The queue

How did this happen? How did I go from a person who decided to knit a single cardigan in a knitalong, with a definite possibility that I would never knit anything else, to a woman with a Ravelry queue that runs to double figures (as well as several WIPs)?

I find myself unexpectedly away from home, without access to any of my projects to photograph for the blog. But I do have access to my Ravelry account, and recently listed all the projects for which I have yarn and pattern on my queue. So here, in an attempt at accountability, it is.

I still regard myself as a novice knitter, so prefer to stick to tried and trusted names whose patterns I know will be well written. Or, in the case of Tasha Could Make That's Confidette bolero, a well-written pattern for a garment I would like to have in several colourways. I have yarn to knit it in navy with off-white contrast, chocolate with mocha, and pine green with a warm brown.

Expect to see more of these in the future

Aside from three boleros, a big chunk of my queue is taken up with patterns from Susan Crawford Vintage. Not due to any affiliation, just that I really like her designs, and feel confident knitting them. High on the list is the Helen shrug.

Image © Susan Crawford

This pattern from A Stitch in Time Volume Two - Revisited had slipped under my radar until it appeared on the SCV Instagram account. It's lace, which I love knitting, but also straightforward enough to be a take-to-my-Mum's-and-chat knit. At this year's Coastal Colours pop-up wool show in Port Sunlight I bought some beautifully soft alpaca/merino/silk blend from Town End Yarns, which will make for a super-snuggly shrug.

The Victorian Pennies shawl, on the other hand, is a lace pattern which I've wanted to make for a while. I have a skein of Susan Crawford Vintage Miranda yarn which I think would be perfect for it.

Image © Susan Crawford

My Poppy jumper is hibernating for now, partly because I am a slow knitter so the fine gauge makes progress painfully snail-like. My desire to try colourwork is more likely to be met with a Constant Companion cardigan in DK. I have the kit for the red version.

Image © Susan Crawford

Stepping away from the cardigans, but sticking with lace knitting, I also recently treated myself to the kit for Johnson.

Image © Susan Crawford

Susan Crawford recently released Jamieson, originally in the Vintage Shetland Project, as a standalone pattern. I really like the shape and the mixture of textures, so it became the one (so far) item on my queue for which I don’t yet have yarn.

Image © Susan Crawford

Two of the other patterns in my queue are by designers I'm not familiar with, but they came recommended by other knitters. When I was just starting to knit, someone suggested that the Elskling cardigan might appeal to me. I have a slate blue wool for it, but that's as far as I’ve got.

Elskling by Dianna Walla

I saw Lisa’s Puff shawl when I was knitting my Lothian, which also uses short row shaping, and promptly had Shawl Envy! The wool for it has been in my stash for a while.

Puff by Lisa Mutch

My yarns

The final item in my queue is a major project. I fell in love with the Tiffany shawl at the Port Sunlight fair, and bought the pattern without even being sure if I had the skills to knit it. I think it should be possible, but it's definitely not a take-to-my-Mum’s-and-chat knit!

Tiffany by Kath Andrews Designs

Rather than rainbow colours, I'm going to use the Frosted Berries yarns from Yarn Unique, which I bought at the previous Port Sunlight fair.

Finally found a suitably grand use for these

So there you have it, a queue of eleven items. Unfortunately, knowing my squirrel tendencies, there's every chance that it will get longer rather than shorter!