Dakota Earth and Sky

Ta Da!!!!!!

I am so so so happy with this sweater- the only change I'd make to the pattern would be to have the sleeve cuffs just a tinch bigger, and increase a bit at the beginning of the Fair Isle portion of the sleeve (I used 44 sts, and I would go up to 48 for the CO, and then increase to 52, and then do the rest of the increasing as per usual- 2 sts every 3rd rnd, until I get the desired number of sts, and then work even for the proper length). That and the neckline- I still have trouble making a neckline that isn't too large. This one is better, but it's still cut a bit looser than I want. Both are easy fixes for the next time I knit a sweater with this size yarn and needles (I have a template now. Wahoo!)

I didn't take lots of pics during the steeking because the process was no different from Genevieve's Graduation sweater- cut, zig-zag edges, fold in, pick up and knit bands, sew in the sleeves. I did try to take a picture of the body, before I cut the front opening (I was testing to see if it would fit- which it did) but I can't figure out how to take an indoor pic and turn the flash off. Luckily, I had some good buttons on hand, so the sweater is finished, blocked, and drying.

I decided, almost at the last minute, to make solid color front and neckbands- I realized that the yellow/orange/peach would not look good up against the lighter top colors. I think that was the right decision.

Tomorrow, after the sweater dries, I'll model it, and get someone to take pics (I love y'all almost as much as I love showing off, but not enough to stand in the snow in a wet sweater).

Stats: Started knitting: November 9, 2008. Finished: November 24 (this is some sort of record for me, I think), Size 5 needles, all handspun yarns, the dark background colors are all undyed natural wools, most of which I acquired in the fleece, and then washed myself (and sent out for carding). The fibers are almost all long-wools (Romney, to be specific), though there is a bit of mohair, a bit of glitz, a bit of softer wool here and there. This is not a sweater that I will be able to wear without a shirt or turtleneck underneath. Some of these yarns were spun 6 or 7 years ago, some were just finished in August. The sweater weighs 2lbs, which is heavy, but not as heavy as I thought it was going to be. I might be able to wear it indoors (since I lost weight, I'm colder than I used to be).

So, now I have to concentrate on Christmas knitting, before I wind the absolutely gorgeous and soft and wonderful and fantastic brushed mohair yarn I got from Twisted Fiber Arts as the last installment of The Big Needle Club- 460 yards that will be perfect for a fuzzy shawl. I have the pattern picked out. But first, Holiday Knitting... I promise...

Sweater and Santas

I finished the body of Dakota Earth and Sky (Ta Da! The Title!)!! I wound 2 hanks of blue yarn for the final border (and used a small ball of already-wound intermediate blue) and some pale gray, but ended up not needing the darkest blue. So, now I have to do the steeking, the banding, the sewing, and the blocking. And then the sweating, because it's not going to be an indoor sweater (though it was only 12 degrees here this morning, so I suspect that I'll have plenty of reason to wear it outdoors).

But finish work is going to be interrupted, not only because I have to spin some more dark charcoal yarn for the bands, but because both sons, their SO's, some of each SO's family, and all three grands are going to be here for Thanksgiving, and I need to clean the house, and I want to have it all decorated before next Wednesday.

I started yesterday with the hand carved Santa display. About 15 years ago, I was driven to make Folk Art Santas. Of all the things I've made and done in my lifetime, I think these Santas come the closest to Art (with a Cap A). Each year, as I take them out of the box, I marvel again at whatever it was that pushed me to pick up a chisel (and mourn that the urge has gone completely). BTW- the little triangle Santas have Christmas Trees on the reverse side. Outside of the Half-Moon Sangta bowl on the top shelf (which was a gift), I carved all of the other Santas.

Today, I have out of town errands, and then I'll tackle The Big Tree. And maybe some steeking. Oh yeah, and cleaning...

Earth and Sky?????

Dakota Earth and Sky (a companion to the Dakota Dreams sweater)?

