FO- Avast

I think I've made it clear how much I love knitting men's sweaters (well, one man in particular anyway). Endless fields of mindless and comforting stockinette stitch, round and round for miles. It's the only project I can take with me to the movie theater and knit for hours in the dark and not have to worry about a pattern or a dropped stitch.



The Avast was no exception. It had a finicky little cable band at the bottom, stitches were picked up along the long edge of it, and the rest went on and on forever. The actual knitting portion of this only took me a couple weeks, but it did take forever to finish. There was a hem that went around all the edges that had to be sewn up. I ended up not liking the hemmed sleeves, so I ripped them out and did a few inches of ribbing instead. I had to go out and buy a zipper, and then sew the said zipper in. The bottom puckered in too much, so I took out the last row and did a stretchy bind off instead. This helped, but I still would like to try and stretch the bottom out a bit more to make it fit better...the cabled band isn't nearly as horizontally stretchy as the rest of the sweater so it doesn't want to stay stretched out. More blocking should fix the problem.



Now that I'm looking at it, one sleeve seems a bit short. That will get a good medieval blocking as well.



I also want to re-block the collar. It got a bit smooshed and now it's doing a wavy thing. I might tear open the seam and put some of those plastic collar tabs in there to help with the shape.



I made the 44" size, so there is about 2 inches of ease to the garment. I used Valley Yarns Northhamptons- this is my go-to 100% wool workhorse yarn. It wears really nicely, it's reasonably soft and it's fairly inexpensive- it's $5 for 247 yards. I used about 1850 yards total for this. It's a warm, masculine, wearable sweater.

The Week in Knitting

I finished the knitting on the Avast last week. It just needs to be blocked and I need to put a zipper in. A slight problem: it seems as though the cabled band along the bottom is much, much tighter then the rest of the sweater. It might come down to cutting it off and replacing it with a few rows of ribbing. It seems a pity to take out the best detail of the sweater, but if that's the only way to make it fit, so be it. I will evaluate post-blocking.

I finished the body on the February Lady Sweater.



That picture is a few days old. It works up so fast that I almost forget that I'm bored with it!

I also CO for the Wilson hat:



It's a simple cable hat from Norah Gaughan. I'm using leftover yarn from the Avast sweater for it, and I'm knitting it in the round instead of flat as it is written.

This Week in Knitting and Spinning....

MMMMMMmmmm....Cashmere:



It's 100 yards of laceweight 2-ply Mongolian Cashmere. I spun the singles on my wheel and then Andean plied it on a spindle for better control. I have a wee bit of roving left over, so I'll end up with more yardage. It's super soft and by far the hardest I had to work on a fiber.

I finished a couple of small projects that I still need to take photographs of: One being the Snapdragon Tam.



I love the way this knitted up. I hate the way it looks on. I mean, who looks good in a tam? Really now. At least a beret is cute and floppy and fun. I was going to make the matching mitts, but now that I don't like the way the hat looks on, I'm thinking about backing away for this matching set.

I got my skein of Malabrigo in the mail and finished the Damson. It's a simple, gorgeous shawl. Pictures soon, I promise!

I'm chugging along on the Avast sweater. The sleeves are attached and I'm almost done with the yoke. The problem is, it's way too big to take with me on my commute now, which is where the majority of my knitting gets done. To give myself something to do, I cast on yesterday for my Sweater #2- the February Lady. I'm using some Alpaca I got years and years ago when the Suss store in Manhattan closed down. It was an epic sale. It was plain white, but at $1 per skein, I grabbed as much as I could carry home. I dyed it using Madder Root, which gave me a nice peachy pink.



It's so girly, I can't help but making a high-pitched squeak every time I see it.

I'm not a huge 100% alpaca fan. It tends to be too drapey for sweaters and I get worried about the garment growing and stretching into some sort of monstrous frankensweater. Still- I think I can make it work with this particular pattern. I'm knitting it at a slightly tighter gauge then recommended to make up for any stretching that may occur. It's a small enough sweater that it won't be too heavy. Alpaca can be too warm, so the shorter sleeves and open lace work will help with that issue.

Wish me luck.

The Week in Knitting

Very little spinning has been done lately, but circumstances have been perfect for getting some knitting done. I generally have to be home to spin, and there has been a lack of being home since I've been home.

