Hello! There is a green knitting project on my needles that I don’t think I’ve mentioned before. It’s a cardigan for our daughter – Be Mine, from Swedish designer Matilda Kruse. It’s a fairly long cardigan knit on smallish needles (3.5 mm/US 4), with an intricate stitch pattern on the back. The pattern is well-written but complicated, and I’m using all kinds of aids so as not to lose the way.
- A row counter to remind me when to knit in button holes.
- A sticky note for keeping track of where I am in the stitch-pattern diagram.
- Another sticky note with the number of pattern repeats I need to knit written out, so that I can cross them off once I’ve knit them.
The yarn I’m using is ‘Cheeky Merino Joy’ from Rosy Green Wool in a greyish green shade called Reed.
It’s a sport-weight 100% merino yarn – a finer version of the yarn I’ve used for my OXOX XL shawl. Cheeky Merino Joy is very soft and gives great stitch definition. Plus it’s organic. And that brings me to my second subject for today.
The organic farm that delivers groceries to our door every other week held an Open Day, together with 3 other organic farms within walking distance.
We buy organic because we think it’s better for our own health and that of the planet, but I’m not rigid in that. Often organic options just aren’t available or affordable. Not everything we eat is organic, I don’t wear organic lingerie and most of the yarns I knit with are not organic. Speaking with Kermit, ‘It’s not easy being green’.
I do think it’s a good direction to go in, though, and aside from the saving-the-earth aspects, it can also be very enjoyable. The green yarn I’m using is utterly lovely to knit with. It’s very nice to know the people who grow our vegetables…
…and make our cheese.
And it’s great to see the cows producing the milk for the cheese grazing on pasture land with all kinds of herbs among the grass.
Many of them are the well-known black-and-white Friesian Holsteins, but not all of them.
Two of the farms along our route are dairy farms. “Our” farm is mixed, with cattle, chickens, a few pigs, vegetables, herbs and a shop. And the fourth is a vegetable grower. At this one, I got to try my hand at harvesting white asparagus, cutting it below the soil with a special pronged cutting tool – not as easy as it looks!
At the end of our walk along all four of the farms, we stopped at the farm shop to buy some tea, biscuits and chocolates for friends we were going to visit.
It’s more convenient to have groceries delivered and I don’t visit the shop often, but it’s nice to see everything they have in person from time to time. And sometimes you find something unexpected – like organic cotton yarn.
I didn’t buy any because I rarely knit with cotton, but it felt very nice. I’m keeping it in mind for a summery knit sometime.
Today’s organic-farm-walk was in the polder, land reclaimed from a former sea. A landscape as flat as a pancake with big open skies.
I always feel it’s rather special to be walking on the seabed, 3 metres below sea level. I hope you’ve enjoyed this short walk, too, and hope to see you again next week. Till then, keep well.
Great trip! Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it. Have a lovely weekend!
Oh my, the cable pattern is fantastic!
Kathy P from Vermont
With a repeat 16 stitches wide and 32 rows long, it takes some focus to knit, but it is definitely worth it. It helps that it’s just on the back (fronts and sleeves are plain stocking stitch).
I enjoy reading your post very much – thank you. Nice pattern! I use a free version of the knitCompanion app on my iPad and my phone – it works better than paper – has a yellow highlighter on the rows that I knit.
Thank you for the tip – I’ll take a look at the KnitCompanion app. And thank you for your kind words!