spinning and a link

Not a lot of knitting to report lately, but I’ve been spinning an awful lot.

This is SweetGeorgia Yarns’ superwash merino, in a colourway called Honey Fig. It’s really interesting spinning it up – it’s a series of lovely, deep red-purples punctuated by long runs of bright yellow, and I’m still trying to decide exactly how that’s going to translate into a yarn that I’ll use. In the meantime, though, it’s a lot of fun to look at. I’m finding myself waiting for the yellow parts as I spin, just because I love the way the yellow parts look next to the purple on the bobbin.

In other news, I’m a little obsessed with this blog called How To Be A Retronaut. They have a lot of really interesting posts featuring photos from familiar places in the past, which is one of my favourite things. In particular, I love thinking about the differences in perspective – how new and current Kodachrome photos must have seemed in the early part of the 20th century, and how quaint and vintage they are now.

Anyway, this post featuring photos from Ireland in the 1920s caught my eye, and I wanted to share it with all of you. There are knitters, and I find that charming as well.

finished: austin hoodie!

It has taken me a surprisingly long time to photograph this sweater. Ravelry tells me I finished the knitting on Sept 12! (Of course, it sat on my desk for a fair while after that, waiting for me to weave in the ends. . .)

Anyway.

It’s done, and it’s my new favourite favourite sweater. At least until I knit my next new favourite sweater.

This is the Austin Hoodie, made with 4 skeins of SweetGeorgia Superwash Sock (her 100% merino, not the 80-20 merino/nylon) in Mist. I knit it almost exactly to pattern, once I’d finished fiddling around with needle sizes to get gauge. The only thing I changed was the turned-under hems at the sleeves – after doing the hem around the body and deciding it was too short for my taste, I didn’t want another tiny flippy hem around my wrists. I finished the sleeves in six rounds of garter stitch, instead, and they’re fine.

The fit on on this sweater is exactly what I was hoping for. It doesn’t feel tight, but it’s definitely fitted, which I could use a bit more of in my handknits. And I cannot say enough good things about this yarn. It’s cozy soft, but not so soft that I’m worried about it holding up to wear, and the colour is absolutely fantastic. From a distance it looks purple, but up close it’s got blue and white tones that made it a delight to stare at for a jillion billion miles of fingering-weight stockinette, and make a really cute sweater.

The only thing I could wish for in this cardigan would maybe be a button to keep it closed. On warmer fall days, it’d be nice to be able to wear this done up, instead of a coat, like I do with my store-bought hoodies. Maybe someday, I’ll get ambitious and add one.

hoodie update

That blob of purple stockinette from a couple posts ago finally looks like a sweater!

The Austin Hoodie, which I’ve been working on pretty consistently since I started it earlier this month, is – well, it’s not really almost done, since I still have both sleeves and the hood to finish. But it feels like it’s almost done, because the body is finally complete.

This sweater is knit from the bottom up, and then the sleeves are picked up from the completed armholes and knit from the top down, which isn’t really a construction I’m used to. I’m not sure how I feel about it (it’s a really big blob of knitting to carry around) but the sleeves are coming along really nicely.

(Of course, the fact that the sleeves are coming along well is due in large part to how many hours of lecture I’ve had in the past week. It’s a lot. I’m very proud. )

I feel a little bit like I’m racing against the weather with this sweater. I know it’ll be perfect for early fall, when things are just starting to cool off, but it’s too warm for coats. Right now, the temperature is still unbearably summery (I wilt in the humidity, it’s a thing), and I’m hoping I can get this done before fall really begins to hit.