i make stuff

Cuddles the Sweater.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Cuddles the Sweater.

Pattern: Cadence pullover by Jordana Paige
Yarn: Plied Together 2-Ply, 630 yards heavy worsted weight
Fiber: FLUFF Fibers Merino/Cashmere/Silk in "Cuddles"
Knit by: Erin Walker

I didn't knit this sweater. But I want to share it with you because it's a very special labor of love, the combined work of three talented artists (why yes, that's me patting myself on my own back - I am one of the three). My very dear friend Erin, owner of the online yarn shop Eat. Sleep. Knit., knit this beautiful sweater from yarn I spun using FLUFF Fibers merino/cashmere/silk fiber, hand-dyed by my wonderful friend Jeanette.

How's that for a circle of handmade lovin'?!

This is the first time I've ever spun a sweater quantity of fiber, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be - in large part because Jeanette's fiber is so beautiful and soft and well-handled, it was a joy to work with. I spun 20 ounces of fiber into 5 skeins of yarn, and it took me about a week to do. The hardest part was maintaining consistency for that many skeins of yarn. Since the fiber was hand-dyed, and I wanted it to "match" as well as it could, I mixed it all up before spinning, so Erin would have a really blended effect, and I think that worked out in the end. Her sweater is just lovely, no? 

Here's what the fiber looked like when I got it (forgive the vaguely pink lighting, it was tough to photograph on a rainy Seattle day).

And here's what it looked like once I spun it up:

Sometimes it's hard to look at handspun and envision what it's going to be like knit up, and that's what has stopped me from spinning for a sweater for myself so far. But I think Erin did a great job choosing the right pattern for this yarn. It has a nice embellishment at the top that's not marred by the way handspun yarn stripes gently and naturally. All around, I think this is a beautiful project, from the dye job to the yarn to the knitting/wearing of the garment.

There will be owls.

Finally - an Owls sweater of my very own!

PATTERN: Owls by Kate Davies
NEEDLES: US 10 (6.0mm)
YARN: Cascade Eco Wool #8049 (Tarnish), 1.5 skeins

This sweater...what a win! It's been a sensation on Ravelry for so long, and I always admired it, but this fall really put me over the edge. Several of my girlfriends knit this sweater, which increased my admiration for it, and then at Rhinebeck I saw about 10 more of them floating around and knew I had to have one. I'm glad I cast on recently - somewhat on a whim - I was waiting on other sweater yarn and decided to go for it. It knit up SO quickly, as the yarn is pretty bulky and I was on big needles.

The sweater is written at a gauge of 3.25 stitches per inch, and I had 4 stitches per inch, so I knew some modification was going to be in my future. In the end, I changed a LOT of the numbers to make the sweater work for me. It's written sort of small, and so I started out making the largest size, a 44" if you're at the right gauge, which I wasn't - I would have ended up with about a 36" sweater. Trouble is, it was going to be great on my (super wide) hips, but too big up top - so I ended up starting out with the largest size, then decreasing down further for the waist and working the top half of the sweater and the sleeves a size down. In the end, my sweater is about 34" around the bust, perhaps even a little smaller, so it has a little negative ease. It's PERFECT. I think it's super-flattering, which surprised me, given that the yarn is bulkier. LOVE!

In the original, all of the owls have button-eyes, all the way around the sweater. I decided that was too twee for me, but I didn't want to go totally eye-less. So I gave one wee little owl a pair of eyes. Jay helped me pick them, and the buttons are very small and subtle. 

I'm so pleased with this sweater. It's not a hard pattern, but I love that I'm becoming comfortable enough with my knitting to begin to read a pattern and see how it might not work for me and then modify it accordingly. At least, this is true with seamless sweaters - I'm still something of a novice with sweaters knit in pieces, so I'll have to tackle that a bit. And sure enough, my next two sweaters are going to be seamed. I hate seaming, so this will be a challenge. Stay tuned!

A word about the yarn - Cascade Eco is a wonderful yarn for a very low price. It's really quite nice Peruvian wool. It's a bit itchy, if you're wool-sensitive. Not everyone would enjoy wearing this next to the skin. I like wool, and with a tee-shirt under it I was fine. Not sure I could have gone without, but really - who would want to? Anyway, I would definitely knit with this yarn again - it's pretty soft to the touch and the stitches look great - plus it comes in a lot of lovely natural shades.