Mohair Mohair

So I cleaned out my closet tonight and came across:

a) 8+ balls of mohair I’d bought years ago while I was in college, intended for

b) 2 patterns, one of which was nicknamed the Sweater of Doom from its inception, and

c) the beginnings of 2 sweaters and a sleeve, the original intentions of which have been lost in the mists of antiquity.

The Sweater of Doom was given its name because it took several dozen unpickings and much creative invective before I discovered that it was an advanced pattern. The girl whom I’d bought the yarn from had neglected to mention that one tiny detail when I picked out the design from one of her Japanese knitting books. It was promptly relegated to the closet. I hadn’t gotten more than 6 inches of it done at any one time, anyways. Bearing in mind that I live in Malaysia in the tropics, knitting with mohair is fairly suicidal on very hot days (that’s almost every day). I have no idea what I was thinking at the time. I still don’t.

Aaaand...I’m thinking of starting That Sweater up again. It’s a beautiful garment even if it’s inundated with cables and embroidery inside the diamonds. The ribbing is gorgeous, like mock cables (http://www.geocities.com/sgeimh/cablerib.jpg for a peek).

Oh, I must mention here that I can’t read a word of Japanese except the kanji. And since it’s a photocopy I haven’t got any of the stitch shortform breakdowns either.

I’ve gotten hold of a Japanese knitting/crochet stitch encyclopaedia (bless my aunt who left it in the bosom of my family all those years ago), and I will attempt stitch translation.

On another note however, I have finally found a Yarn Store in my hometown that sells imported yarns! They don’t have Noro Kureyon, which is what I was looking for, but no matter. This means that I can finally get started on that gorgeous Booga Bag I found the other night, if I can get a self-striping yarn that’s pure wool. And thanks to Consomme, I now know where to get yarns, books and beads when I go out of state!

Now back to that pattern. My head already hurts just looking at it. Oww oww oww.