I have startitis....

Normally I don't like to have more than two knitting projects on the go at any one time - one which is straightforward TV knitting which I can take to knitting group and not have to unpick everything I've just knitted when I get home because I wasn't paying enough attention to it - and one other which does need undivided attention from time to time.  At the moment I have five.  Well actually four because I finished one last night, but that it still twice as many as I'd like, so I need to knit in every spare moment (yeah right) to get these four projects finished.  I'd also like to make two long sleeves dresses (sewn, no chance of a long-sleeved knitted dress any time soon, or probably ever) before winter is out.

I recently started knitting my version of a Land Army jumper, but need something else to break up the monotony of endless 2 x 2 rib - although it is good TV knitting.  I should have enough yarn to make this with long sleeves - the Excelana doesn't have as long a yardage per ball as the yarn recommended in the pattern, and I'm also using smaller needles in order to get the row gauge.   Normally I'm not too fussed about row gauge, but in this case I was out by 9 rows/4" which is quite a lot and would affect the armhole shaping and sleeve cap - I daresay I could recalculate the numbers in the pattern, but instead of that now that I have knitted up one skein I calculated the number of stitches that made, worked out how many stitches the front and two sleeves would take and added it all up.  As long as the skein I've knitted wasn't overweight and the ones I have still to use are not underweight I'll be OK.

Pattern from A Stitch in Time Vol 1 by Susan Crawford & Jane Waller

Now that we're into February and the afternoons are lighter for longer my thoughts have turned to Spring knitting, although with the temperature still hovering around freezing  and the occasional snow shower I'd like to get this jumper finished this month.  That hasn't stopped me swatching for two yellow cardigans though...

Daisy lace (above) and Bunches of Cherries (below)

The first one is a pale primrose colour and I'm not using a pattern.  I'll use the stitch pattern on the left in the picture below ( and the top of the swatch above), and incorporate it into my standard 4-ply waist-length cardigan pattern which I seem to have used for most of the cardigans I've knitted in the last year or so.  I've done the waist ribbing for this so now just need to decide whether to put any lace pattern inserts on the back and if so, how many.

Primrose coloured yarn and a daisy pattern - just right for Spring

The second will use Susan Crawford's Excelana 4-ply in Powdered Egg - the same yarn as I'm using for the Land Army jumper.  This is going to be a version of Sam Stewart's green cardigan from the All Clear episode of Foyle's War - for any readers on Ravelry, there is a thread about it here.  I have wanted to make a version of this for ages, and I've pretty much decided to use the Bunches of Cherries stitch pattern (in the swatch above) from the Knitter's Stitch book in the photo below.  I may also use elements of the two vintage patterns in the photo below, but probably I'll just end up doing my own thing in terms of stitch numbers and row counts.  Although the pattern swatch above is in the Patons yarn, I did do a stocking stitch tension square in the Excelana so it shouldn't be too difficult to work out the numbers.

I know the original inspiration is pale green, but I have yellow yarn in my stash

And whilst I love elsajohannesson's version I'm not sure I'll have enough yarn to knit the sleeves in pattern - I'll see how the body goes and how much yarn it uses.  I might also be sick of knitting bobbles by the time I'm done with the body!  Also, top down stocking stitch sleeves will be quicker to knit and if I can see that I'm not going to have enough yarn for long sleeves I can stop when I run out.

So... now it's time to settle down for Call the Midwife and Mr Selfridge and two hours of uninterrupted knitting!