Anyway, here is what is on the needles:

The Snapdragon Tam by Ysolda. I've never made a tam before and I feel brave branching out from my usual beanie and cloche comfort zone.



I'm using a discontinued Rowan Yarn- Yorkshire tweed. It's a DK weight 100% wool yarn. I actually bought the yarn to do this pattern:



I'm really glad I knew to walk away from that after just a few intarsia rows. The fact that there would be over 1000 ends to weave in was a good sign that I should stop. Did I mention that I also tried to knit this in the round?



The cable pattern on the Snapdragon is a bit complex and requires some brain power, but it's fairly simple in design and easy to memorize.

Also on the needles this week is the Avast. After letting the cabled band sit for ages, I picked up stitches along side it and started a fairly endless field of stockinette stitch.



Since I can knit this with my eyes closed, I was able to finish the body up to the pits plus one sleeve in this past week...and I've only got another inch to go on sleeve #2. Then it's joining everything together for the yoke. Maybe I can get the knitting done on this by the weekend.

It's a men's large (44 inches). I'm using my standard go-to worsted weight yarn, Valley Yarns Northhampton. This stuff is great for everyday projects. It's fairly soft, it looks great after wear and it's inexpensive.





I'm trying to make time for a big Etsy shop upload today- lots of handpainted roving this time around. I've had this stuff dyed up for a month now and just haven't been home during daylight to photograph it until yesterday.

An Ode to Men's Sweaters

Last spring, I started the Avast sweater for Bry. I don't know why I chose this project for spring, but like all woolie things, it got put down pretty quickly once the weather got warm. It starts out with a cabled band, and I loathe making small cabled things. Way too much attentive time to be following a complex chart over 16 stitches.

Eventually (months later), I finished that tedious cabled band. Now I feel like I can get the rest of the sweater made.



I'm using Valley Yarn Northampton in charcoal. It's a plain, sturdy wool. Nothing fancy.

I usually make Bry a sweater each year. Every once in a while, I want to knit long mindless fields of shapeless stockinette and men's sweaters fit the bill. The key to wearability success is this: I let him pick the pattern and the yarn color. I know him well enough to be able to predict his taste in clothes (boring) but the knitterly side of me will get carried away as to what he would actually wear. He likes pullovers, nothing too ornate or fancy, but small details are nice. He tends towards grays, browns, hunter greens and navy blues.

My eye is pretty trained when it comes to making something for myself that fits, but I find myself second guessing ease and size when I'm making him a sweater. I take out one of his old favorite sweaters that he likes and is flattering and I use that as a template.

As for yarns, I like to use wool blends. Anytime I'm freezing cold, he's usually comfortable. He just doesn't need a super-warm sweater unless it is meant to be outerwear.

Here's the Cobblestone from last year:



I used Valley Yarns Northampton in light gray. I loved this pattern and I want to make myself one as well. Seamless sweaters are the best.

The Plain Guernsey from Rowan:





Knit up in Rowan Cashsoft DK, which is a soft, drapey wool/microfiber/cashmere blend. It's a nice light yarn, perfect for a man's sweater. This one got a lot of wear and it still looks great. I had a lot of trouble with this pattern and ended up re-writing it. The pattern as written had a whopping 8" of positive ease, making the smallest size 52" at the chest. That's a whole lot of ease.

The Mixology Sweater from Son of Stich and Bitch:



I used one strand of Noro Silk Garden and one strand of black alpaca doubled. He totally surprised me with his color choice of very 80's neons, but I was more than happy to oblige. It's very warm- he wears it as outerwear.

The Marine Pullover:



I can't remember what I used for yarn. Wool of some sort. We were at the Empire Diner in Chelsea when I took that. It's one of those NYC landmark diners that's been around forever and has a high dose of wonderfully greasy comfort food all night and good people watching. When the clubs close at 4am, this place is packed.

I'm off to pick up stitches on the cable band and start 44 inches worth of stockinette stitch. I'm not going to give myself a huge deadline, but Switzerland is rumored to be quite cold. I wonder how much I can get done on this in the next couple of weeks...

PS, Bry won't wear anything around his neck, hats are too warm for him and he doesn't care to have gloves on. He'll wear handknit socks and sweaters. He's picky as hell. The only time I got him to wear a hat was when he was hiking in the Himalayas in Nepal.