A Sweater by Any Other Name …

A sweater is like life, you get nothing out of it that you don’t put into it.

~ Marilyn Monroe

That pretty much sums up this sweater. It was a (cliché, I know) labour of love. I found spinning the yarn for it took longer than I’d expected and the knitting of said sweater was intense. Again, when I look back at how long this actually took from start to finish, it was really fast. I have quite a bit of yarn left over and I’m not completely sure what my finished yardage of this yarn actually was in the end. The fibre was a local-to-me crossbreed that I blogged about here and my Ravelry Handspun page is here. This is a photo of some of the handspun yarn itself:

As I cast off the last sleeve on a Sunday morning back in October (yes, it’s taken me until now to write this post), I thought about the speed as which this project came together. I have usually been a pretty monogamous knitter and this project helped prove that point: I can accomplish big projects relatively quickly my focusing on one or two projects. That said, it still feels as if it’s been a long time! I started spinning on my husband’s birthday, June 12th and cast off October 16th.

The hand of the yarn is firm – I spun it tightly and with a significant amount of ply twist. It’s bouncy but as a knitted fabric, it is slightly firm. When I washed it, the sleeves fulled slightly and shortened, which I was disappointed by – I had intentionally knit them longer since I love snuggly sleeves. Since this is the second time this has happened, I’m going to start washing my woollens in only cold water. The finished fabric looks a bit fulled and when it was almost dry, I hauled it on over my head just in case it was in fact felted and unwearable. I wanted to know immediately so that I could have a good cry and think about what I was going to do. Thankfully, it’s only fulled slightly and the overall sweater is intact. Thank goodness.

Pattern :: Lemongrass by Joji Locatelli

Handspun :: Birkeland Bros Crossbreed; woollen-spun 3-ply, project page here

Needles :: 5.00mm for body & sleeves, 4.5mm for all ribbing

Modifications :: Mock turtleneck (~3” long), lengthened body to ~18” for front & 19” for back

I don’t know how I feel about the actual fit of the sweater itself. It’s not a super flattering fit on most people and I knew this going into it.

I chose this pattern because I tend to get really hot in many of my cardigans so I thought more of a poncho-style might help with layers beneath my rain coat but give me some breathing room. Only time will tell and I’m curious about how much this will get worn since it feels a bit odd on – I kept checking the sides to make sure they were still there … Very weird! I’m happy with the sweater overall, though, and I’m looking forward to wearing it on some of our long walks locally this winter. I’m almost tempted to add a couple more buttons to each side to cinch it in a bit more but we will see.

Until next time,

-r.