I’m tackling some slow knitting. You gotta wonder how the pattern I’m knitting could possibly be so slow. It’s a little vest in a book called “Knitting Little Luxuries” by Louisa Harding. I received the book as a gift a few Christmases ago. Every pattern is absolutely gorgeous and the photos are staged in kind of a old-timey, Victorian, very sweet and very feminine look. There’s kind of 1980′s Laura Ashley feel to the patterns.

I picked out a sweater vest that looks pretty simple in construction (just two panels sewn together and it looked a little challenging in the cable pattern that travels up the garment in kind of a diagonal swag.

One of the first problem I was confronted with when I started the pattern was keeping count of rows and where I was in the pattern chart (that’s why there’s sticky-back notes keeping count on the pages!). The final solution is to write down in two columns the chart row and the corresponding pattern row. As I finish a row, I simply cross if off the sheet. It’s saving my book from ugly notes and saving my sanity.

My next problem was keeping hold of the smallish (size 7) needles. I started off with two straight needles and found them really  unwieldy. I’ve grown very accustomed to knitting with circular needles and have found it easy to build up speed with them. So, I gave up the straight needles form a metal circular and started feeling more confident in this pattern.

And yet another issue I’m facing is that it’s really slow to purl a row after a knit row. I recently read a comment by Cat Bordhi — people tend to knit tighter than they purl. I never knew that. Who’s been keeping that a secret?! It certainly explains why it’s harder to get the needle in to purl on the back of a knit row!