FO- Oatmeal Cardigan

Last year at Rhinebeck, I found the most beautiful Romney fleece from the Prebles farm in Maine. I washed and processed this by myself.

Fleece:


In January, I started to make the Batts:


Laceweight Singles:


Which 3-plied up to a DK weight:


Which gave me a fabric that I was happy to work with:


Which then became my Oatmeal Cardigan:


I love it. It's by far my favorite handspun garment that I have made.

I started this on the train on my way down to DC for a weekend but worked on it in fits and starts as it soon because way too warm to touch a big woolly mess. I finished the sleeves when I was up in Maine this summer and the rest of the sweater just flew along.



I'm finding it the perfectly casual fall sweater that cuts the chill nicely.

I did do some modifications. Most of them had to do with the fact that I spun this yarn up woolen- light and lofty- as opposed to worsted, which would have given me a denser, heavier yarn with less drape but more stitch definition. There is a cable on the yoke but my yarn is really too fuzzy for it to pop the way I would have liked it to. The pattern called for a small cable detail on the sleeves, but I left that out after I realized that it looked like a fuzzy mistake. I did another modification on the sleeves as well- the pattern called for increases every 4 rows, and I changed that to every 6 rows to get a more fitted sleeve.





I also decided not to use buttons, but I found these delicate little pewter claps at M&J trimming on 6th ave.







I'm pretty much in love with it.

The specs:

I used about 1000 yards of handspun DK weight yarn for this project. I actually have another 300 yards leftover as well as I'm terrible at guessing how much I've actually spun. I used US size 6 (4mm) needles to get the gauge of 18 stitches per 4 inches.

I made the 40" size thinking it would be roomy, but ya know, with the variations of the handspun,the actual size was more like 38", which gives it some negative ease. The pattern was the Oatmeal Cardigan by Amy King from the Winter 2009 Spinoff magazine.

Combs

If there are Zombies lurking about, don't be afraid- just take out your wool combs.



These stunning two-pitch mini combs are from PJ Handcrafts. They make quick work of turning long-locked fleece into smooth, even roving. They are the perfect size for me- not so big and heavy where I need to be drinking a protein shake twice a day in order to work them, but still big enough to get a satisfying amount of roving off them.



I'm using them on a white BFL fleece. Blue Face locks are tight ringlets, which are next to impossible to card, but a breeze to comb. There are also a lot of second cuts in this fleece, and this helps weed them out nicely. It also lets most of the VM caught up in the ringlets to drop right out, saving you from having to go after them with tweezers and a magnifying glass.

Good times.