So. Almost a month after the self-imposed deadline for Nerd Wars and BSGFPB, I present a finished sweater. It’s Coraline (link), by Ysolda Teague, in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool (link). It fits me perfectly. I love the color. I’m glad I was able to use some reclaimed buttons. It’s sort of itchy.
That’s the basic summary. In construction news, I knit the 34″ size, since after blocking my swatch grew pretty considerably. Had I blocked my sweater as rigorously as I did my swatch, it likely would have been about 40″ at the bust. Instead, it’s a comfortably snug 36″, and I have decided that I think 3″ negative ease is really my magic number. At least in things that don’t have to close directly over the widest part of my chest. I also shortened the sleeves to put them somewhere between bracelet and three-quarter length, and I did an i-cord cast-on rather than the folded hem called for in the pattern to make the sweater a little lighter and the edgings more consistent.
All told, it only took 4 skeins of yarn to knit, a mere 750 yards or so. Which is pretty crazy and awesomely economical. The sad part is now I have 3 skeins of this stuff left in stash, and have no idea what I could do with it. I stuck it in my Ravelry trade pile. Maybe someone else will give it a good home. It’s a nice yarn, very soft, but there is a lot of vegetable matter hiding out in its tweedy little slubs, and those tend to itch a bit during wear. I tried to pull out most of it. I obviously failed.
But if nothing else, the cat likes it. And though it’s technically spring, the weather has been swinging between temperate and chilly for a couple weeks, and looks to continue that pattern for awhile longer, so I might get to wear it more than one day before the heat of summer makes any extraneous clothing impractical.
And furthermore, I love Ysolda Teague. She is made of awesome. I can’t wait until my copy of Little Red in the City (link) arrives!
