One 3 wool sweater

The sweater is all done (the ends are even all tucked in). I didn't, however, get it finished in time to take a picture in daylight. Indoor light just isn't as nice and it doesn't favour dark colours. With a little fiddling I managed to get a picture that almost captures the actual appearance of the sweater.


In the end I used up all of the two green/blue yarns but I still have a couple of small balls of the brown left over. I guess this means that I can knit a simple sweater out of a pound of fiber, more or less. This is nice to know for future projects. After knitting this I really want to knit more sweaters with hand spun. It is wonderful to knit with.

Project details:

Yarn: 4 oz each of blue/green Coopworth and dark BFL from Ariadne Knits and 8 oz Dark Welsh

Needles: 4.5mm with 3.75mm and 3.25 mm for the neckline.

Pattern: A modified version of Walker's top down raglan. I fiddled with the rate of increase at the shoulders to make more of a scoop neckline. I increased every row for about an inch and then every third row (instead of increasing every second row as the pattern instructs). If I tried this again I would not increase every row at the front and I would make the neckline deeper. Knit and learn.


Now that I'm done this sweater I'll have to find something else to blog about tomorrow. I'll have to choose between old finished objects and current unfinished. Or maybe I should start and finish something before I blog tomorrow...

Inches away

The 3 wool sweater should be finished by tomorrow. I finished the last sleeve and ripped out the ribbing at the hem and neck. I reknit the hem and then almost finished the neckline.

The sweater might even have been finished if I hadn't run out of Coopworth trying to finish off. I've solved this by ripping out the hem again. I will reknit it with fewer rows of each colour in the garder stitch. Gah.

Actually, since I'm already ripping back I think I might rip further back and add some short row shaping to the back of the sweater. I really don't like my sweaters gaping at the back and a few extra rows of reknitting are worth it to fix this problem (at least if I'm already having to rip back).

It is a good thing I estimated this would be done by Tuesday, otherwise I might feel more frustrated with all of the backtracking. Tomorrow there will be finished photos. I promise. (I really hope this is a promise I will be keeping).

Sleeve and a half

It was just as well that I blogged before dinner last night. Had I waited until I got home I would probably have technically missed posting every day. I'm posting early again today in part because I managed to snag a picture before the daylight disappeared and in part because dinner plans are once again threatening my late night posts.

This morning I finished one sleeve (with inches of the Coopworth and BFL left over) and now I'm about half done the second sleeve. You may notice that I used corrugated ribbing at the neckline and hemline. I decided that I'm not crazy about this in part because it seems to be curling. I could probably fix the curling by ripping out my cast off row and redoing it with a smaller needle but I think I will just rip it entirely.

The sleeve I finished using garter stitch and I'm much happier with how that worked out. So the plan is now to finish the second sleeve and then go back and redo the neckline and hemline to match the sleeves. such are the joys of designing on the fly.

The reason I wanted to do corregated ribbing in the first place was that I liked how the two blue/green yarns blended into each other in the swatch. Since I needed to have a stripe of brown between them in the body of the sweater I wanted to at least put them next to each other for the edgings. The corrugated ribbing just didn't fit this sweater though. I'm still putting them next to each other since I have made the garter stitch progress from a brown stripe to BFL stripe and finally to a Coopworth stripe.

And now back to knitting.

Very quick post

We've been invited out to dinner so I'll post quickly now in case I don't have a chance later. The left sleeve is all but done on the sweater and it looks like I will have yarn to spare. Not a lot of yarn to spare but enough that I won't have to arrange my edgings just to fit the left over yarn. The way things are going I should have a new sweater to wear by Tuesday at the latest.

Pictures to follow (maybe later tonight).

Splitting for the arms

This sweater is just flying off the needles. By the end of knit night yesterday it was more or less the length I was looking for. I added another stripe just to be sure and then put on a fancy ribbing. I also picked up and knit the neck band because I wanted to have the whole body done before I split the yarn for the sleeves.

So tonight a wound the yarn back onto my niddy noddy and learned that I have 96 yards of Coopworth, 86 yards of BFL, and 216 yards of Dark Welsh left. I split each type of yarn into two equal balls and I can now start on the sleeves. I'm really not sure what length of sleeve this yardage will get me. Oh the excitement of a mystery.

Trying the sweater on I find it a bit loose. Comparing it to my Tangled Yoke, which I like the fit of, I find it is just about right. Part of the difference is that the hand spun has way more drape. I think another part of the difference is that sweaters in progress never fit like finished sweaters. One of the benefits of knitting top down is that it is easy to try on as you go. One of the downsides is that trying on as you go only gives you a general sense of how well it fits. This can lead to a lot of second guessing and thoughts of ripping back.

I am going to persevere and knit the sleeves before I decide if the body is too long. The way this sweater is going it should only be a couple of days before I know if I need to rip back. Hurray for quick projects.

Off to knit night

Since my evening will be consumed by coffee and chatting with other knitters, I'm actually posting during the day. I've added a couple more stripes to the body of the sweater and I'm sure I'll add a few more by the end of the day. This is not the most portable project to take to a knit night but I can't imagine working on something else tonight.

It will be nice to be working on something other than socks at a Montreal knitting get together. Last time I went I actually cast on a new pair of simple socks since I only had sweaters that needed sewing on the go. (Yes those sweaters still need to be sewed up and finished. Just as soon as I'm finished this sweater... and maybe all of my Christmas knitting.)

I have to say that I am very grateful for welcoming knitting groups. It is so nice to have an easy way to get out and meet people in a new city. Montreal has several knitting groups that meet about once every two weeks. So far I have been to the NDG knitting night (it is the closest to me) and the Plateau knitting night. There is also a Sunday downtown knitting night that I'd like to go to and one at Ariadne knits. It is nice to have so much choice; if you want to go out knitting on any given week there is somewhere to go.

So hurray for knit nights and hurray for Ravelry which makes finding them easy.

3 wool sweater

I really need to stop posting at night if I want to take nice pictures of my darker projects. After playing around with flashes and various sources of indoor light I think I have managed to capture the colours. Actual daylight would have been easier.

I'm knitting this sweater from the top just like the last sweater. I've modified the neckline, though, so that it is scoop necked. My favorite sweaters have scoop necks so I decided that was the way to go. I used the Autumn Rose's neckline as a rough guide and from some preliminary fittings I think it will work. It is hard to tell, though, when the needles are still in the thing and the neckband is absent.

I think I will have enough yarn, but I'm really glad to be knitting from the top. When I get the sweater as long as I want I plan to device my balls of yarn evenly and knit the sleeves until I run out of yarn or they hit my wrists. I can live with 3/4 sleeves if it turns out I'm short. Based on how much yarn I used for my Fonn I'm pretty sure I will have enough for full sleeves.

If this all works out then I will know that I can get a simple sweater out of a pound of fiber. Sweaters may actually become cheaper to spin and knit than to buy. At least if I am making them for myself and don't need to take production time into account.