May 31st, 2009
Now what?
Yes, that’s right: all my Denise needles and cables are in their box. Which means that I have nothing on the needles right now (aside from my usual portable sock project).
I want to start a new project (a sweater for myself, ideally). I want to knit from my stash and not purchase new yarn, but I am having a hard time coming up with something. I don’t want to do a “basic” sweater—not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I am really in the mood to try something more “interesting.”
I’ve been doing a lot of swatching, and here’s what I have in sufficient quantities to knit an adult-sized sweater:
Berroco Ultra Alpaca, 7 skeins. 22 sts over 4″. #8 needles.
Nature Spun, about 10 skeins. 20 sts over 4″. #6 needles.
Lopi, many many skeins. 14 sts over 4″. #10 needles.
Vermont homespun, lots. 16 sts over 4″. #7 needles.
I’m kind of interested in making the Cardigan for Arwen (Ravelry link here) or the Sunrise Circle jacket (here), but both call for a gauge of 18 sts over 4″, which rules out the first three yarns I listed. Think I could make it work with the Vermont stuff?
Any other suggestions?
Wait a minute — those swatches don’t help much if we don’t know the needle size, right?
If I were up to making a sweater for myself, I would make the celtic icon sweater:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/celtic-icon
You can try it with the homespun, but the resulting fabric might be too loose and wouldn’t hold up to the patterns.
Have you tried an advanced pattern search on ravelry? You can find sweaters that have been made with yarn in your stash. Or you can go to the yarn page, click on Projects and see what other people have made with it (Just make sure they were happy with the yarn choice).
I was going to suggest the pattern finder on ravelry, but I see Jen has done that.
I’m no good with sweater help, myself, but I have been studying that sunrise circle jacket for quite a while. I do like the others that I’ve seen made. Sorry I can’t make a gauge suggestion.
@Imperatrix: What, you can’t read my mind? :) Okay, I’ve just edited the post to include needles sizes. The celtic icon sweater you suggested is beautiful, but I’m not really a fan of hoodies (yet for some reason, the Cardigan for Arwen fascinates me—go figure…).
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@Jen and Shannah: I did take a look at Ravelry but haven’t yet seen anything that really grabbed my attention in “yeah, I want to spend a lot of time working on this project” sort of way. I do keep checking back there, in case new stuff has been added, but I figured a little blog-based crowd-sourcing might yield some good suggestions, too.
Hi! Sorry to be late to the party, but here’s what I’ve got on my list: http://berroco.com/exclusives/alpine/alpine.html. Maybe a bit longer, though. With bulky yarn. Or knit in a larger size with smaller yarn and needles. Because I don’t swatch.
I’m impressed you know where all your Denise parts are. My case has a few needles and no cables. And the locations? No clue.
No great pattern suggestion off the top of my head, just stay away from the Lopi this summer or you may die of heatstroke!
@JD: No swatching at all? Really? Your knitting always turns out so nicely! You must be incredibly skilled or incredibly lucky…or both!
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@Knittymama: Yes, I think the Lopi is on the back burner until the autumn. I don’t mind knitting with wool during the summer, but that stuff is WARM!