Hurricane Irene Pullover - knitting content

Yes. Real knitting content - with pictures. Because TheQueen does still pick up sticks and string. She just hasn't been very productive, this long, hot, summer of adjustment. Perhaps she is not knitting tricky Victorian green lace, but at least She's still within the same hue. Here I offer you glimpses of a wonderful green yarn - not really electric green, not spring green, though perhaps you could say it's baby leaf green - The label says Lime Green  but it's got sunshine yellow blended in with the green fibers. It's happy and bouncy and vibrant without being loud. The fiber is soft but still has some scrunch to it. I know this sweater will cheer me up when I am sick of my winter clothes; all brown and dark and sad.

In fact - I am imagining it with a Munro plaid tartan skirt - either pleated like a kilt or in something narrower. The Munro plaid is BD's family tartan and I've always wanted to get myself something in the old colors. Yes. there are "new" plaid colors too - pretty much the same, but slightly more vibrant.


As I said in a previous post, I got this yarn at the most darling yarn shop - Dog House Yarns -  in my favorite shopping town - Culpeper, VA. Poor Culpeper took some wicked hits last week with serious earthquake damage - to the point where several downtown buildings will have to be torn down. Weep weep - the Culpeper folk have really worked hard to keep the town vibrant and alive so to lose actual buildings seems so unfair. To have inches of rain dumped on them too seemed doubly wicked.

Dog House Yarns has one of the best selections of sock yarns I've ever seen in a shop. My mouth drooled at the different offerings - and if I didn't know I already had miles of sock yarn already I might have maxed out the Visa card. Instead I was really looking for something to make a go-to sweater. Something plain, but beautiful, substantial, with crisp heft, but not scratchy. I almost succumbed to the Cascade Echo Wool - and I still plan to get some - but I fell for the Shepherd's Wool colors. Both are super reasonably priced - coming in around $5 per 100 yds. These are prices a knitter can indulge with.

Anyway - I am making this sweater a pullover, knit from the top down, with set in sleeves. For the most part I just used the schematics of Kristy McGowan's red dress that I knit last winter from her book Modern Top Down Knitting. The gauge is different - but the proportions are similar. I'll add sleeves and short row bust darts, and of course I'll stop somewhere around my hips. I'm getting a gauge of 6 rows per inch so the rule is I have to knit 6 rows every day till I've knit 60 from the underarm join. Then I'll decide on a hem treatment. I have an idea but I want to see how much yarn is left.


Because you know TheQueen can't do something completely plain. There needs must always be a wee bit of fancy to everything she does and she has such an idea for the fancy bit. I'll let you know about it when get body done. In the mean time - don't you believe it - it is easy being green - when it's such a pretty green.

In the mean time - it's Friday evening of a 3 day weekend. How good is that? Lots of knitting can be done in a 3 day weekend. May your needles speed you ahead.

Swatches - and tough decisions.

Soho Dress Swatches

I cast on two swatches last night, the Elann.com Highland Wool and the K1C2 Camelino.  I was lookng for 4  things: 

What the fabric looked like

What it felt like

How easy to knit the yarn was

How fun to knit the yarn was

I switched back and forth between the two swatches so I could get a good comparison. I really like the Highland Wool color - it's a deep russet brown - almost a sassy color. It sort of twinkles, which is something you won't pick up in an amateur photo shot in my kitchen. Knitting it was pleasant with little splitting and a cooperative stitch definition. The fabric created had a nice texture but nothing out of the ordinary. There was still the hint of scratch to this wool, though, that worried me. As the swatch grew I kept placing it on sensitive body parts, hoping to find a definite "Yes" or "No" reaction. It never happened. The itchiest place was right at the base of my neck ... and the dress doesn't really touch that part of my neck. all those other sensitive spots had no complaints.

The Camelino is a softer, duller color. It also knits into a softer plushier fabric. On #7 needles it came in at 4.5 spi in contrast to the Highland wool's 4.25. In either case I have to go down to smaller needles to reach the 5x7 SxR gauge called for in the pattern. Truth is - the knitting pleasure factor of this yarn beat out the previous swatch, hands down. The thought that kept coming to the surface was "Butter!"; not just with the stitches on the needle, but also with the delicious, plump fabric I was making.  And at 10 o'clock at night, I was sitting up in bed thinking "Boy! Knitting this yarn is FUN!"

It's just a wee bit more expensive - but there is another secret savings stash in my house that could pony up the extra $30 or so needed to support my SILM jar contribution.  And when I think of the millions of stitches I'm going to have to knit to make this dress - I believe the actual knitting pleasure is as important as anything else.

So. Why haven't I placed an order yet? Well. I had to get my thoughts in order, of course, which is why I'm writing this out. And then - there is color issue. The Camelino's soft color - which matches the soft fabric vs the Highland Wool's bolder color, and somewhat itchier fabric. I'm more of a big bold color sort of person. Even when I try to mute it down, I tend to pick louder colors than anybody else in the room.

Still and all - this is a WHOLE LONG SLEEVED DRESS. Do I want a lighter softer color all over my body or do I want to go big bold. Well. The highland wool isn't big and bold. It's just a sort of twinkly brown. But it isn't plush. Honestly this is a tough decision,  being pushed by the fact that the yarn is on sale ... and could be sold out quickly.

Sigh

Decisions, decisions.