Sunday 10 February 2008

Twisted!

Yes, the moment has come. The Twister is finished.

What a great day to show it off - glorious sunshine but definately cold enough for a merino wool sweater.

I am in love with this yarn. It's so buttery soft that it feels more like angora than merino. I just wish I could get hold of more, but that's not going to happen. It's a one-off.

I'm so pleased with this sweater.
I love the way the design (alternating twist cables with ribs in between) came out.
I love that the pattern matches up around the side seams.
I love the way the colours of the hand-dyed yarn blend together.
I love the fit. OK, it could be a smidge longer, but it will be when I lose weight. ;-)

This was a long project - it ended up as 3 months from initial idea to trying on the FO - but it was so worthwile. The seaming, usually my most hated task, went like a dream thanks to that butter-soft yarn.

And the amount of yarn left over? 22grams! Enough for a small project I think - maybe a headband or similar.


I mentioned some lessons I'd learned along the way - here goes:

1) When planning a stretchy (ribby) design, make sure you add extra to the length; remember that the sideways stretch pulls the garment up shorter when worn.

2) Sketch out the design (as in schematics with stitch pattern in place) in the planning stage - you might find that you want the stitch pattern to match up at the sides/sleeve seams, or you want a cable to split around neckline, etc.

3) Sounds so obvious, but cables and ribs take quite a lot longer to knit in finer yarns, so try to remember this when embarking on a cable sweater knit in DK weight yarn!

4) Bear in mind that highly-patterned designs may look different over a larger area than they do in your swatch - so knit a bigger swatch to make sure you're getting the effect you want.

Ahhh, I'm happy. It was a great challenge and I loved every stitch. I'm off to bask in FO glory.. and wash my hair.

5 comments:

Jules said...

Well done - it looks really terrific!

MandellaUK said...

Oh Steph, it was so worth all that effort. You've knitted some gorgeous things in the past, but you've topped it now. It's incredibly flattering, and I really love it. Congratulations!

Unknown said...

Love the sweater! I posted a comment yesterday, but it didn't appear. I seem to remember this happening before, so I'm having another try.

Dawn said...

It looks great, that colour really suits you too. Well worth the effort and the planning!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous sweater. Where in Cornwall do you live? I'm in Liskeard. Do I know you from anywher else? Ravelry?