Spring semester was brutal, and I simply couldn't find time when I wasn't too exhausted to pick up this design project. The current stage takes thought and experimentation and some level of endurance. If someone had told me that I had to do one more thing I was going to scream.
Screaming time is over now, so I am ready with scrap paper in front of me and wool between my fingers. Today was spent figuring out what yarn I really have and doing my first swatch, as well as finding out what sweater elements my husband actually likes.
I bought the yarn from the Natick Community Organic Farm. It's made from sheep raised on the farm and spun in Maine; I'm not sure where the dyeing takes place. Based on wraps per inch, the yarn is probably "very bulky" but I'm treating it as just "bulky." It's a bit thicker than I want to be working with for this project, but do you have any idea how hard it is to find burgundy and gray variegated yarn in any weight, let alone worsted? This yarn has enough of the natural wool color in it that it counts as variegated, at least for Carl--not that you could tell from the photograph below.
So now I'm making swatches to give him a sense of what the sweater will look like and me a sense of what it will be like to knit up. My first swatch was done on size 11 needles with 3-stitch cables. I think it's too bulky, and I think Carl agrees. His *meh* response would be a fairly good indication.
To give you a sense of scale, this panel is wide enough to cover one side of the cardigan, about 8 1/2" wide.
So the next step will be using size 10 needles to see if the fabric gets too stiff. I'll probably also do swatches with both three- and two-stitch cables to see which he likes better.
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