A start on St Brigid.

Last year I indulged in Alice Starmore's book Aran Knits  and enough of her wool to make the St Brigid's jumper for my eldest granddaughter.  When the wool arrived I bought a swift to wind the 19 skeins into balls. 

In the last fortnight, armed with my tin of stitch markers,  I have begun knitting it. I needed to clear the decks of other projects because I figured this would take all my time once started. I was right.

The pattern is worked from 5 charts.  On the back and front, every row uses all 5 charts, one repeated once, another twice, making 7 chart references in each row. Three charts cover 24 rows, the others less - so are repeated more.

After working through the charts once from the book, I decided to create a single chart. This helped. I may yet create a full 169 stitch x 24 row chart if the going gets tough

It was still slow going. The cables vary, and the symbols are not, to my mind, intuitive. It is difficult to keep track of where I am up to from memory alone, which is how I mostly work, choosing logical places to stop at the end of a session. The cables here are too complex for that, and 24 rows too long for one, or even two, long knitting sessions. Fortunately I had a line marker in my toolkit - bought at some stage just in case. In case is now.

I also dug out a row counter, again, something I have not needed to use before. It too has proved its worth. With the help of these tools, I have worked my way through 40 rows. It will, I know, become easier as I progress.

I was concerned that I would not have enough wool, and calculated that if I could get 40 rows out of one ball, I would be safe.  I got two thirds of the way through row 40, so think I should be OK. I will keep monitoring. The colour is still available, but I will hold my nerve a bit longer. 

For now, I'll stick to my knitting.