Stornaway sweater

Recipient: BIL #1
Designer: Alice Starmore
Pattern: Stornaway
Source: Fisherman's Sweaters
Completed: Knitting done October 10, 2005
Colours: Steel blue
Yarn: Putuco 100% alpaca, fingering weight
Completed status: Given Christmas, 2005
Pictures:

front


back


pattern detail


detail of how the shoulder strap extends into the sleeve


'in action' shot, front


'in action' shot, back


'in action' shot, worn by recipient

2005-Dec-26

He loves it. He commented on how smooth it feels, how gorgeous it is, and how the hang tag just tops it right off. He's thinking of keeping it on for the 'bling' factor. :)

2005-Nov-22

The sweater, she is dry. More photos to come once a) I have freed up room for more pictures on my camcorder's memory card and b) DH is totally fresh from a shower so he can model it for me.

2005-Nov-20

Yesterday I stopped procastinating and blocked it. Now all that's left to do is wait for it to dry. It is now officially finished, not just sort-of-finished finished. And I like it.

I ended up doing the full soak in Eucalan because I discovered (from trying it on myself - my poor BIL, everyone will have worn this sweater before he gets his hands on it) that even though the alpaca is soft and dreamy, there is still a scratchy quality about it when worn. So hopefully the Eucalan will do the trick to get rid of most of that.


I'm sorry about the quality of the photograph. Both the green and the blue appear to be complex colours for my camcorder to process, and when you combine the two - well. I'm certainly not going to win any photography awards with the shot, but it does prove that the thing is blocking. You'll just have to trust me when I say that it looks terrific in person.

2005-Oct-10

I just finished it. Hear that? I JUST FINISHED IT!!!

It looks so good, it almost doesn't need to be blocked. However, although the body spreads out very nicely on its own, the sleeves are really rumply, width-wise, and really do need to be blocked so that the patterns are visible. I'm thinking more of the spray-and-pin or damp-towel-on-top sort of blocking for this rather than the full soak - I don't think it needs the total immersion.

However, I'm going to check this off as 'complete' anyway, because hey let's face it, when it comes right down to it, this sucker is done. Yippee!

Post-blocking photos (including one of my husband modelling the sweater, since he and BIL are of comparable sizes) to come.

2005-Oct-6

I am actually maintaining a hope that I will finish the sleeve this week. I also actually think this might be a realistic goal. I mean heck, why not? There are just 18 rows left in the sleeve shaping, plus about 36 rows after that without shaping, a decrease row, and then 25 ribbed cuff rows. Eighty rows in three days. Why not?

2005-Oct-5

I'm back to carrying around the full cone of yarn for this project. Yes yes, I know, it's silly to carry all that weight when I don't have to, especially with a bum ankle. But this morning I decided that with just half a sleeve left to go, winding another skein wasn't worth the hassle. So I just stuffed the whole cone in my bag. Easy.

And hey, did you catch that? "Just half a sleeve left to go"? Yes, I've reached the halfway point of sleeve #2. This means I'm now only one week behind schedule instead of two.

2005-Oct-4

In and among the various chores, socializing and napping done this past weekend, I did get a decent amount done on sleeve #2. The halfway point is now within my grasp. I am certainly half done the shaping portion of the sleeve. And, as always, working on a sleeve from the armscye on down means that once I really get going, it's like a stone rolling downhill - the increasingly shorter rows make it seem like I'm gathering momentum, and it's very heartening.

2005-Oct-2

The sleeve is still nowhere near completion. Sadly, the trend I had going of slowly catching up to The Schedule with this project has fallen in the pooper. I have not even finished last week's goal of finishing half the second sleeve. (I estimate the sleeve is only about 25% done, actually.) But we shall see what can be accomplished today.

2005-Sep-26

Friday I made some good progress on the second sleeve. I'm close to finishing the underarm gusset. Flushed with this success, I really hoped I was going to get a lot of time to work on this over the weekend.

Hahahaha.

Firstly, I was planning to get in a lot of knitting time on the way to an SCA event on Saturday. However, we discovered on Friday night that DH was far too tired and busy to go to the event, so I was on my own with DD. And as much as I wish I was able to drive and knit at the same time, it just ain't so. And the amount of pre-planning and packing I had to do to make going to the event possible ate up my knitting time on Friday night.

