Handspun Jumper #6: Done!

Fibre prep started last July. Knitting has taken 6 months and was a real struggle in the late stages. Knitting the yoke was quite fun, but became less so as the rows got longer and longer.

When I got into the plain body section I was losing the will to live. I was trying to make myself do a minimum of 2 rows per day but often didn’t manage that. Apparently large plain knit projects are not my jam. My knitting style has been developed on mostly small projects so it’s possibly not the best for larger ones.

Eventually it was done and off the needles

Next job was wet blocking. I’m glad I finished it when I did and had some sun to dry it in.

There a couple of areas where differences in the alpaca colour are visible even though it’s all from the same fleece. That lower section is really obvious here but less so in lower light. I don’t mind it anyway, at least it’s nice and even. The alpaca yarn has a lovely sheen under the surface fluff and is beautifully fluid and drapey after blocking.

Then all the ends were sewn in while listening to science hour on Triple J. Dr Norman Swan made a guest appearance, yay. Then buttons and label to finish.

Bronze coloured buttons I think are glass and were bought from Alannah Hill remainders. They have nice tall backs to let the knit slide in under and happen to be good in both colour and size.

The fit turned out middling well. It’s good in sleeve and lower body. The yoke is too wide and pleats a bit. I’m trying to see that as a feature rather than a bug. Really though, that wasn’t intended and it says I’m not very good at selecting the best size and pattern alteration combination to fit me. I can’t just select from a published list and have it work. Oh well. this is only my third jumper type garment. The first was too small and somehow that put me off for many years. The second and third mostly worked.

Hurrah. I have a handspun, handknitted jumper! It’s lovely to wear and very warm. This is a great day for it’s first wearing, with weather from the south and 14 degrees (celcius of course) in the house.

I should load some pics into Ravelry. I tend to post here rather than entering projects there.

 

 

 

Argyle remodel

Another cardiganisation of a jumper too good to get rid of. Too pale, too high contrast, felt too formal. Barely worn, but beautifully soft merino cashmere. Had to try something to make me happier wearing it.

So I put it through a black dyebath and cardiganised it

I didn’t use enough dye for it go properly black but I quite like the soft blue grey.

It has front facings made from leftover black merino knit with only the merest allowance on the center seam so as to retain most of the argyle pattern.

Button loops are made from wonderful thick vintage silk buttonhole twist.

and on. I’m much happier with it I think. The skirt is an old reworked one in striped merino knit that got dumped into a similar dyebath and shortened. It has become a new favourite

Blackened Jethro

“How much shibori can one woman wear” I said once to a friend. The answer it seems is “quite a lot”. I found this book in december and pounced apon it as a Chrissie present to self. It’s brilliant.

I combined my first experiment inspired by the book with a dissatifaction with the dingy yellow of my Jethro Jumper.

Natural dye from my own crabapple tree. That’s nice, but I was forever having to spot clean it. I’ve also been wearing more and more black. So I had a bit of fun.

I did some spot smocking on sleeves and hem

Here is the whole thing ready to be washed, then dyed.

and here are the patterns that resulted. Earth Palette wool dye again.

I’m really pleased with the outcome.

It’s even significantly more flattering than the original

 

Lady Macbeth Gown

Gothic Pandemic Couture. Mwahaha.

There has never been a better time to work entirely from stash. Thankfully I have a lot of stash. I wanted a new winter dressing gown. After much thought, I finally came up with a design that met the evolving design criteria. All from stash, all natural fibre, warm colours, comfy, nice against the skin, especially at the neck, not too weighty. Then I realised my design had rather gothic overtones… which made me think of Lady Macbeth, who has a hand washing thing….That Was It. Had to be done.

I cut the gown from barely enough heavy Italian wool knit coating… need I say that I bought it cheaply? Yeh, nah. You know me a bit by now.  I had a piece of luxurious crimson silk rayon velvet to use for the collar, and I wanted to get that more of that red into the gown. I only had 1/4 bottle of red dye, so I dip dyed the cuffs and hem.

 

It looks quite elegant in the finished garment but I could not help thinking “trailing in wells of blood” (which is a folk song quote really) but was what made me think of Lady Macbeth. “Out, damn’d spot! out, I say!…………..who would have thought the old man to
have had so much blood in him?” No murder done here except perhaps to the height of good taste.

The gown is mostly unstructured, but I did tape the roll line (pictured), the shoulder seams and the back neck seam. There is a lot more handsewing than I initially planned. The knit fabric is bulky and doesn’t press well, so I coarsely hand felled all the shoulder and collar seams. I now wish I’d taped the edge of the collar as well, but too late for that now. The cuffs are hand hemmed but I machined the the bottom hem, I won’t be looking so closely at that and neither will anyone else.

The collar turn backs are casually hand quilted so the velvet becomes one with the knit underlayer. Sort of works like pad stitching. There is no interfacing. I did though put a lot of effort into making sure that the roll worked properly. I must say, it feels glorious.

There are of course pockets. Quite stealth though not a perfect pattern match. That, and the creative shaping are due to having no extra fabric. The label went here because previous attempts at putting them onto velvet caused much swearing.

What to use for the belt? I had nothing but tiny scraps left of either fabric and no more dye. After a couple of other plans, I remembered I had previously dyed some grey wool yarn with the exact same dye for a project that didn’t proceed. Hurrah. Perfect.

The belt loop is a detached buttonhole arrangement in stealthy grey tapestry wool.

Here is the finished gown in a relaxed pose. So comfy.

Here I’m trying to act all Lady Macbeth determined.

and this was my best attempt at a handwashing shot with no one else present to take the picture.

I don’t look forward to washing it and shan’t for a while. Every component is prewashed though, including the velvet and the seam tape. Part of the motivation for the dyeing was in case some of the velvet dye migrates to the wool in the wash.