WolfWeave

but photos! First of all, the finished Juliet sweater, in all her glory (with modifications, as suggested by many Ravelry users and detailed on my Ravelry project page):

and the sleeve detail:

neck detail:

and crochet edging detail:

Please keep in mind that Miz Juliet, she is not yet washed nor blocked and her ends are not even woven in (just cleverly hidden for the photographs). I haven’t found appropriate buttons for her yet either. But I do think that the crochet edging adds just the right touch to the design, in addition to pulling the neckline in to where I wanted it and pulling the front of the sweater together a little more.

So, now that Juliet is almost finished, what am I working on, you ask? Well, I seem to have jumped on the next bandwagon and am now knitting the February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne of Flint Knits, a free pattern (also available as a free download on Ravelry) that is based on an Elizabeth Zimmerman baby sweater pattern. I am using Schaefer Yarns Laurel, a pima cotton cable yarn in the Frida Kahlo colorway:

My progress so far:

(the color in the first photo is much more true to life)

I must note that in between the two sweaters there was a brief flirtation with Berroco’s Orleans, knit in Naturlin, their linen/rayon blend, which I purchased in Indigo. After 1 week of hard work, I had only completed 10 rows on the back (size 6 needles). The yarn is very splitty and the color made the stitches so hard to see that I had to work with a white towel on my lap and concentrate on each and every stitch, despite using my new Signature needles with their super-pointy tips. The lace pattern was easy and the rest of the sweater is just stockinette stitch but I soon began to realize that summer would long be over before I finished this top, so I gave it up for another time.

I knew I’d been carrying around a small box of alpaca yarn with me since the 1980′s, yarn I’d originally ordered directly from Plymouth Yarn Company, with the idea of weaving a winter coat. But basically I’d forgotten all about it and had come to believe that the unobtrusive box in the back of the closet probably held fingering weight uninteresting beige alpaca on cones. Well, today I was digging around in the closet trying to find something else (that gadget that measures how much yarn you’re winding onto a ball—mine used to be used to measure how much warp yarn you were winding on but I never did find it) and came across the alpaca box. I took it out and opened it. And what did I find?

30 100 gram skeins of this:

and 18 100 gram skeins of this:

as well as the pattern for a contemporary “tamotsu” designer coat, Vogue #1440 (size 12, sigh). A closeup of the yarn label:

reveals it to be a worsted weight (4-ply) yarn that was still sold in a 50 gram ball size until it was discontinued in Fall, 2005. According to Yarndex, “Indiecita’s “4 Ply Worsted” is a very soft, fuzzy yarn primarily suitable for turtleneck sweaters and cardigans. Made from 100% Peruvian alpaca.” According to Yarndex, each of my skeins should have 204 yards. So, how many sweaters could I make with 9,792 yards?

the month of birthdays (mine, my brother’s, and friends’); the month of high school graduation—Congratulations to Ben, who will be going on to Brandeis next year; the month of Father’s Day—a sad one, the first without my father; the month when summer finally arrives—long, warm days and lazy nights; the month of my 40th high school reunion—here’s to seeing old friends again