Anyway, I'm nearly done with the pruples (one round to go, but my hands cramped up and I had to stop last night). With just the blues left, I think the sweater will be long enough (I want about 27" total). I had thought about going back to the yellows if I need more length, but I'm not so sure now. We'll see how it comes out.

Oh- I had to scrap the middle purple yarn. There just wasn't enough contrast between that and the background gray. I found a ball of lighter purple as a substitute.

I reluctantly concluded that this has to be a traditional cardigan (not a V-Neck) because it's just too heavy for indoor wear, and a v-neck jacket isn't very practical. I'm going to root around in my tubs of handspun yarn for one more skein of dark charcoal yarn, but I suspect that I'm going to have to spin some more for the bands (I have enough yellow/brown/orange to make them match the cuffs and bottom ribbing). In any case, I should finish the body in a day or so, and then it's on to the steeking and finishing and washing and blocking and modeling and accosting random strangers to make them ooh and aah over it.

New Favorite Song: You know how it is when you put your Zune on shuffle and a song comes up that you didn't realize that you had? No? Just me? Well, that happened this morning on the treadmill- I was listening to random tunes, bypassing anything that didn't fit the workout pace and this song came up- it was totally the wrong tempo for exercize, but I had to listen to the whole thing. And then I hit replay. And again. It was Wynonna (Judd- which tells you how little Country I listen to, that I felt the need to specify which Wynonna, as though Wynona Rider has an album. Or Wynonna Parton), singing "Who Am I Supposed To Love?" (from her What The World Needs Now, album). I am totally enchanted with this song... nay obsessed. I've listened to it a dozen times already, and am not done. The rest of the CD? shrug. This song? Wonderful. Where did it come from, why is it on my Zune? Ya got me.

Pruple

...that's what my fingers type nearly every time I write purple (and the temptation to put that in quotation marks was almost irresistible).

Anyway, I'm finished with the sleeves! All I have left is about 9" of body (and the steeking, and the sewing, and the neckline shaping, and the front and neck band knitting, and worst of all- working out the buttonhole spacing. Oh yeah, and I don't have buttons or even a clue about what kind of buttons I want to use). I would like to have arranged the color progression from reds to purples to blues to greens (which doubles back to the yellows), but many of the remaining colors wouldn't look right with the darker background, which is running out very quickly. But the color progression is the color progression, and it's coming along. I'm using up most of what's left of the darker gray, and I'll segue into the lighter (which is shown in the picture) whenever the dark runs out, or the colors don't contrast well enough, whichever happens soonest.

Rainbow Harvest?

Whoa, that's a lot lighter

I knew that the color change from the charcoal background to the gray was going to be sharp, but this is almost startling. On the other hand, it's necessary- some of the remaining colors are just too dark to show with a very brown background. I haven't quite decided whether I actually "like" it or not (shades of unnecessary quotation marks), but I'm not going back. The course is set.

What still isn't "set" (it's a disease, lemee tellya) is whether this will be a high neck cardigan, or a v-neck. I'll have to decide soon (though I suppose, I really don't have to decide. I can make a v-neck from a regular construction by cutting the steeks at an angle, rather than straight up, though that will result in some unnecessary knitting). I only have to knit about 1 1/2" into the next border on the sleeves (purples) and they'll be finished. And only about 10" remain on the body. This sweater has come together really quickly (if you don't count the 7 years it took me to accumulate all of the handspun yarn, and the 8 months that the skeins hung over the railing in my office, before I started knitting).

And I still don't know what to title it. Falling Morris Harvest?

Morris Falling

Nope, that's not right either.

