FO: ON THE GRASS SWEATER

Two or so years ago I bought a couple skeins of Miss Babs Yowza yarn, which is a DK wool. I would really call it light worsted. I loved this dark variegated colorway called “Berlin” – it reminded me of a city at night. Which may have been the point! haha

I started a sweater that eventually got chewed on by some sort of bug while I was still working on it.  I’d never had this issue before. But they nibbled right through the yarn in several strategic places. I picked them out and sealed up the half-knit sweater in an airtight container, ticked off that $80 worth of yarn was ruined.

But was it? A year and a half later, I looked at that bag of yarn, and got to thinking. So I took it out of its bag and began unraveling the sweater. I checked for bug carcasses – none. No new ones either. I looped the yarn into several hanks and gave it a soak in wool wash to unkink it. It dried nicely on my drying rack, and I started fresh**.

Here’s On the Grass by Joji Locatelli:

I knit the 2nd to last size and the largest sleeves – because despite my best efforts, I could not seem to pick up the amount called for in the pattern. It’s just as well because I think with the ribbed “stripe” there is a bit of unflattering attention paid to the upper arm if you knit too tight of a sleeve. Anyway, this was my first time knitting top-down set-in sleeves, which is a great skill to have! I highly recommend it. While I very much like raglan sleeves and they are very flattering on me, I do like other options in my wardrobe, and learning a new technique is always good for your skill-set as well as your brain.

The yarn, despite finding several areas that needed to be snipped due to unraveling (possible more bug damage…), was a dream to knit with. Not a dream: weaving in one million ends. Like for reals. One million ends. 🙁

For a long-sleeved sweater if you are knitting over a 42″ bust and using Yowza, I would recommend 3 skeins. I used just about every last inch of 2 skeins for my shorter sleeved version.

Next up: Finishing Papaver Socks #2 (which have been marinating for several years, oops), another pair of Monkeys I impulsively started last year,  Whitehorse by Caitlyn Hunter (bobbles and all!) – I am actually half done with this sweater already.  I also ordered yarn from Knitpicks (Palette in Stellar and Ice Lily) to knit her Zweig sweater, which is just absolutely gorgeous. When we go to Stitches West in a few weeks I plan on getting yarn for her Sunset Highway sweater as well… Can you tell I’m a newly minted Caitlyn Hunter fan??

**Someone asked me why I didn’t just get rid of the yarn since it got eaten. Well, for one thing, I spent a lot of money on it. Plus, there were no more moths or whatever in it and I washed the yarn… I see no reason to be wasteful when it’s not warranted.