Baltic sweater is complete!

I've finished it! Yeah!!!! That is officially sweater number 4 for 2010.



It came out perfect. The fabric is not too thick. The Dark brown yarn was about 15 WPI or close to a light sport weight. As I previous discussed, I'm not sure if this yarn was hand spun or not, but it has a handspun quality about it. The Moorit color is a handspun and it worked perfectly with the dark brown. The sweater is wonderfully oversized. My kind of weekend sweater.

As you may have noticed I omitted the patterned collar and just completed the garter stitch colorwork part of the pattern. In all the Ravelry pictures I was not overly pleased with how the collar laid on this sweater. NancyBE did this collar style and I loved it. It suits me perfectly.

All the information about my sweater is here on my Rav page.

I'm thinking of designing a hat to match this sweater using the Cuff pattern for the bottom edge of the hat. We'll see if that comes to be....

I am already planning my next sweater. I still have more than 3 full sweaters worth of different yarns. But the next one will be out of Chunky weight! I want it to go faster than the Baltic!!

These sweaters are really eating up my stash. I love it! I love it! New and Exciting yarns will be coming into my life soon

Yarn, Quilts & A Sweater Arm to Boot. Does it get Better than That??

Yarn:
The woollen spun yarn came out so nice, so Squishy. And it was so fun and quick to spin. I think I Really, Really like spinning woollen. I think I will need to practice for some more before I get it exactly correct. It is amazing how much faster it goes than Spinning worsted. The motion and the feel of the yarn is just so different when you are spinning this way. I am really surprised and happy to be challenged again.

I spun a 2 ply 120 yard from 2.25 oz (65 gms) at about 11 WPI.


Baby Quilts:
Yes, more completed projects! I finished the 2 other baby quilts for the 2 ladies at work coming back from maternity leave. They are for boys, so Fish and Bugs. I like them both, but i love the Green and Purple one the best. The colors are just so striking!


And the Free motion quilting was fun. I was really getting the hang of it by the end. I was fighting the machine at first. I had it into the shop to be cleaned and they tightened up the bobbin tension. When I tried the free motion quilting at first my machine kept missing stitches, and no matter how I adjusted the tension at the top, I could not do anything more than forward straight line quilting.

So I after about a day of stewing on this, I realized that when I first got my machine, I had this problem, and I took it to the shop and the lady helped me to adjust the bobbin tension (I loosened it just a tiny bit) and WOW, Free motion quilting in all directions. As Alison Rosen says....It's like Butta!!!

Finally a Baltic Sweater Update:
I missed my goal...But no big deal, it's still too warm to wear a wool sweater, so I extended my goal to attempt to finish my Baltic sweater by the end of September....Or maybe the end of October. I only have 1 sleeve to go. If I really buckle down, I could finish it in a couple of weeks, but I have been distracted again by a more challenging project.
But more to come on that later!!!! And yes, those are my toes holding down the bottom edge of the sweater so you can see the colorwork pattern.

Finally, A Little Sweater News

I have been a bit distracted by my new toy. But can you blame me? She is so Fine!!! But back to my sweaters. I'm still working on the Baltic sweater from Fishermen's Sweaters. I've made it all the way up to the arm pit (17-1/4 inches from the bottom). This is going to be a nice long sweater. I've started the back and forth knitting portion of the front. It is not exactly fun, because I have the pattern memorized for right-side knitting. So now, I have to really think about whether I am supposed to be knitting or purling the stitch when I am working my way back on the Wrong-side.



So now...About My New Wheel!!
She has been working smooth as silk. She is so lovely. I've decided to name her Chloe. When I spin on her, it sounds like the whirl is whispering Chloe...Chloe....

I've been doing pretty good spinning on her. Those years of Spindle spinning have paid off. My first few skiens are fairly fine. About 12-15 WPI. They are longer wools. I spun them on about a 9:1 ratio. I'm going to try to tackle some superwash merino at a higher ratio. ( Sorry about the poor picture quality)



I've decided to do the Tour de Fleece this year, but I won't be able to start spinning until July 11. I'm going to work on spinning my Superwash merino from Dyeing for Colour (Etsy). I want to try to get to a 3-ply fingering weight for sock. We'll see how that goes.

Since it has been so hot, I am starting to itch to try my hand at lace knitting again. Recall I tore out the Swallow Tail shawl after I dropped a stitch and couldn't figure out how to fix it. I really want a triangle shawl. I have some heavier lace weight from knit picks in a peachy color. I am hoping that knitting in a lighter color will be a little easier.

UGH!! See, more distractions from the sweater knitting. It's so hard to stay monogamous to a wool sweater when it's 93 degrees outside.