Sunday, my MIL and BIL were planning to visit. This meant hiding the sweater away so that BIL would not see it and ruin his own surprise. (Sadly, only my MIL ended up coming - my BIL has just stopped doing a nightshift job and discovered that morning that he was completely jetlagged and feeling too awful to come. But by that time I'd already pulled out some other knitting, so the sweater lost out again.)

The second part of Sunday was devoted to attempting to finish a weekend's worth of household chores in a single afternoon. (No, I didn't succeed.)

Result: I am so not done half of the second sleeve. But I'm definitely getting there.

2005-Sep-22

Yesterday evening I finished sleeve #1. Hooray! I am now just three days behind The Schedule on this project. (We shall not speak of my other current projects, which are weeks behind The Schedule. But I digress.) I'm now about an inch into sleeve #2 and hope to have it half done by the end of Sunday, which would bring me right back in line with The Schedule. I think this is do-able.

2005-Sep-20

My hopes of finishing sleeve #1 by the end of the weekend were dashed by all the socialising we did. (Not to mention the pre-socialising preparations...remember, I have a toddler, and with a small child, you can't leave the house without mucho supplies and A Strategy worthy of a military operation.) However, on the plus side, I have finished the decreasing and am only about two inches away from starting the cuff ribbing. So I think I'm catching up to The Schedule. Sadly, no pictures today, because I stupidly left the camcorder running after watching videos of my beautiful child, and the battery is dead, dead, dead. (Yes, I have a backup battery. It too is dead, for the exact same reason. Yes, I am a moron.)

2005-Sep-15

Lots got done on this last night while watching the incredibly bloated 2-hour finale of Canadian Idol, and today. I have now decreased the sleeve to the point where there are two fewer cable patterns to work in each row. This is a nice time-saver. Not too many more decreases to go.

2005-Sep-14

This project is so far (knock wood) not conforming to the theme of the day. It is completely failing to piss me off. It looks terrific. Here is the completed neck ribbing, which I haven't posted a picture of before:

And here is what the sleeve looked like this morning before I left for work:

It's bigger now.

So help me, I actually sat down and did the math. I figured each sleeve will have about 23,500 stitches in it, and I've done about 11,800 so far. This puts me halfway towards sleeve completion, even though it doesn't look it. (If that statement confuses you, know that the sleeves are tapered. Therefore, the first nine-or-so inches of the sleeve take much longer to do than the second nine-or-so inches.) This means that I am now at the point where I should have been on Sunday night...which means I'm catching up to The Schedule. I may not be able to finish the whole sleeve by Sunday, but it will be pretty close.

(Don't think I don't know that the universe will take revenge upon my presumption for having said that.)

2005-Sep-12

Fantasy: The Schedule says that by last night, I was to have finished the shoulder straps, neck ribbing, and half of the first sleeve.

Reality: I did at least have the shoulder straps and neck ribbing done by the deadline. In fact, I finished them on the commute home on Friday just as we were turning into our street. However, it took me almost all weekend to pick up the stitches for sleeve #1 and by Sunday night only a few rows had been done.

Fantasy for this week: The Schedule says that I must finish the first sleeve by Sunday night. I'm not sure about that one. The sleeve certainly is coming along quite nicely - I think I've done over an inch so far today. So this might be possible.

2005-Sep-7

Shoulder strap #2 is well underway - over half done. I expect to complete it tonight and get an excellent start on the neck ribbing.

2005-Sep-5

Thursday night I finished the first shoulder strap:

Unfortunately, I haven't worked on the sweater since, but at least I know I can do a shoulder strap in about a day. Next up: shoulder strap part deux, and then onto the neck ribbing.

2005-Sep-1

The back is done! The back is done!

I'm very pleased. Last night I began the left shoulder strap, and it's coming along nicely. I'm looking forward to working on it tonight, assuming no yarn comes in today's mail to distract me.

