knitting in the ‘ditch

I spent a lovely evening yesterday meeting up with a great bunch of knitters in Shoreditch.   The group only just started meeting a few weeks ago, and I was fortunate to meet up with Hoxton, Woolly Stuff, and the blogless Estie, Kathryn, and Kathryn. (I was tempted to whip out my shiny new camera to record the evening, but thought this might be a bit unnerving for the people I’d only just met). I arrived late (since I work nowhere local) and they’d managed to snaffle prime position on the comfy couches right at the front.  We certainly got lots of looks and comments from passers-by.  It still surprises me – I guess I forget that although I knit in public all the time, it’s still a pretty uncommon sight for non-knitters.  I think next time we should try to convert some of the locals!

I’ve learned from my past experience of mixing knitting with alcohol consumption, and took along a simple stocking stitch project – Coraline.  I’m knitting it on 3mm needles, so progress is slow.  Tonight I pulled it off the needles to measure it properly, and I’m clearly not getting gauge – the cardigan should be 34 inches around, but mine’s more like 31 inches.  Not sure if alpaca will stretch quite that much. I got guage on larger needles, but didn’t like the fabric so went down a smaller needle size, somehow figuring that it would still work.   Will post a photo when I figure out how on earth to fix up the sizing problem.