Part 1
As it happens, I came up with... another sweater. I know, I know. But what can I do.
It all started with me going to Ireland this past July and falling in love. I only spent a week there, but it made no difference.
One of the days I was walking along the northern shore of Inishmore. Stones, sparse grasses, northern gannets, and donkeys – everything made me feel more alive and present than I've been for a long while.
At a point, I came across brambles growing who knows how in between grey stones. I though then that I would love to have a sweater about it.
But I though I wouldn't be able to find the colours that fit.
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Last month, I finished spinning my first 50-ish grams of a very pleasantly pink yarn. It took me about half a year: first, I was trying to spin with a regular top-whorl spindle, and was kinda meh about the whole process.
But then I got a very cute, rather small, and most comfortable in work Turkish spindle. And it was what made all the difference.
This one is much easier to pick up. It's compact and quick and lightweight and a pleasure to work with.
And then it took me about 3 days to spin another 50 grams of a really nice grey merino.
And then it hit me. The pink, together with the newly spun grey, and with some green roving that I have are almost exactly the bramble colours that I was thinking about.
I haven't revisited Inishmore yet. But I miss it like I've never missed any home I've had.
So I'll be spinning all of it up and making the first sweater I already know the name of.
Part 2
I then started working on the spin, which is finally done and ready for swatching!
Here's the full ~450 grams of mostly pure merino.
The grey and green ones I got from YaraFibers on Etsy, and the pink one is a silk-merino blend from Ashford that I got in Dublin last July.
I've already given them a bath, and then yesterday evening I asked my wife to help me thwack them, which she did.
They are now all dry and ready.
I did overply the green ones, but it's okay, I have a plan already to untwist them a bit while winding the balls.
I now have a bit of a vague plan for the jumper:
It's knit in the round bottom up, and then body and sleeves joined.
The main body is grey, with some intricate cables on the back.
Green cables where the side seams usually are, and on the sleeves, where the seam usually is. And the cables are joined to make it look like a single cable running from the cuff to the bottom hem of the sweater.
Then, after joining body and sleeves, I think of starting to add bits of green color, intensify it slowly and then switch to the green completely while continuing the cable on the back.
As for the pink – the plan now is to add i-cord in the pink to both cuffs, bottom hem, and neck, and also have random pink splotches start start appearing closer to the green. Not sure if I want to add enough pink to be able to strand it, but if I don't, then I'll duplicate stitch it on top of the knitting once I'm done.
So now the plan is to wind all the yarn, make a swatch, find the cable patter I like, and go from there.
Part 3
As planned, yesterday I made a swatch for the bramble of Aran sweater.
I ended up using 4mm needles an I think I'll stick with them.
Numbers so that I don't forget:
10 cm stockinette = 24 sts
10 sm cable = 42 sts
The body should be 300 sts in circumference:
120 sts for the front
21 st for each green cable on the side
42 sts for the grey cable on the back
48 sts for each half of the back
As for the sleeves, my arm is:
15 cm at the wrist
25 cm later, 26 cm at the elbow
19 cm later, 34 cm at the upper arm
So for the sleeves I need to start with 36 sts of stockinette and 21 st for the cable and increase a stitch every 1 sm (which is 3 rows according to the gauge). In this case, there will be 2 increases left, which I'll add probably at the very beginning and the very end of the sleeve. Increases should be alternate between the left and right edge of the inner sleeve cable (there will be 2 cables total).
I think I'll start with the sleeves. On the one hand, I have ~ 300 g of grey yarn, which will take up most of the sweater. On the other, that's all I have and I'm not sure I can get more (the store might still have the fiber, but it also might not). And cables usually take a lot of yarn.
So I'm a bit worried if I have enough yarn at all, but a fully cables sweater I make a year and a half ago took about 700 g of yarn total, so I think I'm safe.
We'll see!
Part 4
Went to Ireland for three weeks, this time with my wife.
And even though I didn't do much, I did finish both sleeves for the sweater. As it usually happens, after I finished the first sleeve, I unravelled it completely.
