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project update

Posted on | August 16, 2007 | 15 Comments

I know it seems like I’ve been this whirlwind of activity, working on my SAFF sweater, and the reason for this is two-fold.  First, I have to give credit to the roving I spun.

See how light and lofty this is? I’m not sure how it was processed as I bought it in roving form from our guild shepherdess, but it requires NO predrafting.  None.  For the non-spinners, that means the labor to transform this fluff into yarn is reduced by at least half.  I could just sit at my wheel and spin.  Very relaxing and very fast.

I also want to say something else about this fiber, and this might sound strange.  A woman in my guild is a Reiki master.  We were talking about this fiber and she said that it was so wonderful to spin because it still had the energy of the sheep.  I just smiled and nodded, I didn’t know what the heck she was talking about and honestly I thought she might be a little whack.  But…there IS a difference, a huge difference, in spinning this fiber and spinning the overly processed fiber we usually pull out of plastic bags.  Not that that fiber isn’t lovely to spin – it’s perfectly fine and enjoyable – but this fiber is different.  It still has lanolin from the sheep in it so my hands get a constant spa treatment.  Even knitting with the yarn, after it’s been washed twice in hot water, conditions my hands.  All this to say:  if you get the chance to buy some farm wool, spun or unspun, do it.  I think you’ll like it.

Secondly, I have a tendency to start fast and furious on a project and then lose interest.  If you’ve read my blog awhile, you’ve probably noticed this.  I can knit a sock in a day, but the other sock?  Still MIA.  My Rambling Rose cardigan is still stalled out at the yoke decreases.  I know this about myself.  I know what I’m working with here.  I know that unless I get a goodly amount of sweater knitting behind me before my interest wanes or entirely abandons me, there’s no way this sweater will be done before SAFF.

This is where my sweater was at Monday evening.  I put half the stitches on another circular needle and tried it on.  TOO BIG!  As in – 8 inches too big!  Gauge swatches lie sometimes.  It’s in their nature, I think.  Also, my waist decreases were all sorts of wrong.  Riiiipppp! 

This is where I was at Tuesday evening.  I didn’t mind starting over so much because I really wanted a contrast edging on the knitted hem.  I’ve seen them out in Blogland and love the way they look.  What I didn’t DO, though, was actually read up on how to do this!  Do you do that?  I read a lot of blogs and technical articles and I *think* I know how something works so when I decide to incorporate it into my knitting, I proceed full steam ahead!  I don’t need no stinkin directions!  And generally I find out that I’ve done it incorrectly.  That bottom purled row isn’t supposed to be in the contrasting yarn.  I corrected it by knitting one row with the main yarn, THEN the purl turning row, then enough rows to make the hem even (let me know if this is unclear). 

Here is where I’m at right now.  The waist decreases look good, I found incredibly helpful information in this article.  It’s a very good article and even though it’s dealing with crochet, the information applies to knitted garments as well and probably sewn garments but I’m not quite to that point with my craftiness!

Something I’ve been thinking about while knitting endless miles of brown stockinette – what type of blog posts do you most enjoy reading?  Do you like to read about the entire process of knitting an object, including the foibles?  Or do you prefer the WOW posts where the blogger surprises you with a fabulous finished object – beautifully knit, modeled and photographed?  I like both, myself, but I can see where my droning on about a brown sweater might be boring, at least until I get to the fair isle part! 

See?  This is what happens when I go so long between real posts.  I talk and talk and talk and talk…

 

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