One frog and two FO's

I picked up a very old UFO today. A beutiful stranded sweater from Solsilke (I can't find it on the site though) I bought it as a kit at a market I think, many years ago. The sweater is inspired by an old woven cloth at a museum. It is worked in the round, on 2,5 mm needles, and most of the body is done.


It is too small. Beyond help. The body is supposed to be 115 cm (45") around. This sweater is about 90 cm (35"). I am about 96 cm (38"). I cannot block out a stranded sweater 25 cm. Sure, I am still losing weight, but to ever fit into a 90 cm sweater? No way.

The gauge should be 32 sts/10 cm (4"). My gauge appears to be about 38 sts instead. I can't believe that I didn't check the gauge as I went along! It even says so in the pattern. Multiple times.
So I will frog the sweater, reskein the yarn, bathe the yarn, dry the yarn. And start all over again. On larger needles. Checking my gauge as I go.

I have finished objects!
Three days or so before H's fourth birthday (which was this Saturday) I realised that she needed a birthday hat. With skulls. I made H a We Call Them Pirates hat for his last birthday. Sure that hat is fairly quick but I have made two of them and I didn't feel like making another one. Then I found the Thorpe hat. Enter Pirate Thorpe:


Pattern: Thorpe, with skulls from We Call Them Pirates
Yarn: Garnstudio Karisma Superwash, a little more than 1 skein grey and Idena Juvel 1 skein red.
Needles: 5 mm DPN's
Verdict: Fast and fun. It took me three evenings, not a lot of knitting time at all. She likes it.


I also finished the Sherwood sweater for E.

Pattern: Sherwood from Knitty
Yarn: Cascade 220, 3 skeins in 2448, Petrol blue
Needles: 4 mm circ and DPN's
Mods: My gauge is 22 sts/24 rounds for 4” instead of 24 sts/28 rounds, so I’m following the directions for size 4 years to get size 6-8 years. I knit the first row 12 times instead of 6 to make the sweater a little longer.
I made the neck opening a little smaller than the pattern says, 28 sts on hold for the front neck instead of 32. It is still a bit too wide, I think. Knit neck 10 rounds instead of 6.
No cables on sleeves, just the ribbing. Decrease every 4 rows until 36 sts + 3 rounds = 13.5” from shoulder. Sleeves are rather long, on purpose.
I am very happy with this sweater.

I have been spinning a little lately. This is the Party Dress top from Spunky Fiber Club in December. 8 ounces of superwash Corriedale in very vivid colours.


And this is the yarn.


I split the top into separate colours and spun them in sequence red, green, blue, green, red, green, and so on. So the yarn is self striping. I plied it with some superwash merino I got from Wingham Wool Work to tone down the colours a little.

This was the first time I tried to spin a certain weight, and apparently I'm not very good at it. I aimed for a worsted weight but this yarn is bulky, about 7 wpi, 315 meters and 515 grams. Bulky.

I started a top-down raglan sweater for H with it.


I hope I have enough yarn. If not, I have more of the white merino. Just have to figure out how to make it white in the middle, with stripey cuffs and yoke. Of course the easiest would be to just knit until I run out of yarn, but white cuffs on a kids' sweater?