Weekend WIP

I have had to order more yarn to continue with the Big Hat Project; well, there is some yarn I am going to be using in The Stash, but this will involve some weight-lifting as I attempt to lever open the stash trapdoor without removing the stash boxes on top, resting the weight on one elbow as I desperately rummage, trying to find red aran-weight yarn by touch alone. I will save that treat for another day.

Anyway, the end product is the same - a Hat Hiatus, and finally time to get started on the Lopi project I've had in mind for years. I've always loved the Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai -

So, the sweater I am going to attempt will have a fairisle motif inspired by this painting, partly in memory of the amazing waves we watched rolling in during the trip to Iceland where I bought this yarn. We visited beaches on the south coast of the island: there's no land mass to break the waves between the Antarctic and Iceland, so there is some power in those waves.

 I test knitted the garment as last year's Christmas jumper so I have the numbers all ready, and I spent a happy Saturday afternoon charting the wave in Excel earlier this year, so I am ready to go. I have several colours of the Lopi - a navy for the body of the sweater, and then two blues and two greys for the rest; and I have a ball of green I bought from a knit grouper's stash just in case, but I don't think I am going to be using it.

So, yesterday, I cast on and knitted a bit of the seed stitch bottom. It's going to be a lot of st-st before I get to the fun bit, but I am looking forward to it; and it's good mindless knitting. The Lopi is pretty rough, but I expect it will soften up when it's finished and washed; and anyway, I don't intend to be wearing it next to my skin.