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Friday 19 January 2018

Fibre Friday (17/1/18)

Hi Everyone
I’m still working away with the Garland Sweater and I’m recording a few observations about my experience today. I had hoped I’d have a completed sweater to share today but it’s not to be. However,  I’m still excited about this knit. The hold up has been mainly down to a silly mistake - made on the first sleeve. For some reason, I seem to have gone wrong with a single stitch on the rib pattern of the arm. I noticed the mistake fairly early and tried to rectify it several times, without success. The mohair yarn does make undoing rather difficult and at times, I found it difficult to determine if a plain or purl stitch was required (in isolation). I know this sounds unlikely (I’m amazed I couldn’t manage this better) but I wasted several evenings on this. However, all is well and I’ve completed the first sleeve with no further problems. I’m well into the second sleeve and am more confident that I will be finished by next week. 
Generally, although I seem to have been knitting the Garland forever, it’s been a very positive experience. I have had various issues with size and I’m still slightly concerned that the body length maybe a little short ! I’ve been thinking about what I will do if it’s too short when I’m finished. I think, at the moment, I will lengthen by taking out the initial rib and knitting down in stocking stitch followed by a new rib section. I don’t want to interfere with the lace section. I would like a cropped sweater but when a I look at the garment so far, I’m constantly thinking - it’s too short. One other issue,  the sleeves look at bit small at the top of the arm. The Garland has a dropped, unshaped shoulder, the sleeves are mainly rib, which gives a good fit around the majority of the arm, it’s just the bit where the arm meets the shoulder. I’ve tried on the sleeeve, as much as is possible while under construction. The sleeve seems fine but I still have a niggling feeling it may not work ? Not sure what to do if this is the case, I guess it’s a big job !
My last observation is the lace element, quite a tricky section. Both the sleeves and the body have a band of lace which is a 7 stitch repeat and about 8 rows. Quite a small section but I think the difficulty is entirely due to the mohair yarn combined with my very tight knitting technique. I’ve managed the lace section reasonably well but there are one or two mistakes when a I look closely.
Amazingly, I’ve genuinely enjoyed this project and I’m already thinking about a second !

                                

As mentioned, last time I have new plans for a pair of socks.. The photo story shows my chosen yarn (left photo). I’m using Socks Yeah yarn from CoopKnits plus some red (not in the photo). I had chosen a new sock pattern (to me) but I’m going back to my own tested pattern - I’m going to refer to this pattern as the From Scratch Sock Pattern. I’ve chosen bits from lots of patterns (over a long time) while developing my From Scratch Pattern. I’ve got little notes rather than a pattern for my instructions and will be writing up the pattern properly, this time. My pattern notes are a great fit for my feet but it’s about time I wrote up the pattern properly with a range of sizes. I’m going to use these socks to develop my pattern. I want to use different colours for each section and would like to develop a little stitch pattern for the leg. I’ll swatch the stitch pattern today and share next time.
That’s about it for fibre news. No crochet or spinning ! Although, I’ve been planning a queue for spinning - I’ll share this plan next time.

Thanks for calling in today. Have a great weekend. I’ll be back on Monday.

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