Tuesday, February 11, 2014

A Sweater Update...Finally

It appears that once again I have not posted in quite some time.  The last time was such a pain that I haven't had the patience to deal with blogger's problem with my Surface.  The two don't speak the same language... or something along those lines. 

My Surface RT only allows me to use Explorer as a browser and Blogger doesn't like the Explorer version I'm using... therefore when I type it doesn't exactly keep up.  I'm impatient and don't want to wait on it.  The problem is a painful process of waiting until what I type to show up so I can continue.  Enough about all that... need to get to the finished items.

Lots of stuff has been on the needles and finished...3 hats, a wrap, a cowl and a sweater since my last updated back in December.  Yeah!  I have been on a roll with a few quick knits I wanted for our winter trip.  Good thing since we've three days of negative 20 or more.  In fact Bozeman broke a record last week of minus 32 degrees... now that's cold.  All week Big Bang's Sheldon Cooper's voice has been in my head  with "That is a bracing cold, an invigorating cold. Lord, is it cold ... "

My last project completed for 2013 was a sweater.  The sweater pattern has been in the queue since I saw it at the Powhatan Fiber Festival back in April.  It had cables and that is all it usually takes to get my attention.  I ordered the pattern and it sat in my To Do Folder until I discovered Plucky Yarns.

I have mentioned my love of Plucky few times.  I even flashed the Plucky stash to a few people.  In October I ordered my first sweater quantity (SQ) of Plucky Worsted.  It was chosen specifically to be knit into this sweater.  As luck would have it the yarn used by the designer happened to be Plucky...the first time I have used the exact yarn listed in the pattern. 

As soon as the yarn arrived I cast on.   Let me say that the Worsted is as soft and scrumptious as the Fingering weight.  Wonderful stitch definition and little to no pilling as I handled the yarn.  I may never buy another skein of anything else. 

The pattern is written as a top down sweater which I do not usually knit.  I enjoy putting the pieces together and the sweater usually fits better.  The designer of this particular pattern incorporated the ease into her pattern and the overall fit is very nice.  One area that I may revisit would be the button bands.  I placed the button holes a bit too low and may redo the section after I see how it wears.  I still have plenty of leftover yarn to play with so I'll stew on it a coupled of days or so.  It has quickly became my new favorite sweater.

Details:

Pattern:  Dark and Stormy by Thea Colman; 
 


Yarn:  Primo Worsted by The Plucky Knitter;  Worsted /10 ply, 75% Merino, 20% Cashmere, 5% Nylon,  200 yards / 105 grams.   I used the colorway called Route 2...which was a nice mix of light to dark grays.  I ended up with most of my last skein  leftover...~100 grams if I combine a bit of skein 6 with the reminents of skein 7 which is enough to do a 'matching' hat.

Needles:  US 7, Addis Clicks

Gauge:  5 stitches and 7 rows = 1 inch of stockinette stitch

Modifications:  I alternated 2 skeins of yarn as I knit this one due to the variations present from skein to skein.  I certainly did not want to have any weird  color pooling occurring as I progressed.  I made the decision to break into my 7th skein for the sleeves since I wanted to continue alternating the skeins and could not be sure I had enough to complete both sleeves.  As it turned out I probably did have just enough, but at least I wasn't sweating it out as I knit.

I went with 4 buttons, but the placement isn't ideal so I may need to revisit** the bands in a few days.  Overall this one is a terrific pattern with the designer providing clear instructions...even a good number of modifications and other helpful advice.

**yeah the button bands drove me right over the edge as I started taking the final pictures of the "completed" sweater.  The buttons flat out looked wrong so I frogged it back to the button holes and reknit.  Happy that I did since it now looks normal.  The first button is right were it is supposed to have been all along.  Love this sweater...

No comments: