FO: Coraline Sweater

Well then. It's been a crazy past few weeks for me with a lot of changes going on at work and maybe (eventually) at home and all the other good fun things that take up all my time, force me to stumble home at 2am and do it all over again the next day.

I did manage to finish a sweater that I had been plugging away at for a while.

It started as a whole bag of discontinued Cashcotton DK from Rowan.



I don't remember where I got it, which is kind of tragic. I just remember it was cheap- maybe $30 for the entire bag?- and it's really lovely stuff. I think Rowan will discontinue yarns periodically, only to re-label them or futz with the blend amounts. Which is really good if you want a cheap bag of yarn every now and then. Not so good if you run out of yarn before you finish and need more.

This one is a blend of Cotton, Cashmere, Angora, Nylon and Rayon. It's super soft and very lightweight and it has nice drape. The angora gives it a nice, fuzzy bloom. As far as a cotton-based yarn goes, it's one of my favorites.



I didn't get gauge so I crunched the numbers and figured out that the gauge I got on US 4 needles would get me a size that fit if I made the smallest size. I plugged away on it in the latter part of summer, and finished the miles of plain boring knitting fairly quickly. The yoke was a little time-consuming, but I loved the smocking.



I also loved the tiny gorgeous details: the slipped stitch edges, the bottom hem, the applied i-cord edging on the neck and sleeves. This is a very well-designed pattern from Ysolda.



I have not figured out what I'm going to do about the closures yet, but I sewed the buttons on just for fun and stuck a dpn in it just to see what it will look like.



So, it fits me in the sense that I can put this on, but it's a bit too tight for me in the arms and shoulders.



I wouldn't be able to put anything heavier than a light cotton cami underneath, so it's not even a very good layering piece for me.



Which means it's an easy giftmas present to someone who would be a good match if I ever need a kidney donated. It's a special sweater, and I love the design and it's probably purely my fault that it doesn't fit, but I'm sure someone somewhere could slip this on over their shoulders without having to tug down at the balled-up t-shirt sleeves underneath. I blocked this to death trying to give it a bit more ease, and I'm entirely too lazy to pick out what I've done and re-knit the yoke. I'm not totally disappointed- look at all the yarn I've used up!- and I do like giving stuff away, especially when it doesn't fit me perfectly. No tears here.

The specs: I used 8 skeins of Cashcotton DK yarn- 1136 yards. US size 4 needles for the body, US 3 for the bottom hem. I will either sew button loops on or put tiny hook and eye closures on the inside of the hem since that's super-fiddly and I usually feel like I have enormously huge hands when I'm trying to do details like that.

FO: Snail Hat and a Hill Country Hat

Surprise! I made another bunch of freaky little handspun hats. These ones started out as fleece; this was actually the very first raw fleece that I processed myself.



It's a CVM from a farm in California, and just like every time I'm in sunny California, it had a bit of sunburn on the tips. I washed and carded into rolags, and then spun it up into a lofty bulky-weight 2-ply yarn.







It was fuzzy and soft and a bit rustic looking. I promptly threw it in a bin and forgot about it for a few years, until this weird hat craze got me pawing through my stash for good odd skeins of handspun to hattify.

First up is a smaller hat- I made this for a gift for a child. It's not toddler-small, but it's big enough for a bruiser of a 3 year old.



It's the Snail Hat from Elizabeth Zimmerman. I already made one of these with some core-spun yarn, and I like it in a good fuzzy 2-ply much better. It's a very easy, rhythmic quick hat.



The second hat is the Hill Country Hat from the Knitter's Book of Wool. Love that book.



I'm a little meh on this hat. It has some interesting corrugated rib patterns that you really can't see because the yarn is too fuzzy. I will try this hat again, but with a worsted-spun yarn that will show stitch definition better.



The pattern is just completely lost in the yarn. Ah well. It's warm though.

I haven't been spinning too much, but I did sample my next big spinning project:



It's Muriel, the Merino fleece that got sent away to a Zellinger's. It's going to be something beautiful if I ever get around to spinning it.

I'm also finishing up Another Sweater. This one is the Coraline pattern.



It's very fine gauge and it's taking me a while, but it's an easy pattern. I feel like I could do the smocking in my sleep at this point. It's pretty much done, but I completely lost my head when it came to measuring and the sleeves ended up about two inches shorter than where they needed to be. I'm fixing that quick like a bunny and it will be done. I guess I won't have to go naked at Rhinebeck this year.