Yellow is not a color found much in my wardrobe, but this buttery shade goes with most of my shirts, and I'd been hankering for something new and exciting in the sweater drawer. Most of what's in there is dark, purchased by someone else (thanks Mom!), and not really my color. Also, they're all either too nice to wear around the kid, or too "well-loved" to wear in public. This yarn is 25% wool and 75% synthetic, so it should be able to handle more frequent washing. It's soft and snuggly and filled out nicely when I washed the swatch. When the sweater was finished it got a quick bath in the washing machine (agitated by hand); blocked overnight, and I sewed on the buttons during the men's gold hockey game... well before the !!!OVERTIME!!! as my husband says it.
It's just right for keeping the chill off. John loves to play with the big buttons, in fact he's been going around the house holding a plastic fried egg up to his chest to be his button. I found them at the Woolpack in Littleton. They're a yummy raspberry glazed onto a nutshell brown back, and the brown peeks around the edges in a way which stole my heart. The store stocks more than one color of these so you may see them again!
(Many thanks to my friend T. who took all these sweet photos!)
Speaking of the Woolpack, had I known they were offering a 10% discount for Ravelympics materials, I'd have bothered to tag the project and get the discount! Not so bad even without it. I used just a little over 6 balls of Universal Yarn's "Classic Chunky", at $5.75 a ball, and the buttons were $3 a piece, so $50 for a truly special sweater and almost an entire ball of yarn left over -- not bad. Not to mention the entertainment value (for yours truly anyway; husband doesn't get anything out of watching me knit). The full project details, including my mods, are up on Ravelry.
One final bit of information. While the sweater was blocking, and I was doing the dishes last Saturday night, a memory drifted into my mind. I'd been at the Woolpack, oh, probably a year ago, and the woman behind the counter was wearing a sober grey sweater with a really eye-catching design. She didn't know what the pattern was called, but she gets complimented on it every time she wears it. I eyeballed shamelessly while I paid for my things, and scratched out a sketch as soon as I got in the car:
That chicken scratch says "narrow rib", "purl st", "elbow length", and "pleat". Except for the pleat, I think it's the same damn sweater! Or close anyway; only one section of ribbing in the sketch.
So now I have something new to think about while doing the dishes: on a top-down sweater, how the heck would you introduce a pleat like that (without seaming)? Come back again soon, I'm figuring out a way. :)
That's lovely: congratulations!
Posted by: ccr in MA | March 03, 2010 at 05:59 PM