But the sweater is coming along beautifully. I have finished the red section on the sleeves (I deeply dislike 16" circs, so I'm making do with long dpns, and multiple shorter ones) and am nearly done with the reds on the body. Next up- greens, with a much lighter background color (still Romney, probably from the same fleece, but not as dark). I had originally planned to make a v-neck cardigan, and I'd still like one, but this sweater is quite heavy, and it's going to be mega-warm. I'm not sure that a v-neck will suit the fabric (I suspect it will have to be more a jacket than an indoor sweater). I don't need to decide until I get to the bottom of the future armholes (somewhere around the 17" mark- another 3" or so), but I'm going to have to do some serious contemplation on what I want vs. the fact that a v-neck jacket isn't exactly practical.

From The Department of Happy Discoveries: James Taylor's new Covers cd plays perfectly with the pre-programmed 400 calorie workout on my treadmill. This 45 minute workout goes up to 4mph and a 10% incline changing one or both at one-minute intervals (no running, but believe me, you know you've burned 400 cals when you're done). Amazingly enough, the songs speed up and slow down almost exactly to the treadmill, running out of music just 2 minutes before the end of the programmed session, and a replay of It's Growing fills that space just fine. If I have to exercise indoors (and I do have to), at least I can do it to JT.

William Harvest Whatever

So far, the consensus is that this sweater design should have a harvest themed title, with a smaller contingent rooting for William Morris (and a much smaller percentage pushing for naming it after my youngest sister). Thanks for the suggestions, and keep 'em coming.

I will very likely finish the yellow band on the body today and get started on the next sleeve band. I have tentatively decided to go with red/green on the next band. The motif divides evenly in the middle of the repeat, so I can switch color families there. The yellow band is actually yellow/brown/peach/orange, so having a pink/red/rust and then a greens band won't look too odd. I hope. Besides, now that I'm nearly done with the yellow band, I can see that I don't have enough red/pink to do an entire band anyway. I have already had to switch to a slightly lighter background color because the darkest charcoal has run out. This yarn is also natural Romney (all of the background colors are undyed). The color difference doesn't show much in the picture, but it does in person (that *look* was planned into the design). The sleeve background color won't lighten at the same pace as the body, but I don't think that will matter (the sleeves will not have all the colors in them anyway).

I can't wait to get to the next color band, and see what it's going to look like.

By the way- I don't think I mentioned that the motif was inspired by a photo I saw online, of a Latvian mitten.

To Be Titled

aaaahhhhh.... Fair Isle (I've been trying to call it *stranded*, since I'm not knitting official Fair Isle designs, but it's sort of like the felting/fulling thing- the battle has been lost already)... mindless, easy Fair Isle... All you have to do is remember which color to knit, not which direction the slants go, or whether the YO goes before or after the decrease, and fixing a dropped stitch is easy peasy. (not that I'm dissing lace- it's just not mindless knitting, and for me, it never will be).

I'm extremely pleased with what I got done yesterday on the handspun sweater. I'm using size 5 needles, and handspun yarn that doesn't look worsted weight, but it's knitting that way. Most of these yarns were spun over the last 5 years, and I don't remember where I got a lot of the roving and wool, but I do know that the dark charcoal background on this section was a prize winning, totally gorgeous, Romney Lamb fleece that I got from Iron Water Ranch. The others are mostly fibers I bought at the North Country Fiber Fair (many locally grown and raised). Nearly all of them are long-wool breeds, with a little mohair thrown in here and htere, so this is not going to be a next-to skin sweater. And this sucker is going to be warm.

I have not settled on a title for this design yet- the whole thing is going to be a continuation of the motif you see, no other bands or decoration, except that each repeat will have a different background and color family for the motif.

I had thought that the next motif would be Reds, but given that the first full repeat on the sleeves measured 9", I won't have room to use all of my color combos (reds, greens. blue/purple) and still keep the sweater around 28" long. I'll have to think on it a bit, as I cast on and knit the ribbing and yellow section of the body. Maybe the sweater will just be yellow/red/green. Or maybe yellow/green/blue/purple. I'm going to have enough yarn no matter what I decide.

So, what should I call this design?