jenwren's blog

Taking a week off from all school work was a very good move. I have about a third of a new pullover - one of the three big projects I mentioned in my last post. The pullover is based on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan from Interweave Knits (Fall 2007). The idea of making it a pullover is not mine - I saw a few done this way in Ravelry and had to do it too. I've done a yarn substitution - Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed instead of Rowan Felted Tweed. I love this Jo Sharp yarn. I have a well worn cardigan I made in this yarn about five years ago (pre-blog) in the Paper Rose colour (a button popped off it this morning - I'm hoping I kept a spare since I lost it while I was out and don't hold any hope of finding it) and a scarf in the Cocoa colour. This time I'm using Peppercorn, which is a charcoal black. It was difficult to obtain enough balls of this yarn from the one dyelot. I ended up having to order it in at the Hornsby Wool and Craft Nook. I'm starting to think I may have bought too much, but that is far better than too little.



As well as the yarn substitution, I fall exactly half-way between sizes. The sizes are four inches different in the bust measurement (because of the repeats in the cabled yoke). I was hoping after knitting a gauge swatch, that I might find that knitting a half-size down would give me the actual size I want. No such luck. And the gauge swatch grew a lot on being washed (this was no huge surprise, as I say I 've worked with this yarn before). So I worked out the number of stitches needed to make it my size for the body and arms (since the stitch pattern there isn't a problem) and calculated what number of stitches I'd have when I reached the yoke and the all-important cable pattern. Believe it or not, the number I arrived at was exactly the number for one-and-a-half sizes down. No further tweaking necessary. So now all I am stressing about is that the gauge swatch had better not have lied, because I won't know if the pullover will fit until it is finished and hits the water. Eeek! So far it is exactly the size the swatch said it would be pre-washing.



It's amazing how much knitting I can do when I'm not working! But that's not all I have been doing. I have had my spinning wheel out for the first time since last December and have nearly finished spinning the singles of the hand-dyed merino I bought last October.



The Passionfruit socks project is being completely ignored. I don't need another pair of new socks just now, and I'm enjoying doing bigger things.

All I seem to be doing today is visiting the frog pond. I started the first sleeve of the Tangled Yoke Pullover a few days ago, and finally had to admit defeat this morning and frog it. My gauge on 3.75 mm DPNs is looser than on 3.75 mm Addi Lace Turbos. Not a little different, a lot different. Bugger. I shall start the sleeves again on 3.25 mm DPNs and keep my fingers crossed.

I finished spinning the singles of the hand-dyed merino and taught myself to navajo ply using this You Tube video and some left over silk hankie singles. After the silk (which I now like better than the two ply yarn I made from it before) I finished spinning the rest of a small sample amount (c. 20 g) of natural brown merino into singles and then navajo plied that. Yummy!



I thought it came out a little overspun, but it relaxed after a soak and is nice and soft and about 3-4 ply equivalent. I think there's enough there for a little pair of baby socks. Then came the hand-dyed merino. I think I overspun that even more than the natural brown stuff, but I'm still pretty happy with it.



I began knitting the pattern I intended to make this yarn into - the Multidirectional Scarf, but it is a case of right sort of colour variegation, not enough yarn.



So frogged it is, and I think it is just crying out to be socks instead. I'm listening, but it shall have to ruminate in the stash until I have time for more sock knitting. I must get back to the sleeve of the jumper.

The first sleeve of the Tangled Yoke Pullover is complete and I have cast on the second. Here's a really bad photo (no decent natural light) showing how it is going:



It's back to school tomorrow - first time in four weeks thanks to the cold/chest-infection-that-would-not-die. The cold is finally much better and I even went for a swim today (also first time in four weeks). Hopefully I'll still make progress on the pullover, and I'm also spinning some Optim fibre I bought way back in May 2006 at Wool Expo in Armidale. I can't promise I'll blog quite as much during term, but I will try.