yarn along

So, after the exciting news that I shared yesterday, seem's appropriate to keep you informed also of what I've been up to alongside this. As if designing my own cardigan wasn't enough, I've decided to do some more designing again - this time a fully knitted, cable throw. The exact same story with the cardigan! I bought a big bag of yarn at The Knitting & Stitching Show, assuming I would find a great pattern. I changed my mind on a jumper (time to try something a little different) and decided on a blanket (ok, not THAT different - but this one will be knitted at least), and so I took to the world wide web to find a free, cable knit blanket pattern, that used double knit yarn.

Couldn't find anything, so I tried my many knitting books.

No more luck, perhaps the huge stack of magazines ...

Nothing - plenty of baby blanket patterns to be sure, but no adult ones! I realise knitting an adult blanket in double knit will take a while, and my unwillingness to buy a pattern doesn't help, but come on! Unfortunately the idea is stuck in my head, so I will JUST have to make one up myself and fill that gap in the market - what a bother! I fancy lots of textures and cables if I can, so (above) you can see I'm practising my swatch for the tension, but also to see what patterns and cables I like, using the amazing book that is, so aptly named, The Knitting Book. It's filled with ideas, techniques and, more importantly, stitch patterns. Watch this space for another oooooongoing project!

Of course I am, as usual, linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along so I shall also tell you what I'm reading. Back to Robin Hobb, I'm reading the first in another trilogy (The Farseer Trilogy) - Assassin's Apprentice. Where I struggled to get stuck into The Liveship Trader's Trilogy, I had no problem eating this book right up and I'm already half way through after a couple of days! This is the story of Fitz, the bastard son of a Farseer Prince, and how he is learning how to make his way in a world that he doesn't quite fit into, where he is judged only by the accident of his birth, and he is also training to become - well, an assassin believe it or not. All with the right amount of magic and mystery, just how I like it! So far we are only following one point of view which I really love. Although the various characters in The Liveship Traders and A Song of Ice and Fire is great, I find that the emotional attachment is more with just a single protagonist. I don't mean to ramble - just get to reading this book if you like fantasy and George R.R. Martin! Also, read this before The Liveship Traders, it's all a part of the same world and will probably set up that trilogy better than I had :)