Close Up For Nicole

Here's the close up of the lace pattern on the border of the Lace Edged Denim Sweater, Nicole. Sorry it isn't a better picture. It's so dark (darker than this picture portrays) that the camera has difficulty picking up the details.

Quick, Blurry and Poorly Posed

I'm dashing out the door to spend the day at Fibrefest but just had to show you this.



I finished the sewing up of the Lace Edged Denim Sweater this morning. It fits, it's comfy, and I love it.

Made of handspun 2 ply superwash merino (17 - 18 WPI).

Unfortunately it likely won't see much wear until next fall.

Wool Watching

Watching wool dry.



I got to a point in the Lace Trimmed Denim Sweater where I had to knit to "x # of inches" before doing the underarm decreases. Normally I'd just keep knitting until I reached that measurement. BUT, to improve the look and drape of the handspun I've been knitting the pieces slightly smaller and blocking them to size. When asked to knit to a certain length, I could go by the rows per inch measurement --- but that isn't necessarily the same over the lace portion as it is over the main, stockinette section. Soooooo, I'm blocking what I've knit so far to the correct width, measuring the length so far, and then doing a calculation based on rows per inch over stockinette to figure out how many rows to knit before doing the underarm shaping.

Which leaves me watching wool dry.

One Skein Knitted Up

From the first two bobbins of Superwash Merino I made 2 skeins of 2 ply at an average of 17 WPI. That marks it as a "fingering weight", but in actual use I found I liked the way it draped when knit up a little looser and I have had this pattern kicking around for a while looking for the perfect yarn. It's supposed to be knit in a DK weight cotton yarn. I find the handspun merino looks perfect and drapes beautifully.



The photo shows how far I was able to go with the first skein, which was the smaller of the two.

The beginning of the second sleeve is looking a little rumpled in the picture as it has not yet been blocked. I have the lower part of the first sleeve blocked because I was concerned about my gauge and wanted to double check before I continued. Blocking improved the knitting a great deal. It made the handspun look more smooth and regular, it opened up the lace some, and it greatly improved the drape.

I'm really enjoying this project. It looks way prettier in person than it does in these rather low light photos.