It is officially coming to an end. I am nearing completion on my
"Drew Sweater". This is a beautiful pattern for a man's sweater vest, written by "Marly Bird", which I felt would make the perfect Christmas gift for my Father.
It has been 8 weeks in the making, with a short interruption to knit a few baby gifts, and I have whined the entire time. I think the whining is finally done. Thank you for indulging me! I have been blogging about this sweater forever.
It rarely takes me 4 weeks to knit only the back of a sweater, as I can usually complete an entire, large sized sweater in this amount of time. When the back was finished, I noticed it was biasing terribly. This was a huge concern, as I knew there were many hours of knitting to go before I would be blocking the piece. I was concerned the biasing wouldn't be corrected with the blocking, but luckily, it completely corrected itself. I noticed another knitter on "Ravelry" completely frogged her "Drew" because of this same biasing problem.
My sweater is knit of KnitPicks Swish DK in Squirrel Heather. It is 100% Merino Wool, and was knit on US7 needles. In the past I have always knit my sweaters in-the-round, with no side seams. This time I decided to seam the sides and went for wet blocking. This method of blocking prevented any need to pin the pieces to measurement. It is amazing how stretchy a piece becomes when it is soaking wet. I actually had to push the stitches together, to get the proper measurements, but when it dried, the fabric was so much softer. There were no biased stitches and it was a dream to stitch together. I'll never again block any other way.
You can tell from the first picture, that I currently have a vest, like the pattern. These are the sleeves on the needles. I've had to write my own pattern for the sleeves, and they are currently finished and blocking. As soon as the sleeves are dry, I'll be setting them into the sweater, and posting my finished project on Ravelry. I did have some difficulty in understanding the pattern in a few places, and as a consequence, I knit the collar so it folds to the wrong side. Oh well . . . I guess everything can't be perfect. Luckily the wrong side of this fabric looks just as interesting as the right side.
I found these wonderful buttons at the Mountainman Rendezvous this year. They are made of deer antler, with the centers drilled out, and silver poured in. I love them! I purchased everything the vender's husband had made, and told her I would be looking for more of the same next year. They are the perfect masculine button for a man's sweater. They are a little on the heavy side though, for a really fine gauge sweater. So . . . the whining is over, and I am happy with the final product.
This is the Christmas gift sweater to jump on the needles. I am going to be knitting a cardigan version of the
"Peabody" Sweater, designed by Leila Raabe for Brooklyn Tweed. I'm knitting if of Brooklyn Tweed's "Shelter", a 100% Grand Targhee wool. It has a great tweed appearance, in the colorway "Button Jar".
Interestingly, the yarn is loosely twisted and pulls apart with very little pressure, and there is a huge amount of vegetable matter (vm) in the yarn. This has raised the question of how much vm is finding its way into our own Alpaca yarn. It is anoying to feel the need to be continually picking little sticks and grasses out of the yarn as I knit, expecially having to be extremely careful not to pull the yarn apart. But, then, I can't imagine comfortably wearing a sweater full of pokey sticks.
A new yarn, a new experience. I love the color, it is a green with flecks of blue, yellow, orange and red, and it softens up quite a bit with wet blocking. This is my swatch, and the yarn definitely produces a great fabric with fluid drape, yet with enough structure to really show off the lace design I'll be using.
I am also gearing up to start on my year of selfish knitting. I plan to devote all of 2014 to knitting only for myself. I have too many hard knit sweaters in the closet, all with fit flaws. I have been testing for Amy Herzog and her new CustomFit software. It is a wonderful thing, where you plug in your carefully gathered measurements and swatch information, and it produces the perfect pattern to fit you, exclusively. This is where I plan to begin.
Amy is planning a "knit-a-long" (KAL), which will begin on November 16. I have joined the KAL, although I will be starting my "selfish knit" a little early. I have my CustomFit Pattern in-hand and have cast-on with this KnitPicks Swish DK in the color, Garnet Heather. I am planning a bit of "Peabody-like"lacework at the entrance of the cardigan and up the back. I'll be finishing up my Christmas gift knitting at the same time, so this will not have my full attention for a few weeks.
I am gearing up though. . . . . This yarn is Lorna Laces - Solemate in the color: Harrison. It is a beautiful blend of teals and grays in a fine, lace weight. It is destined to be my version of Amy Herzog's
"Afterlight". I have the CustomFit Recipe and I'm swatching to get a feel for the size needles I prefer. Afterlight is a beautifully simple pullover, knit in a fine gauge. I can't wait to add this to my sweater collection. Having it perfectly fit for me, will be the real bonus! The "selfish" part of my knitting will be my plans to knit with some very indulgent yarns, and as you know, indulgent yarns are expensive. I'll also be knitting with some of our very own alpaca yarn. I have plans for our first run of yarn from "Chocolate Chip". He produces a high-grade of soft, chocolaty yum, which I have planned for
Baby Cocktails, "Macallan" (CustomFit, of course). This will give me a chance to determine if a lot of vm is finding its way into our yarn. I'll also be discussing this, at length, with the Mill that produces it.
Well . . . finally, a true knitting post on what I call a "knitting blog". Thanks for indulging me this Summer and Fall, with my garden, my vacations and my family occasions. I hope the Winter will bring some great evenings by the fire, knitting great sweaters and reading great books. Along with collecting nice yarns, I have loaded up my Kindle with what appear to be some great reads. Happy Knitting . . . . . .
