Slowly But Surely

The sweater grows:

I've knit 12" of the body so far. The fabric is so light yet warm - my husband has requested a handspun sweater of his own! WOW - he's Mr. Barefeet-And-Shorts-In-The-Wintertime - I'm excited to be able to knit wool for him. His only experience with wool sweaters has been with big bulky uncomfortably HOT sweaters - he was surprised that wool can be made light and airy. I love spinning fingering weight 3-ply, so that's no burden. I'll dig through the extensive stash and see what I can find - his only requirement was "darker tones". Can do!

Handwoven Tencel Twill Scarf

At the end of August, I warped the borrowed Megado loom for some tencel scarves in a fancy twill.

My friend Susan Harvey of "Thrums" shared the draft (which she used for some gorgeous bookmarks) in this blogpost. I really liked the pattern, but discovered that the 153 picks per repeat couldn't be programmed into the mechanical dobby on the loom - it has only 130 dobby bars. Hmmm. So I turned the draft (swapped the treadling with the threading) and tweaked it a bit, and then I only needed 119 bars.

I got it all warped up, and then... I got busy with other things (commission spinning, the rainbow towels, etc.) and the warp languished on the loom.

My friend Jenny (who allowed me to babysit her loom while she was in England for 6 months) has returned home, and would like her loom back, thank you. :) So I got busy weaving, and now the scarves are well in progress. I really like the way they're turning out.

The warp is a variegated tencel in blue/purple/green, and the weft is black. The little yellow flower pin is marking my progress - I measure, then record the progress and move the pin.

The Kitsune/Harvest sweater is progressing nicely as well - I'm halfway through the decrease section of the body:

 Of course, it won't be cold enough to wear it until late November, so I have plenty of time to knit!

Next Sweater

I've been spinning some more sweater yarn. Pleased with the success of the Kraken sweater, I chose some coordinating fibers from my stash of Southern Cross Fibre and Hello Yarn clubs, and spun up a 3-ply fingering weight yarn. I've got 1950 yards of soft lovely sweater potential, in a beautiful fall color blend. All the fiber is polwarth/silk - the two outer bobbins are Hello Yarn "Kitsune", and the middle bobbin is Southern Cross Fibre "Harvest":

I can't wait to get this yarn washed and dried so I can cast on!

Kraken Sweater, Finished!

We traveled to our favorite place on earth this past week. Yes, Montana, land of big sky and mountains. We visited my friend Sandi at the beginning of the week, and she helped me sew the sleeves and neckband onto my sweater, making it complete. Honestly, it was so much easier than I feared. A simple backstitch did the trick. My first handspun handknit sweater is complete! It's warm and fits so nicely - I love it! We took it up to Glacier National Park and showed it some snow at Logan Pass, on the Going To The Sun road.

 

Now I'm eager to start my next sweater spin! 

Kraken...Vest?

The body of the sweater is done! I love it, and it fits nicely. I finished the fronts and connected them with the back via a 3-needle bind-off, and knit and connected the "neck extensions" (really the back of the collar).

Now I need to knit sleeves!

Kraken Sweater - Growing!

The yarn:

And now, big progress:

There is nothing that I don't love about this sweater. The colors are gorgeous, the feel of the polwarth handspun is delicious, the knitting is easy. If I didn't also spin and weave, I'd probably be finished already, but the sweater has had to share time with my other pursuits.

The pattern is the Bailey Cardigan  (Ravelry link) and is very straightforward and easy to understand. It HAS to be - I needed a simple pattern for my first handknit adult sweater! I've knit children's sweaters before, with chunky yarn, but this one has to fit ME, and be useful for daily wear.

Since I'm knitting it in a light fingering-weight polwarth wool yarn, it will be lightweight, yet warm. I can see wearing it in the fierce air-conditioning of our local NOLA restaurants even in summer, and as daily wear in the winter. It will serve as indoor warmth in Montana, as well - and as a layer under a jacket.

I've used a little more than half the yarn spun - I'm thinking I'll need to spin more for the sleeves. I have a few more ounces of the fiber, no problem! Oh, the joy of being able to spin my own yarn - a dream come true!

Here's the post about the beginning of my sweater.

Kraken Ahoy!

The rest of the fiber for my handspun Kraken polwarth sweater arrived this afternoon. So gorgeous! I love this colorway. David of Southern Cross Fibre is a genius with the dyepots.

Now that I have all the fiber for the sweater, I'll split it all up and combine the two dyelots to ensure the yarn will be homogenous.

Along with the Kraken, there was a hitchhiker - a sneak preview of David's new semi-solid line of colorways. This one is "Dark Cheddar", a color that made this orange-lover swoon with delight when he revealed it in his Ravelry group.

There will be over 30 new semi-solids available over the next 6 months, in colors that will coordinate with so many of the colorways in my stash. My wallet may not survive!

Kraken Sweater - Beginning

After 11 years of dabbling, I'm still a beginner knitter. Oh, I can knit a mean (basic) sock, and I can knit/purl a ribbed scarf with the best of 'em, but to me, advancing past "beginner" will entail knitting real SWEATERS.

Now, I've knit two sweaters, but they were both child-size and the same pattern, in the round with a 3-needle bind-off at the shoulders. No piecing, no seaming. I knit them from Reynold's Lopi, for a charity serving Russian orphans. They were simple, WARM, and bullet-proof.

But an adult sweater has not yet sprung full-born from my needles. I've started one, the Oatmeal Cardigan, in (appropriately) oatmeal bfl, handspun of course, but the staggering neutral yardage bored me to tears, and it languishes in a knitting bag somewhere.

Handspun handpainted - now THAT's the way to go, to keep my interest during both the spinning and the knitting. So I joined the SCF & Friends Sweater SAL/KAL (Rav-link) because I knew the wonderful members of the Southern Cross Fibre forum on Ravelry would encourage me and give the kick in the pants I'll need when the going gets tough.

I chose one of my very favorite Southern Cross Fibre colorways - Kraken - and one of my very favorite fibers - polwarth.

 (picture courtesy of David at SCF)

(Isn't it scrumptious???) I have enough fiber for half the sweater, and David (one of the best dyers on the PLANET) was happy to dye more. It's shipping today (from Australia). I'll wait until I have all the fiber together, so I can split it all up to combine the dyelots, for a nice blend throughout.

Since this is my first real sweater, I knew I'd need a simple pattern - the Bailey Cardigan (Rav) is great for handspun, and has good clean lines. My friend Sandi has already knit it and I was able to see (and feel!) it in person on our last Montana trip. I'll knit mine in fingering weight yarn rather than in DK, because I want it to be lightweight and useful for indoor wear.

And since I want the sweater to be wonderful and perfect, I knew I'd need to sample and swatch. (Yikes.) I did both. I spun samples of 2-ply, 3-ply, and navajo-ply:

(My camera washed out the colors - they're actually rich and vibrant like David's fiber photo above.)

I really like the 3 ply best, but needed to knit a swatch, not only for gauge, but for the look and feel of the fabric. So I knit my first ever swatch:

(top, n-ply; middle, 2-ply; bottom, 3-ply)

I love the look of the n-ply, but for socks, rather than for a sweater. I prefer the heathered transitions of the 2-ply and the 3-ply. In the end, I chose the 3-ply, because its fabric gave me the look and feel I liked best. It's so soft (yet durable) and pliable, and it drapes nicely.

I cannot wait to get started on this project! I'll keep you posted...