Finshed sweater

Here she is, the latest and greatest.  A pretty heather cranberry basket-weave pattern in my usual round neck.

I can't get the pictures right.  It's hard for me to take selfies.  I look ridiculous from that selfie angle, but you can get the idea.

The real color is somewhere the top pic and the bottom one, leaning more toward the bottom pic.  36" in circumference, knitted bottom up, 3-needle shoulder join, pick-up-and-knit sleeves downward.  The surprise of this sweater is that it is essentially a rib pattern, so when I finished it, I had this very narrow sweater with skinny-minny sleeves.  A good blocking helped, and of course, the minute you put it on, those ribs mold themselves to your body.  I'm very happy with it.   The same gorgeous yarn as the previous sweater, only worked with a size 4 needle because I wanted a sweater with some substance.

Rating:  A - A+, I'm that happy with it.  Cozy and comfy  and perfect for a drab, misty chilly winter day.

2014 seems to be the year of the sweater.  The last time I did this was 22 years ago!  Younger DD wanted to go to college with 17 sweaters, and so I obliged her.  That just about did me in, and I haven't done much sweater knitting since, only a few here and there.  But now I have that mojo, so lots more in the planning stage.

The Yarnarian Dyes for You!

I've had a very crazy 2 days in which I've been run ragged by all the tasks I had to do, so today, just blogging and editing pics and easy peasy stuff like that, suits me just fine.

Yesterday I actually dyed up enough yarn for me to make a sweater. I used a sport weight SW merino/nylon. I'm trying this out. Basically, I bought just for me. To my eye, it looks as if this very lovely and soft yarn leans more towards a fingering weight than a sport weight. But then, I've seen sport wt yarn that is far closer to a DK weight. So, I'll have to knit it up to figure it all out.

I rarely dye multiples of colors; my method doesn't lend itself to dyeing many skeins simultaneously, but I wanted to play with this yarn and see if I could indeed do 8 skeins that were pretty close in color. And, I did. It took me a long time, mostly because I was trying to get a color that I had dyed previously, and couldn't do it. I suspect that that color was the result of luck. Anyhow, you know that the dye rules me, and sure enough, I dyed orange. It's actually2 dyes mixed together, neither of which is orange, and then dunked in a very pale brick. This is how it came out, and I rather like it. Yep, it's bright, but it's a very good color for me, and will look spiffy with browns, which also look good on me. And if I wear it next year with green, I'll look like the Great Pumpkin!



Dyeing for you: I only did 6 skeins. I decided to use these skeins as a color experiment, but they turned into something else entirely. Darn those sneaky dyes; I reach for green, and the dye that jumps into my hand is gold. Not my fault.

Brick, Gold, Iseult All done in Linda BFL yarn, which I'm having a hard time convincing you how wonderful this wool is. We are talking silky fibers that are soft, sturdy and utterly wonderful! They almost glow, and that is the length of the fiber here.

Linda BFL: 80/20 SW BFL/nylon. Approx. 420 yards $20/skein





And here is some Rachel yarn. This is the skinny yarn with that neat twist. Patterns look particularly good in this yarn. The twist produces nice neat cables, and twist stitches and even lace.

100% SW merino. Approx 400 yards, maybe a little less. $20/skein

Blue Moment, Malinda, and New York Night. Blue Moment is dyed with only one color, and I let the color get lighter and lighter as the yarn absorbed it.





You want? email me at fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

Knitting news: Every project is moving along. There's not much to see this week. Just imagine everything getting larger and/or longer.

Yarn news: Guess what arrived yesterday? A trial 20 skeins of 50/50 SW merino/silk in a fingering weight! I can hardly stand it. I want to dye it, but I am pretty busy the rest of the week, so it will have to wait until next week. And, along with it, is my new Penny sock yarn. The one with the 460+ yards. Yep, 460+ yards. SW merino/nylon, 75/25.

I got so tired of having to wind up Penny into skeins that when my vendor showed this on her site, I jumped.

Off to do bills, which I hate, hate, hate to do. So there!

Blue Moment is grabbed! Yay, quick ordering fingers!

Wendy - I need your email address for paypal. Send it to me directly (don't post that kind of info here): fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

New York Night is grabbed. Heathwitch, please send me your email address or whatever you use for paypal. Don't put it in a comment here; it should be private.