And She Knits Too!

It's Rhinebeck Sweater Time

Unlike last year's whole bunch of crazy, I opted for a relatively easy knit to premiere at Rhinebeck.  It's Dahlia from the Fall 2011 Interweave; one of those love at first sight, omg I have to knit it right now sort of sweaters.

I'm using stashed Lavold Silky Wool Tweed and while it's thicker than the called-for yarn, it's drapey and soft and tweed and yummy.  I'm very pleased with the work in progress.

The sweater has an interesting construction which I didn't quite understand at the beginning.  You start with the centre back motif knit in the round, then build in pieces to make it a big rectangle with sleeves.

Once it clicked, it all made sense, but looking at it now, I might have done it differently to avoid the seams that attach the lace motif to the top and bottom back of the sweater.

I have no issue with seaming, I just don't like having a seam where both ends are closed because if my gauge is off on one of the two pieces, it's rather difficult to fix without ripping a whole lot of rows (95 long ones to be exact).  I suspect the miracle that is blocking will make this all work out though.  

The pink lines are waste yarn--they mark the afterthought-armholes.  Very clever.  Once I'm done the left front (you may notice the sweater is just a rectangle) I will seam and block to ensure it's the right sized rectangle before I start doing the sleeves.  

I notice Rhinbeck is approaching rather quickly; I need to keep knitting, knitting knitting.

Vacation weaving

I spent the last week at home, off work, being deliciously lazy with the kids. I felt a bit bad about not getting a lot accomplished but cut myself some slack; it's a holiday, and I don't need to be productive every. Minute. Of. The. Day. And yet, I did get something done. On a whim, I took out my neglected rigid heddle loom, pulled out some yarn and got it warped. A couple of days later, with minimal effort, I had a nice little scarf.

The warp: Dream in Colour Shiny (it has sparkles). The weft: handspun given to me by my pal Laura.

I tried a float pattern for the first time. I don't think I did the right thing on the edges though. But I bet you can't see it.

I think it's a bit bright for me, but Emma is already eyeing it.  Or I could say I was very productive this vacation and put it aside for a Christmas present.