Despite the lack of action around this blog, there’s been a decent amount of knitting and spinning and a whole lot of action on the home front. Blame this all on the fact that we’ve been looking at houses. We haven’t found anything perfect yet, but we’re still truckin’. There was one that seemed ideal for a moment, but it wasn’t meant to be. I also had a lovely little vacation with a guest from out of town, including Webs shopping, BBQ-eating, banjo-band-listening, and a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts. Does it get any better than that? Only if the visit is longer.

I should probably show you my current big project before it’s finished, huh? This sweater is a total experiment. I usually like to have an idea if something is going to look okay on me before I start it, but I’ve thrown caution to the wind on this one and am just going with its glorious 70s smockness. Will it be too dorky? I do not know. Let’s hope the yarn’s beauty keeps it on the awesome side. If not, you’ll hear all about it.

Here’s the inspiration:

It’s a smock from Knitting in the Nordic Tradition by Vibeke Lind, knit in stockinette stitch with rolled edges. I’ve done absolutely no shaping whatsoever on this sweater. The pieces are four rectangles that I’ll sew together, leaving a wide boatneck. The stripes are made like all those scarves, by knitting 2 rows from one ball and 2 from another, only I’m using the same colorway for both balls. The decision to make the stripes vertical comes from the inspirational smock and a bit of honesty about the fact that I have a 40 inch chest. :)

And here are the results so far:

The yarn is Taiyo (colorway #4), the 40% cotton, 30% silk, and 15% each wool and nylon big fat papery Kureyon-looking, yet summery, yarn from Noro. The fabric is light and bouncy at the loose gauge I’m using. The colors are insane. The knitting is fast. I should be wearing it, weather permitting, within the week.

There are more projects coming: another handspun Anne scarf, a handspun naturally-colored striped vest for Mr. HelloYarn (Totally not copying yoohoo, in fact, he copied me. Yeah, that’s it.), and who knows what else that’s buried in my knitting basket!

PS: As you might have noticed, I’m a ton better at keeping things up to date over on Flickr so, if you miss me, you can always find me there.

The Great Two Person Knit-Along Part 2 has begun. Don’t even bring up what happened the last time. Jared has been kind enough not to! :P (I’m such a Tomten failure.)

This time around, Mr. Knitting and I are making Na Craga, from Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting. That’s what that brown mystery swatch was for. It’s the most specific swatch I’ve ever knit. Cast on number was specified, as were number of pattern repeats. I got gauge in the first go. Imagine!

Neither of us can help making some changes. I won’t speak for him, but he’d better make a post soon or he’ll be the failure of this knit-along! Mine’s going to be a buttoned cardigan with a high collar. It’s going to be a much closer fit than the original (modeled in the book by a man I imagine is the hotttest pig farmer in the world), as well, with slimmer arms. I started knitting the first arm and was mortified to see what seemed like an 80’s batwing shape emerging. One rip and increasing at half the pace of the pattern solved things nicely. Behold, sleeves:

The fabric in an Aran weight yarn is stiff, hard, scratchy++++. I keep joking that I can just wear the sleeves and train attack dogs. The sweater will never wear out. I’m using the yarn I bought on our last trip to Ireland. Fitting, no? It’s what I’d call “normal rough” yarn, but the gauge of this sweater brings out a roughness not felt in the skein. Na Craga is definitely going to be more of a jacket than a sweater. The skeins of this yarn are huge, more than 8 oz. each. I was knitting with some friends recently and the size of the ball kept cracking them up. I’ve been trying to capture the humorous/humongous size ever since, but it really photographs small. Attempt #1. This photo is pretty, anyway:

Buttons were purchased at SPA. I am ready ready ready to knit this project, however, this might be the last anyone sees of it for awhile, as I’m doing some supercool design work and after that, there’s Yarn School, and after that, hopefully fruitful house hunting.

Oh! There’s a new yarn that’s captured my heart. You wouldn’t have been able to resist it either, would you? It’s from Webs. My friends and I might have cleaned them out of this color (#4).

Noro Taiyo (Ravelry)

The fiber content is 40% cotton, 30% silk, and 15% each wool and nylon. It’s a cottony, papery version of Kureyon, except the skeins are 100g! I used to moan about the discontinuation of Cotton Kureyon to anyone who’d listen. No more! I’ve found my new best friend. With this, I think I need to knit a boatneck summer sweater, maybe with 3/4 sleeves. The yarn is lovely enough to just go for the horizontal stripes, despite being of fluffy build, but I might experiment with a neck steek and knit it side to side.

I’m off to dye mitten kit yarn. That’s really all you wanted to hear, right?