I have been playing around knitting odds and ends since the beginning of the year and haven’t really settled down to a “project” but I have recently started to knit “Lush” by Tin Can Knits.

This is a cardigan, knitted (largely) top down and (again largely) in one piece – so no sewing up (woo hoo). I say (type??) largely because there is a lace panel which forms part of the yoke and that is made first and then the rest of the cardigan is knitted above and below this. It’s all very sweet and the fact that large parts of the cardigan are knitted in stocking stitch make it pretty quick to complete (famous last words – I have the sleeves to go and as they are only 3/4 length they should make up fairly rapidly but some of my knitting has been known t go into hibernation from time to time so I had better not count my chickens, or buttons, or stitch markers, or whatever it is that knitters count before they hatch).

Anyway, the decadence bit is the yarn. I bought a hand-dyed wool / silk DK at Fibre East in the summer and I am using that for this particular project and it is making me feel seriously good. It isn’t just that the yarn feels nice when I knit with it, although it does, it really does! But I also get a serious injection of happiness just looking at the fabric as I knit it. The colour almost sings, it is so beautiful. It’s called bluebell and, being hand-dyed, the colour meanders through a variety of soft shades, all closely related but still different enough to give the impression of bluebells just as they are passing from their prime; a soft, grey / blue / purple blur, almost as if the yarn had been rainwashed.

It wasn’t cheap but I don’t care. I dribble happily just looking at this cardigan and I am going to be absolutely unbearable whenever I wear it.

I can hardly wait…