I’ve been knitting up a storm with Gaudi V2.0 and I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made. Now, some of this is down to starting it whilst I was on annual leave from work, but I’ve been back at work this last week and still put in some solid knitting time most evenings. The result is that I am nearing the point where the bi-colour “yoke” begins. I had hoped that the skein of the dark red would get me to that point, but it’s just a bit short, so I’ll be introducing a section of the mid-red on the approach to the top.

It’s been a bit too warm to knit one or two evenings recently so I’ve spent my time writing out the pattern repeat in my knitting notebook. This pattern uses a chart, which I find very difficult to follow and I am always more comfortable following written instructions. I wrote out the full repeat for the first few rows so I could establish the starting and ending points, then for about half of the pattern just the differences within the 10 stitches which you repeat across the row.

After that, it was time to do some serious wool-winding. I remain undecided about whether I would make enough use of a swift and ball winder. I wish I’d bought them years ago, as it feels a little late in the day to be making such an investment. I know they would speed up the process of winding skeins into balls of yarn, but they still need setting up when you’re ready to use them and packing away afterwards. This means they aren’t much more convenient than my 2 dining chair method. Either way, it makes most sense if you set things up then wind several skeins before packing everything away again. Setting up just to wind one skein is a bit of a palaver.

The key to a major winding session is to have something that will entertain you as you stand winding the wool. I managed to turn 5 skeins of wool into balls whilst listening to Paul Temple, and half-watching a “live” pen podcast on YouTube.

The above skeins are now the below balls. You will also see the balls of the contrasting yarn I’ve already used at the waist of the cardigan. This will tie in during the colourwork yoke to, hopefully, give the finished garment a more cohesive look. At present it looks a little odd to just have that one bit of contrast.

I think by next weekend I should be into my stride with the yoke and be able to see how the yoke pattern and different yarns play with each other. Exciting times.