Here's the result though.
I did some things differently thank planned, and for the first 15 rows didn't do any increases.
The rest is exactly as I counted before:
started with 36 sts of stockinette (plus the cable)
increased 1 sts every 3 rows. I did increases on both sides of the green cable so that the sleeves are balanced
At some point I started thinking that placing the cables on the underarm and joining them with the cables on the body isn't a great idea because then two layers of rather thick fabric would basically be in the armpit. But first of all, I'm not putting underarm in the armpit. And second, as my wife noticed, there are thick sweaters, and it doesn't stop them from being comfortable everywhere, including under arms.
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What didn't go as planned is the amount of yarn that I have.
I realized that after I was halfway through the first sleeve. I used about 100g of the grey for both sleeves, and after knitting about 14 cm of the body, I used another 100
So I did order more fibre: 200 g of the grey and 100 g of the green. This should (!) be enough, and I'm not worried now about the grey, but not sure about the green. I'll be done with the original 100 g by the time I finish the body cables.
On the other hand, stockinette does require less yarn than cables, so I should be alright.
Already started spinning the new batch!
Part 5
Last time I said I started spinning on the rest of the fiber for the Bramble of Aran jumper. Yesterday, I finished plying.
It was a lot to do within a rather short period of time. The previous batch (450g) I started in February and finished in April. The new 300 g I finished in just over a month, and my fingers hurt!
Most of my free time within the last 3 weeks I spent spinning (and the last week I spent plying).
Very proud of myself! But also rather tired and planning not to do any spinning for a while.
I now have to skein these, wash them, thwack them, and cake them, but it's just a few hours of work. So I can finally continue with the knitting!
Knitting progress is also progressing, but I've only been knitting once a week for the last month or so, during the weekly meet'n'knit. So I have about 23 cm of the body.
The grey basket section is middle-back, and the green sections are on the sides.
I think I'll be able to finish knitting the whole jumper in July.
But also I'm unsure about the fit. At the moment, the front is a bit wider than the back. Which I'm not sure I love.
So my plan is to finish the jumper, try it on, and if I don't like the front fit, I'll steek it and sew the two parts together and cover the seam with an i-cord. I'm planning to use pink i-cord anyway for the cuffs, the bottom, and the neckline. So I think it could be cute. Or it could be monstrous. We'll see!
Part 6
Some progress has been progressing!
I've joined the sleeves and now there's only yoke left to do.
However, in order to proceed, I have to math, and I'm not sure my brain is up to it rn.
I will of course do some research and maybe take a look at the patterns I already have, but I suspect that from here the progress will be somewhat slower (until I figure it out).
Also I had some issues with the underarm join.
I wanted the sleeve cable to join the body cable seamlessly. I tried it a few different ways, but in the end wasn't able to wrap my head around it. Here's what I decided to go on with
If you don't know what to look for, I'm not sure it would even be noticeable. So, I've decided, it's good enough.
I might at some point in the future try to solve this puzzle, but it would require noodling around with separate cables, not the ones attached to a sweater.
On another note, I've realized I've been knitting a lot of stuff that requires insane amount of time and brain power. Every single thing is fingering-weight self-drafted and elaborate-as-fuck.
So I need a quick win really. But still something I will like and wear.
And I know just the thing.
Andrea Mowry has just published a new pattern, Framed.
It's a very cute colorwork jumper knit in worsted weight, and also rather cropped!
I've ordered yarn already (was planning to go to a local yarn store, but they were out of the yarn I was thinking of). I'm planning to use Malabrigo Rios, which I have used before and very much enjoyed.
So I really hope it's going to be a 2-3 week project that will recharge me and let me get more excited about my current WIPs again.
On another note #2, I've been accepter as a test knitter for Lydia Morrow's newest cardigan/jacket.
I'm now thinking of the color scheme, and at the moment I'm thinking of maybe colors of the lesbian pride flag?
Not sure yet, but will let you know!
The test knit runs till the beginning of October, but if I want to do the previous one and this one, there's no time to lose!