October | 2006 | Laura Chau

rhinebeck, the sweater

October 31, 2006

Apologies for the photo- it sucks. Alas, daylight time is short around these parts…

Rhinebeck Sweater 2006; handspun colourwork extraordinaire!

Pattern: my own, sorta based on EZ’s yoke sweater

Yarn: My own handspun merino, 3ply; 1 pound (approx. 700 yards) of the main colour and ummm…some of each of the other colours. Not too much of each, less than 50 g each. All contrast colours handdyed by me!

Needles: Denise US7

Finished: the Tuesday before Rhinebeck!

This sweater was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I forgot to ask someone to take a photo of me in it at Rhinebeck! The best photo, I think, of me in the sweater is here, in Mel’s flickr.

I’m planning on writing up a more detailed “recipe”, but here’s basically what I did – swatch, determine gauge of 18 sts/4″, provisionally cast on 160 stitches for a 35″ sweater. Knit the body in the round, adding a couple of increases and decreases for the waist. Knit up the sleeves, also with a provisional cast on, then joined it all together and knit a couple rounds plain with the main colour (I wanted the colourwork to be a bit on the higher side).

Up until that point I didn’t know what I was going to do for the colourwork, so when I got there I had a bit of work with graph paper and pencils to do! I did the first motif, then decreased the number of stitches by 25%, did the second motif (the red/yellow zigzag), decreased by 33%, then did some stripes and such and decreased again by 33%. I also incorporated short rows to raise the back neck. Then I went back to the cast-on edges and did the ribbing – I’d cast on provisionally because I wasn’t sure how long the main colour was going to last.

When the sweater hit water though…it grew a lot in length. I was a bit freaked out. In a bit of panic the night before the trip, I…put the sweater in the dryer. Just for a bit, about 20 minutes total. You can feel how the yoke and contrast edges firmed up, but they’re not crazy felted or anything. And the length is perfect!

All in all, a beautiful sweater experience. Yay!

On my knitting plate (which is overflowing):

I have succumbed.

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goodies

October 29, 2006

Preface: I was pretty darn good on my pre-Rhinebeck yarn/fibre diet. I can’t really remember the last time I bought yarn before the KW fair, but it was at least a month before. And then there was KW, and nothing between that and Rhinebeck. So….I may have gone a little crazynuts.

There was so much to look at! I felt really rushed (and poor). I wanted to be able to look at everything closely, and doesn’t everyone just want to buy everything they like? At any rate I ended up with a lot of great stuff (but there was more I missed that I wanted! ah, well, that’s what internet shopping is for I suppose). Onward!

Two skeins of super soft merino/alpaca from Still River Mill. They also had CVM yarn that was awesome! I wanted to buy more but they didn’t take credit cards. Each skein is 200 yards, so it’s enough to do something nice with.

Five skeins from Briar Rose. Chunky weight, wool and flax. Awesome colours and flecks! I’m thinking a fast and easy top-down pulli.

“Hawthorn” is the name of the sheep! This Romney was a steal, and I bought a sweater’s worth. One bag is different, a bit darker, because there weren’t three bags of Hawthorn – I’m going to do a three ply with one of the plies being darker.

From Spirit Trail, 2 oz of the softest Polwarth/Alpaca/Angora, some merino/tencel, and some silk/camel. Yum.

From Carolina Homespun, 2 x bombyx silk, the blue/gren is tussh, and the skein on the right is merino/tussah. The braid on the left is merino/silk from a vendor in building 22 called Abi’s Web.

Oooh, shiny.

Batts from Grafton.

I also bought (but didn’t take a photo of, for some reason) some red “merino multi” and a Blue Moon sheep 2 shoe kit from The Fold.

And a jar of awesome champagne-honey mustard, but it has gotten lost! I remember having it at the hotel and packing it into one of my fibre bags, but it’s gone AWOL. No one else from the car has it so…I guess I’m outta luck. I’m lucky it wasn’t a more expensive item!