I chose the Wicked pattern for my handspun sweater. My goal was to have an off the shoulder sweater and as the yarn was a worsted/bulky it seemed to fit. My gauge was off so I went down a size in the pattern to compensate. The pattern is a top down pull over so as long as the cast on wasn’t too big I can kind of fudge it and try it on to make sure the gauge issue does not become a problem and luckily I didn’t have to do any real fudging. I knit until it fit my shoulders well and then put the sleves on scrap yarns. I did cast on 6 stitches under the arm as I have a fair sized chest and know that my sweaters often stretch in the chest if I don’t cast on a few extra stitches.
(if anyone knows how to make a top down sweater in progress look good in photos let me know…gah!)
At this point I have kind of abandoned the pattern to an extent…I have no idea how many stitches I have on the needles and I do not plan to knit the sweater acording to the pattern’s stitch count. This is the beauty of a top down sweater, I can knit and try it on! I will check back for shaping notes as I know the sweater needs to be increased for my hips, but not for a while yet…for now it is just miles of stockinette and watching the colour changes…sounds good to me.
Yesterday Rani asked:
How much fiber do you spin?
These are good questions…and difficult to answer. I haven’t decided if it is intuition or that I have no idea and I wing it!
Depending on the size/complexity of the sweater I often spin 1.5lbs to 2lbs. For this sweater I spun 1.5 lbs or 6 4oz braids (I think my next sweater needs to be fully documented from start to finish yes?) I tend to spin my yarns larger/bulkier than needed so my gauge is often tight…which requires more yarn. I also ply my yarns very tightly so that eats up fiber too….and I hate to run short, so I do spin quite a bit.
If you were making this choice for yourself I would look at your size vs the sweater requirements…most spinners will spin between 1-2lbs for a sweater.
Rain also asked: How do you know it will be enough?
In an attempt to be professional I will not laugh..much. Last year I knit a sweater….I ran out of yarn twice! Yikes…I call it my bullet proof sweater because it is SO THICK…it was a learning experience. A good spinner would tell you to do a swatch and get gauge and they count your yardage and you should be fine….I on the other hand tend to wing it…mainly because…well I like to wing it and hate math, but also because when you are working with handspun things to not always go according to plan…it is handmade yarn and doesn’t always fit into a category or weight…it may be between aran/worsted…it is handspun…do your best! I prefer to always over estimate.
And so I plod on! I think I might be in love with sweaters…I have so many planned for the fall!
Come join us for Fall Sweater Madness…it is going to be fun and I am picking a sweater for chris…so I will be knocking off a Christmas present too…how can you beat that!?!
