FO: Wisteria Sweater

Oh, hello! I've been on a real sweater kick lately. I think it's a kind of "make hay while the sun shines" sort of philosophy, except it's "Make warm sweaters while you can still bear to wear them".

While we've had a couple odd warm-ish days, and a few sunshiny days (which were bitterly cold) spring is indeed coming. A trip through the countryside north of here revealed a slight tingle of green to the trees, and a couple fields were growing something green but the TGV whips by them at 200 mph, so I couldn't tell you what. I've been having a tendency to travel to fairly arctic climates this past year, so winter sweaters have been a year-round wardrobe staple anyway.

I've been wanting to make the Wisteria Pullover from Twist Collective since it came out in 2008. When I fall for an unusual pattern, I usually wait a little while before casting on because it takes a little time for reality to hit me and for me to realize that whatever garment I choose might have not been the best choice. This is why one of my first sweaters was an enormous, fully cabled monster that flattered no one, but I'm saving it for when I'm in my late 70's and can only hope to get lost in a garment.

I had even bought yarn for this: a gorgeous dark purple Madeline Tosh called Oxblood. I hed even started swatching for this sweater with the Tosh, before my stash and I were so rudely separated by an ocean. The Tosh will have to find a new purpose now, as I had acquired some really gorgeous Mondegreen from the Verdant Gryphon and got to it.

This yarn was amazing. It's an unusual blend of 60% Blue Face Leicester wool, 20% silk, and 10% baby camel. The baby camel causes it to have a slightly fuzzy soft bloom, but the underlying silk gives it a sheen, and it overall creates a dense and beautiful drapey fabric, with really nice stitch definition. Oh, and the color. I'm always a fan of neutrals, but this a beautiful steely gray with purple undertones.

The pattern was well-written. The cabling took a little time, but the rest of the sweater was simple. The only mod I made was I added another 2 sets of waist shaping decreases. I made the 40" size, which is bigger than I normally make but I wanted a slightly roomier sweater, but I didn't want it took look sloppy, hence the extra decreases. The only other thing I would change if I made this again would be some short-rows at the bust. The sweater is the same shape front and back. Because it is roomy, it's not a bad fit, but even the flattest of pancakes would have better results fit-wise if it had some boob shaping.

Oh, my row gauge was off and I realized the sweater was getting to be tunic sized if I didn't cut it off (It's knit from the neck down) so I have 6 rows less cable pattern at the bottom edge. But I love the necklace of twining cables. It really makes the sweater unique.

Despite the fact that I was told "Hey, you'll be ready to go to the Ren Faire in that" while I was knitting it, I find it to be wearable. It's unusual, but in a graceful sort of way. This isn't a light weight sweater at all. It is cozy and warm and snuggly, and it held up so nicely through multiple wears so far.

I love it. New favorite.

FO: Wayfarer Scarf

Wait...I'm a knitter?

Yes.

All the way from my home state came two skeins of organic merino.

Not all merino is created equal. This is the best I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Swans Island has amazing yarns. Soft, bouncy, itch-free, and warm. It's exactly what I want in a wool yarn. The price tag is higher than the medical marijuana users there, but who could resist the most delightful of raspberry pink colors? I, for one, could not.

I cast on for the Wayfarer scarf, a basic but classic Jared Flood pattern.

It alternates between lots of garter stitch and an undulating slip-stitch pattern. Not the most exciting thing to knit, but I love the way this yarn made the slipped stitches pop, and I was comforted at the ease at which this worked up.

It's snuggly warm and I actually look forward to going out on cold days because I get to wear this.

I made mine a tad longer than written since I had the yardage, and I just love the way it drapes as I give it the multi-wrap treatment. After several wears, there is not a pill to be plucked. If I didn't choose such a shockingly femme pink, this pattern would be totally appropriate for a man's scarf as well.

FO: Ripley Hat

I made this quite a while ago, while I was still in New York. I wanted to get rid of a few single skeins of yarn I had, as it seemed wasteful to pack them away in storage and bring them with me, as it wouldn't take very long to turn them into a real garment.

