravel everything, but it's the thought that counts!