I’ve spent the last two weeks laying low to recover from my heart surgery (which went perfectly). That has allowed for knitting between naps in addition to a bit of inkle weaving. I’m convinced that the post-surgical anesthesia haze may be partly to blame, but it’s just as likely that the gnomes had their way with my yarn basket, just to remind me that I’m not in charge.
As you can see, there is a bit of a weird thing going on at the side seam. Just randomly, 3 stitches were bound off about half-way up the side. Since the sides curl in while knitting, I didn’t notice it until I was spreading it out on the blocking board in preparation to begin assembly. What?!!? Gnomes. It has to be the gnomes. So there will be a wee bit of ripping back. It will hurt my brain too much to try and figure out how it happened.
This is the second version of the Capstone sweater (since like potato chips, you can’t have just one). Like the burgundy one, it has a seed stitch edging (this one in blue) at the bottom edges, but that won’t extend up the fronts to make a shawl collar. Instead I’m making an inkle band for the button band, using several colors of the tweed that show up in the slubs.
This is swatching for the bands that I did with a fingering-weight version of the same yarn. I’ll be using the worsted-weight for the actual bands, but I wanted to get accustomed to working with this yarn in a different manner. It is loosely spun singles in the fingering weight, and somewhat thick and thin like a handspun. I did have a warp break (a good learning moment) and had to use somewhat short lengths of weft because it tends to shred. All in all, however, I’m really pleased with the outcome. The big advantage of the band is that I don’t have to make knitted buttonholes (which I really dislike). The plan is for a single buttonhole at the point where the v-neck decreases begin, and rather than using a doubled band, this will be a single width with the warp split at the buttonhole location. Some careful measuring is ahead, so I want the rest of the sweater completely finished and assembled before I get to that point with the weaving. I’m planning on having it present as a stand-up collar at the back of the neck, and depending on how firm the edges are, it may be attached to the sweater with an i-cord, and possibly be finished on the other edge with an i-cord as well to give it more body.
Here is finished version 1.
I apologize to all of you for my long silence and this very short post. You can thank the gnomes for getting me back to my computer today. Time for a nap.