"When I grow up..."

"...am I going to be a sweater?"

We're counting on it...but it would be nice if you'd try to stay a bit tidier :-o.

The 2018 sweater making preparation is not far off.  The bigger flocks getting ready for lambing are shearing now.  We won't be far behind, especially if this crazy weather holds up.  It won't though and the surest way to get it to cool back down will be to shear the sheep...

Speaking of sweaters, I've decided to take the Carbeth back from 20 and re-knit it for the Iknitarod, which starts this Saturday.  Wait a minute.  This if probably not making any sense to anyone who isn't following on Instagram, now that I think about it.  Let's back track...

I finished Baaxter's Carbeth.  I was between sizes and went up instead of down...and should have gone down.  Not only that, I wasn't happy with my decrease stitches (what shapes the sweater and makes that point in the top center).  

Not only was the right side not as even as it should have been, but I also had some mild puckering on both sides, front and back.  Both of these problems could have been fixed with an aggressive blocking...which would have made the sweater even bigger.

So my first thought was to trade it to 20 (who looks great in it) in exchange for the Ford sweater that I'd like to have back ;-).  Then I saw that cute video of the afternoon I knit out in the field and got all sentimental about it and now I'm going to re-knit it for myself during the Iknitarod.  Sorry, 20.

Before I do that though I wanted to practice those stupid decreases, so I decided to knit a teddy bear sized sweater...which is oddly how my last winter Olympics challenge ended, now that I think about it...and here's a link to that post.  Oh wow, I'd forgotten about the Burrnie/Daniel incident!  How sweet to go back and remember :-).  

I finished the sweater in time for the closing ceremonies and I think it turned out very cute.  I completely fixed the puckering issue and figured out how I want to do the right hand side decreases.  I'll be ready to restart on Saturday!

Just to keep the bear sweater exciting, I'd pulled out a skein of handspun yarn that I thought would be enough yardage.  Boy, was I wrong.  Luckily I remembered that I'd spun it during the Tour de Fleece a couple years ago and I still had my on paper notes about who I'd spun and yardages.

Okay, I spun that FOUR years ago.  Good grief!  Thank goodness for the blog records :-o.  I'd spun that from a friend's flock in hopes/plans to make her something from it...which I obviously never got done.  Luckily that roving is still here (still in hopes/plans to still make her something from it) and I was able to spin enough more to finish the sweater.  

I believe it's a Perendale fleece and I really enjoyed spinning and knitting with it.  I think fiberpusher may still be buying fleeces from this flock for her breed study offerings.  Here's a link to her shop and they'll also be at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival in May.  Yikes!

Yep, the fiber season is getting ready to start :-o.