Complete in Record Time

I'm not sure I've made a sweater this quickly. Just a day over two weeks. Not sure what's up with that. I've been binge watching Netflix series and not wanting to do much more. I blame it on the cough I've had since Harvey. I've been to the doctor twice, had a round of antibiotics and then a round of Prednisone and I'm taking three antihistamines.  I'm still coughing.

I learned that my husband admires these nordic style sweaters with the lice. He was disappointed that the finished sweater was too small for him.

The picture is from before the bath and block. I'll update when it drys.

Not sure what to pick for the next project. The choices are a Henry 7 in red or another Drops pattern in three colors.

Off Color

In my quest to use up my worsted, I run into challenges with certain skeins. Sometimes the color seems too bright or not quite right with anything else that I have.

I have two four-ounce skeins a creamy orange that has been eating my brain recently. It is a bit heavy so I don't want to use it in a fair-isle. I'm thinking some kind of slip stitch tweedy fabric.While digging around I found some off-white that I thought would work with some brown and tan yarns I've also been thinking about. Well, this off-white seemed to love the orange.

I tried some green and I tried the blue and ended up liking the blue quite a lot. This is a Barbara Walker Vol 1 stitch called basket check. It is written so that the contrast colors use the garter stitch, but she suggests trying stocking stitch as well.

The next try was striped check. With the similar shades, I'm not sure that it works well. What the picture does not show is that the slipped stitches line up and provide a bit if a ribbed effect. It's nice, but I think one of the colors should be darker.

The last one is a linen stitch variation named three color tweed.. It was looking flat with the three colors so I tried working in a second blue in the place of the off-white and ended up a subtle strip. I like the color gradation that resulted.

I have 8 ounces each of the orange and the off-white and 12 ounces of the light blue. I can use the blue for the welts and have plenty for the body.

Sleeve Tricks

Drops patterns are a great inspiration. Recently, I have been following patterns pretty closely, but with some standard modifications. This one is no different.

The project will generally follow Drops 52-18. I substitute stash yarn, in this case vintage worsted that seems to work much like the Drops Karisma. I like a fully fashioned shoulder so I will drop the top sleeve detail and work the lice pattern up the sleeve cap.

I have a trick for the back and forth sections of this type of pattern. Every other lice row finds the grey yarn on the wrong side of the work. So, I work the main color, slipping the stitch that should be grey. Then, I work the grey back, slipping the white stitches. One of the joys that come with using circular needles for everything.

I was unsure about having enough of the medium grey in my stash to complete the pattern elements, so I will use some charcoal in the smaller pattern bands and the welts.

The first sleeve is complete and I used just over on skein of the oyster Sesame4. I'm pretty sure the white will last as the body has considerably more dark stitches than the sleeves.