Two sweaters have commenced in the last week and a half... and another is on the brink. I told you about that Rowanspun Chunky I had lying around, waiting for its moment in the sun? Well the design has finally come off the graph paper and jumped onto the needles. It isn't much to see now, but I'm having a great time working it out.
apologies for the artificial light
The plan is to make an aran jacket with deep pockets and a hood (we'll see if I have enough yarn. Rowanspun yardage is incredible, but a hood takes up a lot of yarn... especially on such a large sweater: 6 inches of ease, wooh!). The color is completely off in the photo. It was about midnight, under the light of a desk lamp (against all my principles). Go figure.
I was home sick Monday and Tuesday and of course took the opportunity to jump start another project I've been thinking about. Ever since I got my hands on some of KnitPicks' new superwash wool, I've wanted to try it out on a sweater. Plus, my urge for a top down seamless raglan was insatiable. Its been too long.
I'm very pleased with the fabric produced. It has a similar (at least to me) squishy quality as the fabric of Karabella Aurora 8, although with a bit more 'woolyness' to it. Just a bit. I never believe Aurora 8 is 100% wool anyway. The post-washing fabric isn't as nice as the Karabella, which is to be expected (you get what you pay for), but I think its definitely gonna be a comfortable one to wear, and probably can be pulled off in the professional atmosphere. Meaning I can actually wear it regularly. We'll see.
An important note about the Swish: Row gauge changes noticeably after washing and drying. Carolyn and I have come up with the same findings (I think its definitely in KnitPicks' best interest to advertise this.) After a wash and dry (KP endorses this as a machine dryable yarn), my row gauge was 8 rows to the inch. The unwashed fabric is 7 rows to the inch. As you can imagine this caused some major confusion while planning armhole depth, etc for the top down raglan. This, however, was easily remedied in true top-down fashion (versatility, check). I do still need to run a quick test to see if the shrinkage happened after just the wash, or after the washer+dryer combo. I suspect the latter, but need to check to be absolutely sure.
Finally, my tweed came for my EZ sweater. I'm a little late on the upstart, but I think it was worth the wait. Check out these beauties!
Have a wooly week. I know I will!
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