Fiber Fool

Well, I bound off the last stitch on my FLS on Saturday, exactly two weeks from the last cast-on. Not shabby for a plus sized sweater! It is now about 75% dry I think. The beautiful buttons arrived from Cyndy as well, but I’ll wait to show you how great they are until I can show you on the sweater. She also shared some seeds with me. It has me already anxiously awaiting spring when the first flake of snow hasn’t even fallen, LOL!

But before the spring arrives I have sweaters to look forward to. Now that FLS is off the needles I find myself dreaming of the next sweater. Yes, you heard me right. There will be another sweater hitting the needles here at casa Schueler. I’m hooked. Even though I have design work I’m going to try have a sweater on the needles most of the winter so that I have something to knit on that isn’t work and is at a different gauge than I design with most of the time. I’m at a quandry though. I have three different yarns that I have sweater amounts of and I can’t decide which yarn I want to cast on with next nor which pattern I want to use with each yarn.

The options:
I have 26 skeins of this lovely olive green yarn. It’s Brown Sheep Prairie Silks (discontinued) in Jeweled Moss and equals roughly 2288 yds with access to roughly an additional 400 yds from Ashley who has already knit up her share of the carton she and Hannah I almost bought up on our 2007 spring break road trip. Under consideration is Wisteria (ravelry) and Cable Spiral Pullover from Knitting Nature (which actually calls for DK weight so some mods and calculations would be required) but I already own the book.

This is some Interlacements Peru (wool/alpaca blend) that Amanda gave me. I have three hanks which equals 1500 yds and it’s a heavy worsted. I know this one requires something simple as the colors are riotous, but me :-) I’m thinking a basic top-down raglan, probably with a v-neck of some variety (using Knitting from the Top as my guide). This would be a semi-design project however, not quite a no brainer. Though I could likely be a no-brainer before too long. Then again, I think about it being a fairly heavy yarn with a high alpaca content and I wonder if that would get too warm and perhaps I should consider some form of simple cardigan. But more often than not, in the winter I tend to be on the chilly side. I’m open to other options for this yarn. Perhaps something modular?

This is two skeins of Textiles a Mano La Paz and equals roughly 1600 yds of DK/light worsted weight merino yarn. I originally bought it to knit a saddle shouldered split-neck vest-like pullover that was in the Winter Knit Simple last year. I’m not certain that pattern is talking to me any longer and I can’t share it with you as it isn’t entered at Ravelry. I do think I could do the Turbulence U Neck from Knitting Nature or Sidelines from the Fall IK.

I do have two other yarns in sweater amounts with known patterns and those would be on the table to cast-on too I guess…

The blue on the left I bought on the last trip to Brown Sheep back in August. I bought it specifically to knit Gathered Pullover from the Winter 2007 IK. I’m still struggling with what size and or mods I might need to do to that one. I’m not sure how to take the measurements on the schematic and how much ease will be right. The natural colored one on the right I bought to knit Gerbera from a 2002 Dale booklet (the one with the famous Ingeborg). Some mods would also likely be required for that pattern, but possibly my gauge with the Harrisville yarn would automatically make most of them. I’m not certain as I haven’t swatched yet, but it is a worsted and the pattern calls for a DK.

Please take a minute to vote on what you think I should cast on. If you wish, leave additional pattern suggestions for any of the yarns (except the Top of the Lamb) in the comments.

Pattern: Decarhombi (deck-ah-ROM-bye) (on Ravelry)
Designer: Myself
Yarn: Just over 4 skeins (to keep color changes between skeins smooth, if you didn’t care about it and did leather handles as I did 4 skeins should do it) of Plymouth Yarns Boku; 95% Wool, 5% Silk; 99 yds per 1.75 oz skien; color 4 (green, purple, rust)
Needles: US 11 (8.0mm)
Size: Ginormous pre-felting; 12 X 12 X 8.5 inches post-felting
Handles: Grayson E Large Rolled Leather in Buckskin (Olive looked good too)

When I first proposed the Mitered Diamond Bag that appeared in the IK Felt 2008 recently I also proposed this version. The overall shape is basically the same, but the construction is different. Two different sized squares are used to create the bag without any seaming required! It takes ten squares to make the bag, hence the name of deca (ten) rhombi (plural of rhombus which a square is).

