knitabit

Suggestions, anyone?

Camping was a bit damp...but we had a mah-velous time. There were otters in the lake we were fishing at - I've never seen them in the wild before. They were fighting over fish - so much fun to watch.

I got as far as the short rows on the heel of a Regia sock for my daughter. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

On the pretext of going grocery shopping, I detoured over to Borders books to get the latest knitting mags and browse for knitting books. I got "Cast On" - the second and last time I'll purchase that one. I also got "Interweave Knits" in spite of the fact that it was shrink-wrapped. There's a couple of things I like in it. Then I picked up a copy of Alice Starmore's "Fishermen's Knits." There's LOTS of stuff in it that I'd like to knit, but I think my skills have to advance a bit.

About 15 or 20 years ago (geesh, has it been that long?) my parents and little sister went to New Zealand and brought me back some yarn. It is Scheepjeswol "Thorobred Pure Wool Brushed." Yardage is 165m per 50g ball, and I have SIXTEEN balls. It is a very fine yarn - almost a fingering weight. It is pretty fuzzy, almost like a mohair.

I have been wondering for years what to do with it. Should I knit as is, or double it up? The Starmore book has a pattern that would accommodate this yarn. I knit up a swatch to see how it would look. The fuzziness makes this yarn a bit difficult to work with. I had to knit the swatch on NUMBER ONE needles to get gauge. And even then, the design area throws my gauge off considerably - I must need to pull a little tighter on the purl stitches. Also, my swatch was knit back and forth, not in the round, so I suppose that makes a difference on gauge as well.

This sweater is knit in the round - you cast on 352 stitches to start. AAUUUUGH! My fear is that I would learn to hate the sweater before I even make it halfway up.

Here's a close-up of the swatch:

If anyone has a good suggestion for how to put this yarn to good use, I'd love to hear it.

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