First, the good news: I have my power back, and we really didn’t suffer as much as some of our neighbors. It is still very hot here in our nation’s capital — it may get up to 105 tomorrow — so I truly feel for those whose electricity is still out. It was a freak storm. Dead calm, and then winds up to 60 or more mph followed by the most incredible lightning I’ve ever seen. But enough of that.
You may remember that in June I got excited about knitting The Whiteness of the Whale, a design by Ann Weaver. My plan was to knit it out of the new linen yarn from Shibui Knits. As I noted in a prior post, the yarn is (in their words) “fine linen strands in a chain ply structure.”
I started knitting. It was a bit tricky because I wanted to convert the pattern into a contiguous pattern (knit from the top down with set-in sleeves knit simultaneously). In other words, I had to think. I started it once, made some calculations, re-started. Yes! It was working! I knit merrily along. And then disaster. Instead of yarn, I had thread.
This went on for several yards. It destroyed my confidence in the yarn, and so with heavy heart it was back to the drawing board. Le sigh.
My new yarn is Astral Bath’s Vesper (70 % Bluefaced Leicester/20 % Silk/10 % Cashmere; 440 yards per 100 grams) in the color Circe, which is a sharp, acid green. (Side note: I was already well underway with my new Whale when Susan finished her Daydreams in Lace. It looks so nice in a bold color that I sort of wished I had saved this yarn for that project. But too late; I didn’t want to start over. Again.)
I am just about down to the waist. The conversion to contiguous worked well. I love the color, although I have never had as much rowing as I am having with this project. Is it me or the yarn? No idea. I do hope it blocks out.
The color in those photos is fairly true, although I think the yarn may have a bit more of a yellow cast to it. It’s very soft, and despite being a hand dye, the skeins are indistinguishable.
So far so good.
I love the color- the back pattern is beautiful. I’ve admired this pattern – so it’s fun to watch it come to life, in living color.
Comment by Pam — July 6, 2012 @ 4:00 pm
Hmm, rowing. I haven’t heard that term before–what does it mean?
Comment by Astroknot — July 6, 2012 @ 5:57 pm
I love the color. I’ve been reading and studying the contiguous method. I’m glad to see that it translates well to other patterns.
Comment by Beverly — July 6, 2012 @ 6:05 pm
Sally, it looks great! Hope to see it in person — but in the fall!
Comment by Trudy — July 6, 2012 @ 8:22 pm
Sorry you gave up on the linen yarn! Out of the 6 skeins I’ve used, I had one that had quite a few stretches where the cable ply was not right (but none that went down to just the single strand). I had to keep cutting out yard-long sections. If that had been my first skein instead of my last, I might have given up, too. I still like the yarn, but they could use a little better quality control.
On the other hand, your second version looks wonderful. Love the color!
Comment by Cheryl S. — July 6, 2012 @ 9:00 pm
That is really beautiful.
Comment by Chloe — July 9, 2012 @ 6:39 am
Rowing. Great word for what I just went through that with some Cotton Fleece I used! I’ve never experienced it before. It made me doubt my knitting ability after knitting all my life. Was I knitting differently on my knit and purl rows? I’ve always been such an even knitter! Okay, I’ll blame it on the yarn. The sweater looks gorgeous in that color, btw!
Comment by Jennie — July 13, 2012 @ 6:10 pm
I think I’d take the colorway name, Circe, to be a very good sign about this one. Referencing two great works of literature with nautical themes seems very fitting.
Comment by GinkgoKnits — July 14, 2012 @ 2:53 am