Using an ombre striping yarn highlights the construction of the bag, yet softens it’s angles with a watercolor feel. The Boku that I used felted very fuzzily (almost like Lamb’s Pride) which further blurred the lines of the striping. I may yet shave it though as I find overly fuzzy bags pill and cause my clothes I’m wearing to pill as well. The silk content did cause a tiny bit of stitch definition to remain. I’ll see how it goes for a bit first. There are many other yarn options on the market currently in varying price ranges. Noro Kuryeon or Silk Garden would be lovely as would SWTC’s Karaoke or Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes).

A more mod and angular look could be achieved by doing your own striping sequences (perhaps with the aid of the stripe generator or the random number generator) with feltable worsted weight scraps. If I weren’t tired of US 11 needles and hadn’t recently added things to an already moderately full design calendar I think I’d be jumping on that.

Perhaps a smaller version using the leftovers from my Manos Mitered Diamond? That would be fun! I could try out the double i-cord option for a bit wider and flatter handle too. It’ll have to go in the queue. While it seems large, I actually knit this original one in under a week so it might be a good thing to have on the list for when I’m dying for a “me” project that is a semi-quick project.

On Monday, my usual afternoon knitting group got together for a day of food, celebration and wet felting. It was the first time for all of us to try wet felting and I think several of us were sold on the technique. At least those of who made a scarf in the morning and a scarf in the afternoon.

Sheila, the hostess, was so busy being a phenomenal hostess that she didn’t get around to making any. Though her plan was to do it herself much of yesterday. I hope she did!

Everyone took different approaches and the scarves all look great. My first one I want to wet again and work widthwise so it’ll shrink in width a bit more and solidify the fabric just a bit more. I wanted good drape and went awfully thin and I feel it is a tad precarious. The second one I haven’t photographed yet. But I’ll be sure to share it before it finds a new home.

Amongst the group there were several copies of Felt Frenzy being used for reference. I also purchased Uniquely Felt which seems to me like the bible of felting. It covers wet felting flat, wet felting dimensionally, nuno and much more. I also found the projects in it to be a bit more arty and less cute. Either way, if you’re a spinner and already have fibers stashed I highly encourage giving it a try. I found it to be a great way to use up stash that I no longer love because I’m only working on it for a limited time and not over weeks of spinning and knitting.

Well, I did manage to complete the body in one week. I did make a couple mods. At lace repeat 9 I switched to a larger needle to give me just a tad more ease through the hips/tummy area. It isn’t terribly noticeable, though I expect it to show up a bit more after washing and blocking. Because of that and the fact that I’m pretty severely short waisted I got away with only 18 repeats of lace. I also did my bottom garter a tad longer so it was a closer match to the width of my band on the fronts. Right now it is about 22 inches long if I recall correctly, but pretty much everyone had growth upon washing. 22 inches in a swing cardi isn’t bad for me so if I don’t get any or only minimal growth I’ll be okay, but if it grows an inch or two I’ll also be okay.

Now to pick buttons! I love squares and the color of the square option looks really good. Other opinions are to go with the round. I like the idea that the square goes well with the angular lines of the sweater - the raglan increases and the squarish neckline and the diagonals of the lace pattern. Thoughts?

Friday hit and I unexpectedly had nothing with a tight deadline on the to-do list so I declared it a “me” weekend. I started a February Lady Sweater. I spent the majority of my free time on Friday and Saturday reading through the KAL discussions on Ravelry trying to decide what size to knit. I did start on Friday, but decided I needed to frog and restart with the other size after Saturday’s forum readings. So, what you see above was started on Saturday evening. Photos were taken late afternoon on Wednesday. If the yardage is right I’m at about 35% completion - just a bit into my third ball of Cascade 220 Heathers.

This pattern is quite easy to knit. Even the lace is doable after a few repeats to knit while watching TV or chatting while KIPing. I am sooo excited to have a finished sweater to wear this fall and to be knitting on something with no deadline (though that has me so excited to knit on it I’m sure I’ll set a personal best on this one).

I also have sent off a swatch to Cyndy so we can be sure the buttons options she photographed for me will fit through my buttonholes and I can see the buttons on the swatch to better judge which color works best with my yarn. I’m sure her buttons will be the icing on the cake for this sweater.

The best part about this project is that it is not secret! I can share it! :-)