2005-Aug-30

I've mentioned before how badly my camcorder takes pictures of this particular colour of yarn. This is the best I could do, photowise, after all the natural sunlight vanished with the setting sun:

You are looking at the progress of the back of the sweater. Please try to ignore the suckiness of the picture quality as much as possible. Even though the pattern of the sweater is barely visible, you should still be able to see the needle, which indicates where I am in my back-of-the-sweater progress. You can see that it is very close to being the same length as the front of the sweater. With a little bit of work, I expect to be finished the back by the end of tomorrow. Yippee!

2005-Aug-28

My goal of finishing the back by the end of tonight is toast. I have 39 rows of 196 stitches left. There is no way.

2005-Aug-25

My goal of finishing the back this week is looking more and more like an impossible dream. The back is probably about nine inches tall, it's Thursday already, and I've only done about two inches. Taking a week off in the fall just to knit is an idea that's looking better all the time.

2005-Aug-22

Work has begun on the top back. Just a few rows, nothing exciting.

2005-Aug-21

The front is finished!

And this took some doing. The left neck shaping was done first, and then the right. But when I finished the right shaping, I realised I was two pattern rows ahead of where I'd stopped on the left. Great. After MUCH tedious examination (the row markers you see in the picture were inserted to help with this) I concluded that the mistake happened in the left shaping. I ripped it all out and redid it. Happily, I was correct about which side had the error. Can you imagine if I'd ripped out the wrong side?

Notice also the beautifully wound centre-pull ball of the yarn lying nestled within the neckline. This is meaningful. When I started knitting this project, I foolishly began taking yarn right from the cone. (I guess I was thinking I would only work on it at home or something. Duh.) So when it came time to bring the sweater on my commute, I had two choices: bring the big honking 1kg cone with me, or break the yarn so I could wind up something smaller. I chose the big honking cone option and have been breaking my back carrying it around ever since. However, the pattern finally called for breaking the yarn when I was at home with my ball winder, and the result is that on Monday my bag will be much, much lighter. Hooray!

Next week's goal: finish the back.

2005-Aug-18

Neck shaping has begun! I'm currently working on the left side of the front. I had the rest of the front stitches on a spare needle for a while, but I kept stabbing myself in the chest with it, so I transferred the stitches to some spare yarn instead. I'm seriously thinking of doing the same with the stitches for the back and the two gussets - it will make taking the sweater on the subway a lot easier.

2005-Aug-16

This morning, the sweater looked like this:

But it's bigger now. I'm halfway to the neck shaping from the armscye split. Here's a closeup of the pattern (containing what I think is the most accurate colour rendition of the yarn thus far):

2005-Aug-15

I am very pleased. My goal for the week is to finish knitting the front. Since the neck shaping begins when the front measures 18cm from the armscyes, and I am already done 4cm so far, and Monday isn't even over yet, I'm feeling pretty good. It may even be photo-worthy tomorrow.

2005-Aug-11

The sweater has been divided for the armscyes! The gusset stitches are on stitch holders, the back stitches are on a spare needle, and I am currently working on the front. Hoo-ray.

2005-Aug-9

This is what the underarm gussets looked like this morning:

However, after today's knitting I've done another increase on the gussets, so they're now wider. Fewer than 11 rows to go before dividing for the armscyes!

2005-Aug-4

I've reached the underarm gussets! I've reached the underarm gussets! Mind you, they're still really small - but I'm just a few stitches away from being able to increase them again.

2005-Aug-2

Remember my confident assertion that I would get to the underarm gussets by the end of the weekend? Yes, well. That would have required actually working on the sweater this weekend. Nope, I worked on the lacy shawl instead and didn't pick the poor sweater up until this morning. But those underarm gussets are getting closer and closer! The sweater now measures over 12.25" when it just sits there, but it's still a half-inch short of 12.25" when I stretch it as it would be during blocking.

2005-Jul-29

This is now measuring twelve whole inches - eleven and a half when I stretch it the way it would look when blocked. I should be able to start the underarm gussets sometime this weekend.

What I am finding a bit annoying is how the colour displays differently every time I take a picture of this thing. All the previous pictures were not blue enough, but in this picture it is a bit too blue. Ah, the vagaries of photography...

