Shimmering Beginnings
Just because I am still utterly in love with the look of this yarn, I have to post a daylight beauty shot of it all stretched out on my back balcony.
Unfortunately, not all that is beautiful is easy to knit with. So much so, that for a while I considered not knitting anything and just wearing it a la Mr. T.
The hubster did't think that it was quite the right look for me, so I went back to trying to get it knit into a garment. It took me several attempts just to get gauge.
That tree trunk that the swatch is still attached to is a 15 mm (US 19) needle. I actually had to invest in some new knitting needles (I know, how tragic for me!) just to swatch since the 12 mm Addis just didn't get me where I needed to go. But I'm quite fond of the needles I found -- Lantern Moon needles in palmwood. Very slick and a nice sharp point for a big needle.
There were a few other things that made this yarn a little challenging for me to work with. For one, I like to loop the yarn around my pinky before it goes to my left hand fore-finger. This yarn is big and slubby, so it just kept getting caught on my pinky, so that slowed me down a lot and didn't do much for keeping my tension even. Eliminating the pinky wrap worked much better.
For another, the slubbyness of the yarn means that it doesn't always slip through the loops evenly when I knit it. And sometimes it got "stuck" and created bigger loops than I would have liked, making it so that I have to tug a little bit on each stitch.
Also, in spite of the instructions for the yarn, I just have no idea how I could work from two balls and carry yarn up one side without creating an incredibly bulky seam, so I'm doing just one ball at a time (of course, I had to knit up a goodly part of the back before realizing the problem).
Since I was already on Sleeve Island with the sleeves from Fitzgerald, I decided to order myself up another fruity tropical drink and work the sleeves for Margot. After a lot of soul searching, I decided that a shaped cardigan would probably end up being a much better choice than an unshaped tunic (can you believe that this sweater actually has short-row shaping in the front panels?). As a cardigan, it will probably also get a little more wear and thus I will get a lot more enjoyment out of snuggling up in it.
Because of the big yarn and the big needles, I hadn't even finished my fruity island beverage by the time I had both sleeves finished. I couldn't easily tell from the photograph in the book, and it's hard to tell here as well, but Margot has slightly ruffly bell sleeves. How cool is that?
The back is next (since some of the instructions for the fronts are made relative to the back. While I'm looking forward to the sweater, I'm not really looking forward to holding the weight of the piece on the needles. I thought I could just power my way through this sweater, but the weight and the fact that I am working with straight needles means that my wrists and elbows are getting quite a work out, and I need to rest them more than usual. So I'll be alternating between Margot and Fitzgerald this week during my knitting time.
Love your new necklace!!
I am very interested to see how this yarn will actually behave as a garment. I'd say by tomorrow we should know, at your rate of progress.
oh my that yarn looks so pretty knitted up as a swatch! good luck with it!