Hemp cardigan – progress

A quick post to show my progress with the Hemp summer cardigan. It’s coming along quite nicely.  

I haven’t worked on it for about a week, so I’m not sure when it will be finished. I’ve actually got a grand total of ten unfinished projects at the moment – 2 blankets, 2 toys, one pair of socks, two shawls, 2 cardigans and one cowl. I’m going to try not to start anything else until I’ve finished 2 or three more things.

Hemp Swatches

I haven’t made much progress on the olive cardigan this week, partly because I went wrong, and had to rip back quite a few rows, and partly because I’ve started a couple of new projects.

In my last post, I mentioned that I was thinking of crocheting a summer top out of the lanaknits hemp yarn. I decided to try my own design in the end, so I’ve started swatching with the yarn. I’ve never worked with hemp before, and I was surprised at how tough and string like it is. My swatch was initially quite rough and stiff…

 

… but after washing it softened up, and the drape improved considerably.

I’ve written a rough pattern, and will post progress photos as I go along.

I’ve also started yet another pair of socks. In this picture you can also see my little index card with my basic sock pattern instructions which I have attached to my sock bag.

 

I really enjoy having a pair of simple stocking stitch socks on the go -they’re easy to travel with and require minimal concentration!