ahoy there, me scurvy dogs, I've cast off sleeve island - with loot to boot!

I bought this cool toilette bag from Nell today! As you can see, it's already in use. Isn't it cute? I've coveted it ever since I saw it on her etsy site - to the point where I joined etsy- just to buy the bag. It's drawstring, and a good heavy material, which is grand, because the ones in the shops feel like tissue paper, if you know what I mean.
I can't sew a straight line, alas, so I leave it to those who do. Which is unfortunate, since I have a sewing machine upstairs in my room! :P Hah.

Finally finished the sleeves for Loll. They are the same size, and length and absolutely perfect, I think. It's good to have two sleeves on the needles at the same time. It's great when they are done. They take up a fair bit of yarn though, about three balls. I can make a top in Calmer with three balls - just a basic raglan top.

Do you know those graph books with the .05cm squares? They don't sell them in the UK - or they rarely do, anyway. If and when I come across these books, I get charged a speciality price for them . So, everytime I go on the continent (or know of someone who's going away), I tend to request these 'specialist' grid books. The europeans tend to use them to write with instead of the UK/US ruled sheets . I find knitters graph paper (in terms of printing out from the internet and inks) to be expensive, so this is a good subsitute. I use two types of pens - one an ordinary ballpoint for the lines, and an erasable ballpoint (like the papermate version) for the actual marks - so that I can erase and add at whim for the first few minutes.
I had to do this; after serveral rips of Loll (the Calmer is a top yarn, it takes repeated rippings beautifully) a knitter's chart seemed appropriate. I can actually see the fringes and the purl stitches and how they come together beautifully. Loll is a very clever pattern from Madam Hargreaves. It's simple to look at, but the thought that goes into the engineering of stitches and the construction of the pattern is cunning. The fact that I can appreciate this through the little earthquakes of tantrums and the shimmer of tears, shows how cunning Madam Hargreaves is indeed.

I'm on the back piece now. Ideally, I'd have prefered doing Calmer on metal needles instead of bamboo. I find that the Calmer sticks to my bamboo needles a tad, and I can't knit as quickly as I'd like.


Remember Kim Hargreaves 'Blithe' ? The one I bought? Somehow the pattern is saying, "Jazz, you really want to do me in Rowan cashsoft, or a luxury blend. You want me to hug your curves, to be a smart and sharp vest on an autumn day. You want something with memory to hold the horizontal rib and horizontal ridge. Cotton isn't really me. C'mon, throw me a bone here."

The thing is, I'm thinking about it. *bites knitting needles*. I'm leaning towards doing it in a cushy sort of yarn. Alas, the kit came with five balls of Rowan 4ply yarn, so I need to make a decision.

I also need a simple, straightfoward pattern to do. Something preferably in the round, topdown - I've never done it before, but it can't be difficult, no?