FO Friday- 0-18 months

Not the sizing, how long it took to make.

 

Last year I had the bright idea that I should spin and knit for a sweater (maybe not so bright). I ordered some Shetland and silk blend for the project. 

 

 

OK, not all of that was for the sweater, there is other stuff in there too. There was 800g for the project. 400g was dyed in dark blue, 400g in a lighter blue with the intention of making something stripy.

 

 

The contrast between the two blues was not enough to make clear stripes, so just 400g for a sweater, with the darker blue saved for another project.

 

I spun thin singles. This took a long time. A really long time! Part of it was done during the Ravellenic games, the rest was done whenever I fancied some spinning.

 

 

Two of the three bobbins. 

 

Testing to see if should be three or four ply- Three ply, commercial, four ply. I went with three ply.

The yarn was plied, maybe the fastest part of this project!

Then the knitting began. I don't seem to have any in progress photos of this.

 

Please excuse the silly face and the chopped off head. You can see my blue hair streak though, it was meant to be purple and has since been re-dyed.

 

Pattern: Thermal by Laura Chau

Yarn: Handspun 3-ply using Shetland/silk fibre (4-ply/fingering weight).

Needles: 3.5mm

 

It was long knit, 4 ply does not work up very fast, especially when you are working a waffle pattern.

 

The body was worked in the round from the bottom up, then worked flat from the underarms. A few extra repeats were added to the body to make it longer. As written it would be really short.

 

The pattern instructions have the sleeves worked flat but I converted them to picking up stitches and worked from the top down. It took a while for me to sort out the method. Then the first attempt was way too big. A few weeks in time out and I was ready to try again. Picking up one stitch for every two gave a much better result (instructions here).

 

I also sewed the button placket closed, the neck line is pretty low so it does not need to open.

 

Very pleased with the finished sweater. Even though it took a long time I could see making more handspun sweaters and more worked in 4 ply.