FO: Autumn Leaves

This is one I've blogged about ad nauseum. It is a long, sad story of love gone wrong. Way back in November, I started this with great enthusiasm for both yarn and pattern. Alas, before I was even done with the knitting, I began to suspect that the yarn was not a good match for the pattern. Once again, I was seduced by a variegated yarn that was beautiful in the skein, but knitted up was...not.

I finished it anyway, was dismayed at its ugliness, and buried it in the closet. A few months later, I decided to give it another shot by overdyeing it. This worked pretty well, toning down the more acidic tones and blending the colors together without completely obscuring them. But I still didn't much care for the shape. A few weeks later, I finally got around to buying some buttons for it, and sewed them on. And you know...I sort of like it!

The Details:

Pattern: Turpan Cardigan by Deborah Newton

Size: Smallest, and modified to fit more closely.

Yarn: Handpaintedyarn.com bulky merino in the Noviembre colorway. About 7 skeins?

Needles: Knit Picks Options circs in size 9

Mods: Quite a few. Longer, narrower, different stitch pattern for the body and sleeves (that Trinity stitch is a b*tch and sucks up yarn).

I still don't know whether this is cute or looks like a dumpy housecoat, but I've worn it once and got two compliments (from people who didn't have to), so I think it's probably okay. What do you think?

Here We Go Again

Remember this?

This was my ill-fated Autumn Leaves. Great yarn, great pattern, not so great together. Like ketchup and peanut butter. After taking this picture, I buried it at the bottom of a stack of sweaters and moved on. But I find it difficult to accept failure, so I thought I'd try at least fixing the color. I threw it in the dyepot with some brown RIT dye. Oddly, the dye didn't cover the existing color; it just sort of darkened and toned it down. Here's the after:

I think it's...better. Here's a closeup of the new color:

I'm still not sure about the style. I can't decide whether it's sort of cute or really frumpy, like a housecoat.

Any thoughts?

Fickle?

Is it fickle if you start out a project loving the yarn and pattern, and then realize partway through that you really don't? Or is it just open-minded?

I am not loving Autumn Leaves. It is almost done, actually, just one button band to go, and I would have had that done last night had I not spent most of the evening ripping and reknitting and re-ripping and re-reknitting the yoke and the first button band (which I sewed in and pulled out three times), trying to make it accommodate a button spacing that would please me. I finally decided that it was an exercise in futility, because it wasn't really the button spacing that wasn't pleasing me; it was the whole project. At that point, I set it aside, because nothing about the project was going to make me happy anyway, and there was a good chance I was going to start ripping with abandon just for the heck of it.

Here's the work in progress, almost done, and looking even less appealing in the picture than it does in person:

I don't think there is anything wrong with it. The yarn is soft and squishy and warm (although I think I need some sort of intervention to deal with my addiction to buying variegated yarns that I invariably hate when they are knitted up), the seams are perfect, and it fits properly, or will after a nice soak and blocking. I just don't like it. I think this may be a case of "looks fantastic on the 20-year-old model, but have you looked in the mirror in the last decade?" I have the feeling I'm just going to look silly in this.

Still, it's almost done, and I have a really hard time leaving anything unfinished, so I'll be knitting up and sewing in that last button band today and moving on to the blocking. I'll have to find some buttons that will work, too. And then I'll do an FO post and you can all tell me the truth about whether I should wear this in public, 'k?

Who Said Anything About Cashmere?

Somewhere between avoiding the black, stockinette, sportweight, cashmere crew neck and working out how I want to design my Transitions sweater when my Silky Merino arrives, I discovered that this had spontaneously generated on my needles:

The yarn reminds me so much of the colors of fall leaves--I mean, as far as I remember; it's been more than a decade since I've seen any in person--that I just have to call this one Autumn Leaves. The yarn is bulky merino from www.handpaintedyarn.com, which, as I understand it, is the actual source of Malabrigo yarn.

You can order their yarns directly, but not the famous worsted weight singles that everyone calls Mmmalabrigo. That is only available through retailers at twice the price. This bulky weight is a ten-ply and appears to be machine-spun, but it is still hand dyed and just as soft as Malabrigo, only much, much cheaper. (Being a multi-ply, I expect it will also wear much better.) I have also bought their dk weight and their laceweight--wonderful, all. This particular colorway does not exist. It was listed under "odds and ends" about two years ago, and I've never seen it before or since. I bought all they had at the time, so it may in fact be one of a kind. To keep things interesting, I chose a pattern for which I might almost have enough yarn.

This is the pattern. I have modified it (of course). Mine is longer, has a bit of waist shaping, uses a different stitch pattern for the body, and will probably have a somewhat higher neckline. That depends in large part on whether I have enough yarn to do what I want. It's definitely going to be close, but I have an ace in the hole. Anyone remember this?

This is the cap I knitted for my son last year when he was instructed to "dress like a 19th century immigrant" for school. Same yarn. If necessary, it will become the ribbing for this sweater.

I have the back, both fronts, and part of a sleeve done. Ahhh, bulky weight! It'll be a few days before I get it done, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. And then I'll be, um, casting on the cashmere.