Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Home is where the yarn is.

Remember how I said that in February I would start finishing up some WIPs? Well, apparently I'm not over the handspun obsession, because for some reason all I've wanted to knit is a baby sweater out of this girly Falkland wool that I spun up (Pipsqueak from FatCatKnits), even though there are no little girls expected among friends and family.

February-ish



So the other day I pulled out the swift and ball-winder and, luxury of luxuries, found a place to set them up. In our old house, there was nowhere to clamp them both, so I clamped the ball winder to a desk and would hold the swift in my left hand while I cranked the ball-winder in my right and if the slightest thing went wrong I'd have a big mess on my hands. I marveled a little bit at the beauty of the whole set-up while getting ready to knit.

I cast on for a modified EZ February baby sweater. It became clear early on that I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish, but I figured I could use that little skein of leftover singles that I had plied to crochet on a lacy little cap sleeve if I needed to, so I persisted. Unfortunately I ran out of yarn while casting off, and the little yellow yarn is a little thinner than the rest, so I decided that maybe the yarn just wanted to be something else after all.

Back to the ball-winder I went, and ripped the whole thing out. And as I was walking out of the kitchen, I saw something on the floor under the swift. Another skein of yarn. Half again the yardage of the first one. Apparently, I had more than a bobbin full of the plied yarn, and I had twisted the two skeins together into one hank, and then dropped one when putting it on the swift. (So that's what my "150 yds +80" notation on the tag meant!)

So I cast on for the little sweater again. Luckily, it goes pretty fast. This time, I went for a cardigan instead of a pullover, and did YOs for the increases to make cute little eyelet rows. Aww. And I think I even have enough yarn for sleeves!

6 comments:

Monika said...

This is very cute. I like FatCatKnits fiber, have a lot of it in my fiber stash. She's really good with colors.

Anonymous said...

Ain't that the way it goes! I'm glad you found the second skein to complete such rampant cuteness.

Bea said...

Very cute. Love that yarn.

Anonymous said...

So cute! I love your handspun!

Kristy said...

Wow, you had to knit it twice! I'm glad you found the other skein, though, because it looks really pretty :)

Anonymous said...

What an adorable sweater! Sorry you had to knit it twice but it lloks like it was worth it.