Extravayarnza

This year I've decided to join in for NaKniSweMo.
I'm not taking it quite to the extent of calculating the number of stitches in my sweater and am honestly do this more in the spirit of the knit along (although I did a rough estimate of stitches in my chosen project based on gauge and such and came up with well over 70,000 so I think I'm safe). Basically I'm knitting a sweater in November. Well, November plus one extra day. I just couldn't stop myself from starting today.

This will be my most challenging sweater so far this Fall. Both because of it's size (knee length with a large shawl collar) and because of a few fun but technically challenging details.

In keeping with the theme of the newsletter I sent out to the Rae's Yarn Boutique mailing list about how to choose a sweater pattern I think I'd like to talk a bit about why I chose this sweater to knit.

A couple of years ago I found a knee length navy blue cotton cardigan that looks just fabulous on me. Now, I've always been told that I shouldn't wear such things because of my height (thanks Clinton and Stacy), but I just love this cardigan. This Fall we got in a shop sample that's also a longer cardigan and again I tried it on and wore it around a bit and got tons of compliments.
Perhaps with the right length & the correct fit even short people can wear long sweaters? I have been keeping my eyes out for a pattern for a long cardigan for a while now. I wanted something with a very open neckline, probably a v-neck, fitted shaping in the waist, and out of a thinner yarn so it wouldn't weigh too much.

Enter the Brennan Cardigan. Worsted weight, deep v-neck with an interesting collar, and has both waist shaping and cool diagonal ribbing on the sides to help emphasize my curves. I really just love everything about this pattern! (total bonus that it's based on one of my favorite tv characters...)

Another nice thing about this pattern is that one of the sizes was for a 38" chest. I find that to be the perfect size for a sweater for me. Sometimes I'll knit a cardi at 40" but only if I intend it as a serious outer layer (i.e. wearing another sweater under it, like my Rogue Hoodie). I plan on wearing t-shirts under this sweater, so anything bigger than a 38" would have looked loose and sloppy.

I know right off the bat that I'm shortening both the length of the body and the sleeves by 2". I really want this to hit me about an inch above my knees.

As for the yarn... Well, I know from experience that as much as I love washable Merino's I wanted something lighter and sturdier for this sweater. I also wanted a multi ply rather than a single ply because I'm planning on wearing this as a layer and didn't want it to shed all over my other clothes. For a while I bounced back and forth between some fabulous Paton's Merino I had in Burgundy and Nature Wool. Nature Wool won partially because the Paton's I had was cursed (seriously has failed in over a half dozen projects) and because I was 2 balls short and the new dyelot is very different. Any ways once I swatched the Nature Wool I knew it was the right yarn for the project. It's a little thinner and a lot lighter feeling than the Merino plus the subtle variegation will be flattering in this design.

However that variegation made me make one more adjustment before casting-on. I decided to work from two balls at a time to try and make the sweater blend better. Nature Wool is kettle dyed and each skein in totally different. Although I don't think it will pool I do think changing balls will be very visible. Simply working from 2 balls (alternating every 2 rows) should blend the balls better. Plus 1 of the balls I started with was used in my gauge swatches so that should help stagger when the balls run out to help stagger the color changes even more.

I hope all that made sense!

You might not be hearing from me much this week. Camelot is in town, so I'm working at Wharton Center in the evenings as a seamstress. Plus during the shows I'm dressing one of the leads, Lancelot, luckily my actor is very calm and sweet (plus pretty easy on the eyes). This week should be pretty full, but not too stressful.