Shelter from the Storm

I just discovered an enormous roach in the ladies' room here at the office--and I'm from Baltimore, I've seen roaches the size of small mice before, so when I say enormous, I mean it. It was lurking silently on the back of a toilet, just waiting to attack. I sure hope I don't have to use the restroom for the rest of the afternoon--he could easily sneak to another toilet. Perhaps I'll be trudging down to the 7th floor to use their presumably-roach-free bathroom.

As you might expect, I did not intend to post about roaches on my blog today, but I'm just so grossed out, I had to share. You're welcome!

So let's move on to what I really came here to tell you about, which is knitting. And yarn.

Pattern: Ribbed Baby Jacket, by Debbie Bliss
Size: 6-9 months
Yarn: Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Almanac, just under 2 skeins
Rav link

There are many babies in my life these days--4 friends have babies, and 3 are currently pregnant--but this actually wasn't knit for any of those babies or soon-to-be babies specifically. I was looking for a small project to use up the 3 skeins of Shelter I bought, and thought this would fit the bill nicely (although in the end, it actually only used 2 skeins, so I have a random skein leftover and now need to find yet another project calling for 140 yds of worsted weight). Since people are always having babies--and I might try it eventually myself--there's always plenty of use for a small sweater.

The pattern is very straight forward, and there is minimal seaming. The only modification I made was to add button loops, because I loved the look of lauraleeknitter's sweater. I used some buttons I purchased a couple years ago, 2 of which had already made their way onto my Every Way Wrap. With all said and done, the sweater looks a little manly with the tweedy, rustic yarn, but I think it would work for a girl as well.

(Don't you love my coffee table? It's the Hunter Trunk from Crate and Barrel and I want to marry it. I dream of filling it with cozy, handknit blankets for the winter.)

What I really want to tell you guys about is the yarn. Brooklyn Tweed / Jared Flood debuted this yarn somewhat recently, and it's exactly what you'd expect from him, after looking at his projects. Worsted weight, rustic, 100% wool, a little scruffy, very home-y. It was a little rough to knit with, but softened up a bit after washing (still, I probably wouldn't wear it around my neck--too scratchy for my taste). The stitches came out fairly even, but it still has that slightly homespun look, which doesn't work for everything, but I think plays out well in this project.

Being 100% wool, I thought this would spit-splice well, but for some reason, I could not get it to felt. I don't know what I was doing wrong, as plenty of Ravelry users have waxed poetic about the ease with which it felts, so I'll assume user error on my part. Maybe I wasn't spitty enough.

My only complaint is breakage. Even with this small project done in one piece, several seams had to be sewn, and the yarn broke numerous times, which was very frustrating (particularly because of my aforementioned inability to spit-splice the yarn). Seaming does generally involve a little tugging and pulling, particularly with a rougher yarn, and this just wasn't up to it. For that reason, I would hesitate to recommend this yarn for any project done in pieces, or with multiple seams--seaming is generally unpleasant enough without adding yarn breakage into the equation. But I bet it would be lovely for a warm, cozy blanket, if you can swing the price ($12/skein).

Incredibly, in addition to this sweater I finished 2 other projects during the last week of June, so I'll probably be a real chatterbox this week. Stay tuned!