Worsted Weight Dents...

With summer temperatures has come determination to make a couple of sweaters knit in worsted weight dents in the stash.  The Filatura yarn has only been marinating for about a year, but the Cascade has been sitting in the stash for five years. How time does readily fly.  I bought it from a Webs Anniversary Sale 5 years ago, which means it was their 35th anniversary, if I have my numbers from this year correct and it really has sat in there long enough.  Besides, if I could empty out one of the large bins, I could put the leftover sock yarn in there rather than having 2 smaller bins of leftover sock yarn.

I did see one pattern earlier this spring while the Incredibly Patient Mother and I were at YarnCon that looked as though it would make a nice scarf of leftovers but that will involve finishing a couple of other things first (a) and (b) sorting a few skeins of sock yarn together so it doesn't look entirely haphazard. 

Where was I? Oh, right, sweaters. 

I'm working through the two Tin Can Knits sweaters from The Simple Collection. They are excellent oatmeal knitting, as I think I've said before, clear directions, straight forward swathes of stockinette with a little bit of detail for interest.  

This is how Flax looked earlier this week.  Sadly, it doesn't look like this anymore.  

I finished this first cuff, which I'm modifying from the pattern. After knitting 8" of straight, I switched to 1x1 ribbing for everywhere except the garter pattern running down the sleeve. Note the very helpful feline standing on the needle for me. 

I think it's giving it a better look to the finish, less of a poof in the transition to ribbing.  I'll have 5.5" of ribbing on each sleeve. 

However, the sweater isn't designed with any shaping. While that'll be fine for small children, should I make the pattern again and/or for the Philosopher--who doesn't wear sweaters and has flatly stated that he prefer I not spend my time knitting a sweater he knows he won't wear (though he continues to appreciate other handknit accessories)--I'd like a smidge of shaping. So on Tuesday night I ripped back to 3" below the underarm (I'm borrowing from another worsted weight raglan sweater pattern that was sitting around Chez Hedgehog) and added the first round of decreases. I plan to bring it down about 4 inches and then back out a bit for the ribbing, and do longer ribbing. 1.5 inch of ribbing was already getting sadly stretched out and I've only tried the sweater on once.

Please note, this is not an error in the pattern, it continues to be an excellent pattern. I just wanted something that at least alluded to a waist.  The sweater looked pretty good on me even without the shaping, so I expect it to look even better this way.  Of course, it means I'm reknitting 2.5 skeins, but fortunately on size 8 needles that goes pretty fast.  It'll be a good sweater for the fall when the weather has just gotten chilly and I need a warm barrier, but not yet my winter coat, which I'll be avoiding as long as possible this year.

Sweater 2:


I'm also working on the Harvest pattern, which is their cardigan.  I'm on my second skein of 220 in this nice blue colorway and I've divided for the sleeves.  The garter collar is nice.



It's a little large to take to work, so it's not getting as much work on it as I'd like. I think the body will take another 1-2 skeins and each sleeve will be less than one, so I'll have some yarn left over. I'd originally bought 8 skeins each of two different colorways and as I'm not knitting heavily cabled sweaters, the wool is going a fairly long way. It's not superwash though so I need to sort out what I can make and to whom I can give it as anything made will need to be hand washed.

What have you made of worsted weight only-a-couple-skeins-in-this-color? My last go through the worsted weight yarn turned it into a giant log cabin blanket that just came back from the dry cleaners--too much of a mix of superwash and non-superwash and where on earth would I dry it to try and wash it at home. I'm not sure I want to make another one, though it's an option if someone wants blue/green/brown pillow covers (not quite enough for a lap blanket if I'm counting skeins in my head correctly).

Anyway, dents in the stash are coming along nicely.