At this year's New York State Sheep and Wool Festival I encouraged the kids to choose fiber for new sweaters. Squidette chose a really pretty blue-purplish fluff from Blackberry Mills. After it was spun up, we calculated, roughly, how many yards there were and went pattern searching.
The winner? Flame from Runway Knits. Modified. A lot. Shorter ribbing all around, by Squidette's request and other mods made necessary by the limited amount of yarn.
As I knit the sweater, I quickly realized that the cables were using a lot more yardage than I expected (I think the original yarn is a bit thicker than my homespun even though I was able to get gauge).
So I pondered . . . and modified the twists by adding 2 rows between each one. This stretched the yarn a bit and I was actually happier with the hand of the fabric.
The I started the sleeves. And quickly realized that, as written, even with my already imposed modifications (shorter ribbing and the extended cables) I was going to run short of yarn. So I reknit the first sleeve 5 times, narrowing it each time (making sure it would still fit after each modification). And then I knit the second sleeve -- even narrower. And reknit the first sleeve one last time.
I sewed the shoulders together with regular sewing thread and then knit the neck (again, much shorter than the pattern called for, by request) and then finished sewing up the seams, again, with regular sewing thread ... because I had far too little yarn left. Yarn left over -- about 2 yards. Phew!
And there you have it. Flame, knit from my own triple ply homespun on my own home grown Squidette. Aren't they lovely!
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