Slow and Steady

Almost 9 Inches on the Back of the Rainbow Dyed Pullover

Tonight saw the completion of the ribbing and the beginning of the long expanse of stockinette stitch that lies between me and the completion of the back of the Bonkers Rainbow Dyed Pullover (which will heretofore be referred to as BRDP because I am too lazy to type the whole thing out). At this point, I am only two inches (and a little) from the armhole shaping.

I don't see myself flying through this project. The yarn is soft, but for the yarn, the gauge is tight, thus, it's putting a lot of strain on the tendons in my right hand. I knit continental, so my right hand does most of the needle manipulation work. The knit side is no problem, but the purl side is giving my hand some grief. This is probably an argument for spending some time learning how to do the combined knitting technique (I've been reading about it a little in Priscilla Gibson-Roberts Knitting in the Old Way and you can also find information about this technique on Annie Modesitt's site -- she has some great graphics to describe how it works). Or coupling this project with something a little lighter.

I was asked in a question I got via e-mail (Hi Larisa!) why I have been knitting from two skeins for Siena and for this project. If I was working with Cascade 220 or Lamb's Pride, I wouldn't. But both of these projects involve hand dyed yarn. And no two skeins of a hand dyed yarn are going to be exactly the same, even if they were dyed together. They are lighter or darker or contain more of one color than another. I don't know if it is clear from the picture above, but the skein on the right has a lot more white or lightly dyed areas in it than the skein on the left.

If I knit with first one skein and then the other, these differences would show up in the garment as if I was working with skeins of conventionally dyed yarn from two different dye lots. You would be able to see where I switched skeins because suddenly there would be more light stitches in that area of the fabric. By alternating two skeins as I work up the back of this sweater, the differences are blended and minimized and it's much more difficult to distinguish where one skein ended and another began. This technique also has the extra added advantage of minimizing pooling, because it is unlikely that the repeats in any two skeins of yarn will be the same.

The drawback of this situation is that you always have to work around two skeins that are both attached to the garment piece (I carry the yarns up the side). This makes the project less portable. It also means that you can spend a lot of time untangling crossed strands until you figure out which way to turn the project to keep the strands from twisting.