Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Color Dipped Top - WIP

My next WIP is also a top for me, this time a bit of an intentionally oversized, comfortable in jeans, comfortable for around the house, type of sweater.

Due to health issues, my temperature sense/balance is a bit out of wack, so cottons are great for year round wear and soft, cozy cotton? Well, that is just comforting even if you are just too tired to move, tired.

With comfort and casual living on my mind... I picked out a great, slightly boxy pattern: Patons Color Dipped Top. I dug through my stash and I had two sets of skeins that I originally purchased with the intent of making a top with them - a dark blue along with a heathered blue/white ... only... sigh. I bought them not realizing one was a heavy Aran and one was a light DK. Um... woops!  Thankfully when working my guage swatch, I realized there was a sizing difference (apparently the tag and the feel of the skein wasn't enough to trigger an ah ha moment, sigh!).  But, I'd already fallen in love with the Aran yarn. So, I went online to purchase the bright blue to use (the heathered wasn't available in Aran weight), 😒

The yarn itself is Universal Yarn Cotton Supreme, and it is lush to the touch and I think it really shows off the stitch pattern.  I bought the dark blue Aran weight as well as the Heathered DK weight from Heartland Fiber Co, which I visited for the first time a little over a year ago during the Eastern Iowa Yarn Shop Hop. It is a delightful store and I just kept coming up with new ideas for projects (and then the yarn), which is the best thing ever for both a knitter and for the shop owners. Lovely store filled with lots of little odds and ends (not just yarn) and great customer service. I'd love to go back any time, it's a little bit of a drive, but the shop is definitely worth a visit.

Since the second set of DK yarn wasn't going to end up working for the project, but I was deeply in love with this yarn for this project, I popped online and ordered some additional Cotton Supreme from Webbs. Loved the simplicity of the online ordering process and it certainly surpasses the quality of experience enough to want to add it to my beginning knitters references for my classes in the future.

When I was knitting up my guage swatch, I was thinking it was a broken rib pattern... where you K1, P1 on one row, and knit the second row. But, instead you K1,P1 on the first row (wrong side), then K1, K1 below; coming back on the second row. On a four row repeat where you then alter to P1, K1; and then K1 below and K1.... well, it makes this very interesting fabric which isn't truly stockinette even though the K1 below eliminates the purl stitch in effect... quite fun and interesting to knit up. Not totally mindless knitting like the broken rib would have been, but delightful none-the-less.

Sadly, this too is sitting sadly and forelornly in the corner... no knitting for this broken knitter. But it's going to make a truly lovely sweater one day.


No comments: