Linen Mystery + January Sweaters

Last week, I finally finished & shipped Shannon the item I designed for her upcoming alt fiber book. Here’s a shot of it before washing & blocking. I doubt I’m allowed to show real pictures of it (and besides, I forgot to photograph the FO before shipping), but it’s awfully cute!

Knitting linen kind of sucks, but the fabric it makes is really nice & only improves with washing/wear.

The finished garment was different than I originally envisioned, but I think this version is actually a lot more flexible. I know I’d get more use out of it how it turned out, which is important, because it was such a bitch to knit. I might rework the pattern more like my original sketch, but I won’t be showing it until after the book comes out. And I probably won’t do that version in linen, because it’s so much work. Except that linen really suits the design. But then, I don’t have any linen on hand, and I’m only stash knitting. I do have the brown/black marled cotton I used for Kelly Sue’s nursing shawl, but who knows how many strands of that I’d need to get worsted (though this seemed more dk than worsted to me).

Anyway, it’s a moot question, because I’ve got other fish to fry.

Here’s one of them. Unless the yarn Vera just made is the right stuff (in which case, I’ll finish my Skinny Cat sweater instead & leave this for February), this will be my January sweater:

I wanted a hoodie, but I just don’t think I’ve got the yarn for it. This is 4 balls so far. I figure I’ll need at least one more for the torso, and the sleeves will eat up at least one apiece, maybe more. And even if I could keep them to just one, I think I hood would require more than just one ball. Maybe I should start the sleeves and if it looks like I might get close, I could do the sleeve cuffs and bottom hem in another yarn, which might leave me enough for a hood. I thought about doing the hood & cuffs in a different yarn, but I decided that would look weird with all the stripes (though it would be cute with solids…). But if it’s just edging in a different yarn, that might be fine. I have a few heathery gray wools that would probably work.

Or maybe I should skip it and make the next one a hoodie. It’s just the stripes are so sporty, I thought a hoodie would be nice.

The other question mark is the sleeves. I’ve been using all the balls in the same direction and joining at corresponding colors, but so far the patterning has been different.

I’d buy more and do it right, but I’m not allowed yet. And, honestly, I don’t want to. My stash is a clusterfuck. I feel like it’s mocking me.

So the sweater-a-month thing is from my uberlist. In other uberlist news, I’ve frogged one old UFO in which I’ve lost interest. Yay! I need to make the master list of all of them & make that my next January craft priority. Oh! Maybe that will be my reward for a productive week, frogging/photographing/cataloging all my UFOs. What kind of craftnerd am I that makes that task a reward? Sheesh.