Last Day of Winter

Thank you to everyone for your compliments about the shawl :)

So it will be Spring tomorrow, although despite the snow and cold of this week's parting shot, it doesn't seem to me as though Winter has made much of an effort at all this year. Today though I have been wearing my woolly cabled jacket in an effort to keep the cold out and Mr C looked very miserable indeed when he went outside and the cold wind was ruffling his fur up. It wasn't long before he returned to his favourite spot.

All I want is a room with a view...

I have decided on my next knitting project and begun making the cashmere that I bought on my birthday into the Spirit Tank Top from February's edition of Knitting magazine. The pattern is from the Twilley's Freedom Spirit Book, which looks like it has lots of other nice things in it, so I might buy that if this knits up ok. I was good and did my tension swatch, so am happy to sub this time.

I spent ages trying to find a tank pattern that I liked, the other contenders being Jo Sharp's from Knit1, Tori from Magknits and Ms Marigold from Zephyr Style, which I probably would have made if it hadn't meant buying more knitting needles - my one problem with Denises is that the sizes don't go small enough. I decided on the Spirit (although I still might change the neckline into a V like on Tori, but there's time to decide before I get to that part) because it has nice shaping and I had the pattern all printed out in a magazine with me on the sofa while my fingers were itching to get started. There were lots of magazines on the sofa with me at one point, most of them bought on a whim and most of them containing zero patterns that I would ever actually make but still my hoarding nature has made me keep them just in case.

It is always nice to make something very different from the thing you made last, so instead of being a chore the plain 2x2 ribbing is a bit of relief after the fiddly nature of the lace shawl and the plain stocking stitch section will be total mindless knitting. I intend to settle in with my knitting and the new version of Mansfield Park (not my favourite Jane Austen but hey any Jane Austen is better than none). I am interested to see how Billie Piper does as Fanny - I was sceptical having seen her slouching in the Radio Times, but I'll give her a chance.