Edinburgh skies (and buses)

No sooner have I finished one knitting project than I cast on another one, and for once it's not blue!

Part of the Edinburgh bus map - this is relevant, honestly

When I went up to Edinburgh in June, I had the idea of buying myself something special and related to my birth city as a sort of 60th birthday present to myself. Initially I considered jewellery, but nothing I saw really called to me.

One of the things on my 'must do' list for the trip was a visit to Kathy's Knits in the New Town. It was fabulous, an absolute treasure trove of yarns and patterns. At which point it dawned on me that some really nice wool and a suitable pattern would be the perfect thing to buy myself - especially as I knit in the Scottish (lever) style.

The shop has lots of completed items on display to provide inspiration. My eye was really drawn to the stunning Celtic cable shawls by Lucy Hague but sadly, they are well beyond my current skill level. Maybe some day . . . Then I spotted a pattern called Lothian, by Justyna Lorkowska of Lete's Knits. Although I was born in Edinburgh, I grew up in Midlothian, so this had a definite connection. I liked the pattern and Kathy, who is lovely and very helpful, confirmed that it was a straightforward knit.

Then came the less straightforward task of choosing yarn from the mind-boggling choice available. Eventually I settled on a 4ply Bluefaced Leicester/silk mix from Abercairn Yarns, in shade Stormy Sky.

The pattern and the main yarn

For the contrasts, Kathy and I agreed that variegated yellows with hints of grey and red would give the effect of a cloudy Edinburgh sky with sunshine peeking through the gaps - something which we both know well! In fact, one evening the city almost obliged.

Grey - yes, sunshine - no

I was hoping for something more like this

At some point I probably will buy a ball winder, but there's something so satisfying about an old school round ball of wool which fits perfectly in your hand!

One skein

I've only done a few rows so far, and they are rather wobbly, but I definitely like the way the yarn knits up. The edges of the rows were initially atrocious, and nothing I tried made the messy loops any smaller, so I redid them with the first stitch slipped instead and it looks much better.

Progress so far

But what about the buses? When I looked the pattern up on Ravelry, I discovered that inspiration came from Justyna knitting on Lothian buses while travelling round the city, and the squiggly lines are based on the idea of bus route maps. This made the pattern even more perfect. Whenever I go up to Edinburgh, on the first night there I always eat in a restaurant on the North Bridge on the site of the old Patrick Thomson department store, and sit in the window so that I can watch the buses go by. When I was growing up, we often got the bus home from outside "PT's". The two routes which served my home town have been renamed/rerouted, so Rosewell and Birkenside no longer appear on the front of buses, but the destinations of the many other routes which come across the North Bridge are very familiar. I really like the fact that I inadvertently chose a pattern with a link to what has become an Edinburgh tradition for me.

PT's in the 1960s, with the queue for the bus at the bottom left

All in all, I think that this project makes an excellent birthday gift/souvenir.