Sweater started, Welcome Back, Old Friend
Well, my favorite sweater in the whole wide world is going to be my favorite yarn scraps soon. I’ve mended, patched together, and sewed it so many times, and it’s still falling apart — so I can only wear it around the house. I love that sweater, it’s a dusty blue and oversized and comfy. But, it is over 12 years old and it’s (wait for it) — store bought — so I’m surprised it’s lasted this long.
Anyway, I finally realized that I need to make a replacement. So, I spent a good two days looking through all the knitting magazines that I had and then went on-line. I was down to about two choices, and then I found that Interweave Knits had one of them as an online sweater. This meant I wouldn’t have to photocopy the magazine pages and it had cables — I love cables and it was called Old Friend. How could I pass up a sweater that wants to be my Old Friend? So, I got started.
Finding the yarn was another adventure but I decided on a soft acrylic that I’ve been told stands up to repeated washing/drying and I figure this is going to be washed at least once a week (What can I say I have an eating/drinking problem — embarrassing I know, but I often get so involved in what I’m doing I miss my mouth). So, I’m saving my handspun for an equally beautiful sweater that will get some special care in the cleaning department.
Of course the first thing I had to do was set it up to be knit in the round up to the armholes. Then I’ll have to do the front and back separately. Then the plan is to do the sleeves top down from the armhole — but that’s going to require more figuring and maybe some changes in the cables so I might do them bottom up — unless someone has some good ideas on doing cables top-down to match a bottom up sweater cable.
Of course, today is probably the last day I can work on this because my son finally got me his measurements. He wants a hand knit sweater for Christmas. Only 44 knitting days left so I start that one tomorrow after I decide between the three patterns I picked out for him.