Tealeaves in the treeleaves

I'm back in Genoa for a little while, doing a bit of history and taking orange buses that hurtle around hairpin hillside bends barely wide enough to fit a weasel. Before I left Cambridge, though, my friend Simone and I photographed some of each other's knitwear...

Behold the Tealeaves Cardigan by Melissa LaBarre, knit in Orkney Angora St Magnus DK. I'm a big fan of this angora/lambswool blend, having used it to make three Rose Red berets, but this sweater-sized green pile sat in my stash for a very long time before I decided what to do with it. I wanted a pattern simple enough not to detract from its fuzzy vibrancy, but pretty enough to do it justice; I think this fits the bill.

This cardi was very nearly a stress-free knit - the body sent me into such a stocking stitch coma that I blithely knit two inches too far on it and had to rip back. The buttonbands, however, gave me no end of gyp: I knit not two but five of them before I had a pair I was satisfied with.

I think I look a bit like a startled woodland creature in the above photo.

I used two vintage buttons I bought many moons ago in Loop, which are glittering crystal as opposed to the frog-spawn they appear to made of in this photo. All in all a stash-busting success!

Leaving knitting aside for a moment, I can't seem to stop taking photos, so I'm thinking of sharing them in a sort of 'picture of the day' series. Unless, that is, you are all heartily sick of Hipstamatic, in which case speak up now!