An icky, poorly lit, through the mirror, self portrait, of an unblocked bulky wt sweater, but a photo nonetheless. It practically flew off my needles. If it wasn't for the fact that I had to do the sleeves, not once, not, twice, but three times, (even seaming one of the sleeves each time, which is the bane of all things good) I would have been done two days ago! I wonder when I will learn that those nifty little gadgets they call tape measures are worth their weight in gold?? Guess I should have taken a clue from the gold market of late and used one. Obviously "eyeballing" is not a good thing.
Specs: Vintage yarn...Ballybrae Bulky by Brunswick 100% virgin unscoured wool with natural oils. 135 yards/100 grams. (total yardage 675) #10.5 needle 3sts=1 inch color Dover White Tweed.
Um yeah, they weren't kidding when they said, "unscoured wool with natural oils" It took me longer to wash the stuff than it took to knit the sweater! WOW
I sort of followed the pattern, but not really. What I did was follow the silhouette. Just changing the gauge and going from there doesn't work too well sometimes and I just knew it wouldn't have worked this time. So basically it's just a raglan, with a deep v-neck, and an empire waist. There are darts here and there that are not in the orginal pattern and I changed the cable a tiny bit. Each cable twists in the opposite direction than the one before it. I'm thinking I should have gone a tad bit longer in length (I have one skein left) but then there's the issue of the button/neck band....sigh Oh well, it's still long enough to cover my butt when I sit so it's all good.
Languishing while my attention was focused on "Papa G" (as I'm calling the Mr. G bulky remake) was "Pretty in Red". I know, it's a lot of red. I'm about half way up the back, as you can see. The fronts aren't much and then the sleeves. I was orginally going to make this long sleeve, but Gillian thinks she wants it 3/4 sleeved, so 3/4 it will be. It won't be done in a day or two, but it will be done soon.
I am totally enamoured with the pleats!
On the spinning front, I've been sporadically spinning here and there. This is what's on the bobbin now. It was originally supposed to be part of my Ravelympics....oops. You can see my Ravelympics prep for this fiber here. I dyed it myself.
The ball of roving seen here on the left is exactly what the ball on the right looked like before I began spinning. Large ball 242 grams, smaller ball, 119 grams.
The plan is to have a sportish wt. 2 ply with a really long color sequence (ala Kauni). Then a I'll use a solid/semi-solid in a dark color such as black or navy, and do some color work. I've been "stealing" and adapting paisley prints from my stash of fabric and charting designs, we'll see how that goes. :o)