This was a skein of long-discontinued, super luxurious Gaia Worsted from the Sanguine Gryphon. The color was "Dew on the Dragonfly". It's 55% silk, 45% cashmere and it just melts in your hands, and it's a precious little 150 yards in a skein. I needed a special something I could whip up quick that would show off the lovely color, and take advantage of how soft and lovely the yarn was.

A quick search around and I remembered a pattern I had been wanting to do for a bit: the Ripley Hat by Ysolda. It had a couple variations you could do, and some optional folds to make the hat slouchier. A perfect way to use up limited yardage.

The pattern was straight forward and a quick knit- even with all the extra folds it took me just a couple days. I opted for the slouchy version with a lacy brim. I packed it in my suitcase and it really came in handy in Iceland. Maybe not the most rugged piece to wear there, but it actually wasn't too cold so it suit my purpose just fine.

Added bonus being that the silk is water replant enough to keep my ears dry in heavy mist/light drizzle.

Fiber Club

Let's talk about stash, shall we? I've been kind of holding out on you stash-wise. A few months ago, I joined the A Verb for Keeping Warm Essential Luxury Fiber Club. All I can say is "wow". The talented Kristine only uses natural dyes and unique blends and rarer breeds of sheep. I have been super pleased with everything I've received so far. Plus, it's only in 2-3oz increments so I never feel overwhelmed by fiber, but just insanely tickled and inspired that I have this bit of awesomeness in my hand.


This is the latest club shipment. It's 2 oz of Wensleydale fiber and 1 oz of tussah silk. I'm thinking about spinning the Wensleydale into a thick-ish single, spinning the silk into thread, and then crazy-plying them together.


2oz of a 50/50 merino and cashmere blend. The colorway is called The Pyrenees. It's begging to be spun up soft and lofty and knitted up into something that you could wrap around your neck and purr like a kitten.


Merino/Silk/Yak blend. The colorway is called "The Best Bite". It's dyed with Indigo. Heavenly soft.


"Sweet Tart". 3oz of Targee Roving. I love the fact that she searches out less common breeds of sheep.

I'm busy knitting away a small lace shoulderette with this selection:

It's "Rainer Cherries" merino/silk.

I split the roving and lined up the colors for minimal candy-cane effect.


Spinning it was a joy. It's knitting up so soft and lofty. Swoon.

Corespun yarn

I'm a plain vanilla spinner. There. I said it.

I like myself a nice balanced 2-ply, and sturdy round 3 ply, and the occasional even lace singles. Not that I don't admire crazy art yarns. I look on, green with envy, when friends make piles of chaotic gorgeousness. I took a 2 day class that was nothing but freeing your inner anarchist at the wheel. It was fun, but I'm still not convinced that I could ever make anything useful.

Then, last month, I got a weird urge to corespin. After a few yards of trial and error, I found my rhythm and could. not. stop. It was addictive.



I started out with batts from Butterfly Girl in "Rocky Road". It was a soft, luxurious blend of merino, suri alpaca (the best kind of alpaca in my opinion), silk, bamboo, and a little bit of glitz. Corespinning lets you stretch out a small amount of luxury fiber- because you are wrapping it around a core yarn, you will end up using less. This is a perfect technique if you only have a couple ounces of fiber, but you still want the yardage to actually make something.

For my core, I chose some dk weight wool.



This was some yarn that I had frogged from a hoodie years ago. It is still too painful for me to knit with it. I didn't check to see if there was a pattern errata and followed the pattern with blind faith. I didn't question things at all, even when it had me put the hood where one would logically put a second arm hole. I just kept on knitting. Very painful memory right there.

Anyway, I found that hiding the yarn makes me feel better.

I ran the core yarn through my wheel and onto a bobbin, adding more twist. That way, I wouldn't end up with an over-twisted mess once I started the core spinning process.

Basically, you are taking your pretty fiber and letting it wrap around the core yarn. The Bellweather has a great tutorial (as always) on corespinning. She can explian the process much better than I can.

Here are the results:







Parts of the silk were a little tough to draft out evenly resulting in lumpy thicker sections, but I thought I got most of the skein fairly even. It was so fun, once I sat down I couldn't really stop if I wanted to, and it only took me a couple hours to complete.

I ended up with about 160 yards total. I'm planning on making a hat from this- I think the yarn will give it a fun, funky texture.