Monday, December 7, 2009

the best laid plans . . .

So, the plan this weekend was to meet up with my sister for some shopping, and have her take pictures of me sporting my latest FO. Then, 3 inches of snow fell from the heavens, and in true Baltimore style, we both curled up on our respective couches, and refused to get behind the wheel of a car.

But I don't want to keep you in suspense, so I'm bravely moving forward with the promised blog post, which unfortunately will be full of pictures taken by me, using my camera's timer, propping it up on various pieces of furniture and/or trying to capture some kind of decent lighting. (Really, must get a gorillapod).

So, without further ado:



(Yes, I am wearing Christmas-themed pajama pants. I just didn't feel the need to get dressed up for you guys, apologies.)

Pattern: Wheat-Ear Cable Yoke, by Pam Allen, Interweave Knits Summer 2007

Yarn: Beaverslide Dry Goods Merino/Mohair worsted weight in Wild Iris

Needles: Sizes 6, 7 and 8

Comments and general musings:

First, I think this second picture might be a bit clearer.


Believe it or not, I'm modeling this sweater for you unblocked. This is exactly how it fit when it came off the needles (or rather, when I finished seaming it all up and weaving in a million ends). You can see the hem is curling up, but otherwise, this is one well-behaved sweater.

It took about 3 months to complete, which is quite an accomplishment for me. I considered trying to adapt it to be knit in the round, but ultimately I was just too lazy to figure it all out.

The pattern is very straight-forward, and the cable is quite simple as well, easy to master without a cable needle. I'm not entirely happy with the bits where the sleeves join the body; the stitches seem a bit loose, but it's certainly not worth undoing.

I must say I wasn't entirely thrilled with the yarn. I found quite a few knots, and as I was seaming up several of the strands I was sewing with broke. The texture of the yarn is rather rustic, so I expected it would be fairly sturdy as well. I will say it's quite a bit softer than I expected, it's very warm, and it's a good value too--the regular price is $11 or $12 for a 250yd skein, but I got this on sale for $9, so $36 for a whole sweater's worth of yarn. And I love the color.


So, there you have it, what will probably be my only sweater for 2009. Maybe 2010 can be the year of the sweater?

3 comments :

Clumsy Knitter said...

Woohoo! Sweater! It looks great, and if you're only going to knit one sweater this year at least it's a super duper nice one, right? I love the Christmas pants. Might have to get me some of my own. ;-)

CrookedKnits said...

ooooo I'm loving this sweater and the yarn you used came out looking great! I recently had similar problems with yarn (breakage in the yarn itself rather than knots) so I know your pain with that!

Mrs. Homesteader said...

LOVE the sweater! It's beautiful, and the fit is fantastic. I definitely agree that if you're going to only knit one sweater, at least you picked a winner!


And I also love the Christmas pants. I'm a big fan of not getting dressed up for blog pictures, lol!