Hey look, it's a sweater!

I knit a sweater in May and June of last year. That one was quick, cropped, large-gauge, and all stockinette. I then started another sweater. Not the same. (Link to picture of summer sweater, as apparently I never blogged it, it was that quick.)

I started knitting Boxed from Knitty. Then I went to knitting camp and got the hare-brained idea to knit it with in-the-round set-in sleeves and a steeked v-neck, which is a totally Elizabeth Zimmermann thing to do - as in Spun Out 21.

The sweater first made a blog appearance after camp, back in July. I ignored it for a while and pulled it out in the fall - only to discover the Horrible Sleeve Incident, quickly followed by the unfortunate
too-large body issue as well.

It disappeared for a while around Thanksgiving, while I had a short sock affair and then knit some Christmas things.

But since Christmas, it's been my Thing to Knit. And on Monday, I managed to finish the knitting.


I have to say, the part where the sweater looked like that was the most disconcerting, because there's no trying it on, there's no second-guessing, there's just cutting it open and hoping everything's ok. I had done a steek swatch at Camp, cutting with crocheted reinforcement and then again with no reinforcement - knitting actually doesn't like to unravel sideways, it's a comforting thing.

That said, I referred to Eunny's Crocheted Steek tutorial as I got down to cutting things open, and then I did it.



It still feels nutty.

I wore the sweater on Thursday, when it snowed all day. The yarn is Malabrigo worsted, and it's deliciously soft and warm. I knit it on size 6 needles, at a gauge of somewhere between 5 and 6 stitches to the inch, and it's a beautiful dense fabric that I hope will hold up nicely. So happy that it turned out so well, and that it's done.

Equilibrium

I've been thinking a lot about fiber, yarn, and stashing lately. Part of this has been that last year, I really didn't buy as much yarn. I did buy quite a bit of fiber. But to some extent I'm feeling like I'm reaching an equilibrium point with both types of stash.

Basically, a couple of times in the last year or so, I've gone through my fiber and yarn stashes and found things I didn't really want to have or to eventually use. I've tried to be honest with myself about what I will eventually get to, and what I bought because it was on riot sale. Both the yarn and fiber stashes could probably use another pass. Recognizing yarns like that in my stash has helped me stop from buying more yarns for the same reason. I also did some trading of club fibers for shipments that I really loved.

So, in that spirit, I'm trying for a zero-sum year with my fiber stash. I have a lot, and I'm going to continue being a member of the Spunky Eclectic fiber club, so that's 4 oz a month that's coming to me. So I need to spin/use/give away 4 oz of fiber a month, or more if I want to buy more. First up is finishing the yarns that didn't quite make it in 2010. Yay spinning!