2005-Jul-26

I didn't really have time to do a photo shoot of the sweater today, but I'm hoping to have an updated visual for my next blog entry. The sweater now measures just one inch shy of starting the underarm gussets. However, I'm seriously thinking of working another inch before beginning the gussets, just to make sure the sweater will be long enough. I'm certainly getting a little nervous that it won't be wide enough and that I will have to do some very clever blocking so that the sweater does not cut off the circulation in my BIL's torso. And stretching it width-wise will probably make it a bit shorter, so I'm increasingly convinced that an extra inch or so will be a really good idea. I'm certainly not worried about running out of yarn - the cone is one whole kilogram. (For which, incidentally, I paid $68.13 including shipping and exchange, which works out to $30.90 a pound. For 100% alpaca. Gods, I love eBay.)

2005-Jul-25

It is a testament to the gorgeousness of alpaca that I am not bored out of my skull. This pattern just keeps repeating and repeating and repeating, on fine gauge forever and ever. And I am just loving it. (In a soul-destroyingly dull kind of way. ;) There is definite progress being made - it will probably be picture-worthy again soon. One and a half inches left to go before I can start the underarm gussets. Chug, chug, chug.

2005-Jul-22

My goal of reaching the underarm gussets by the end of Sunday is looking very unattainable right now, particularly since sometime this weekend we'll be visiting my MIL. My BIL lives with her, so obviously I can't take this project there, although maybe I could work on it in the car and then hide it in the car while we go into the house. Gah. All this manoeuvering and intrigue!

2005-Jul-19

I measured it this morning briefly before I left for work - eight inches. The underarm gussets are supposed to start at 12.25", so, given the fact that I probably worked close to a quarter inch on this morning's commute, I have just four inches to go. My new goal is to reach the gusset point by the end of the week. Very ambitious, but I might be able to do it.

2005-Jul-18

This is coming along bee-yew-tifully. I am fewer than five inches away from starting the underarm gussets.

2005-Jul-14

I got a lot of work done on this yesterday, both on the commute and at the SnB, plus a few more rows today. I am very pleased to say that the part with the main pattern is now longer than the ribbing. (I know that doesn't sound like much, but the ribbing is quite long, trust me, it's a big accomplishment.) I also got complete understanding from the other ladies last night regarding my decision to work on this instead of my MIL's Cape Cod sweater. All I had to say was, "But it's alpaca," and I received empathetic nods. See? I'm not so weird. ;)

However, I did meet with a lot of surprised reactions when I answered the 'who is that for?' question, The common response was, "Wow...you must really like your brother-in-law!" I guess maybe most people only knit big, time-consuming stuff like sweaters for super-super-super-important people, like spouses or children or selves. So maybe I am a little weird. :) I didn't think it was such a big deal, myself - I mean, what else was I supposed to do when I looked at the photograph of the sweater in the book and immediately thought, "Wow, that would look terrific on Brian!" Obviously, the Universe was telling me that my BIL needed this sweater. So no choice, really. (Plus, it's such a great excuse to knit this pattern.)

My husband says that the very fact I consider this 'no big deal' is precisely what makes me such a wonderfully selfless human being. At which opinion I must snort. I am, and always have been, one of the most self-centric people I know. I want to make this sweater for my BIL because a) I will enjoy making it, b) his (hopefully) enthusiastic reaction to the gift will make me feel awesome, and c) those who see the sweater will be (hopefully) impressed with my knitting skills. It's self-aggrandisement at its best. Don't be fooled.

2005-Jul-12

"What?" the more perceptive among you may be saying to yourself. "Wasn't she supposed to abandon Stornaway this week and get back to The Schedule, which says she has to get going on her MIL's Cape Cod sweater?"

Well...you're right. I have only one thing to say in my defence:

It's alpaca.

It is mesmerizingly soft and it makes me feel happy. With this stuff around, I fear the Cape Cod sweater has no chance.

(The texture pattern looks much better in person, trust me.)

2005-Jul-9

I got a few more rows done on the commute home on Tuesday, but I haven't worked any further on it since then due to Counterpane blanket panic. :)

2005-Jul-5

The Schedule, in its infinite wisdom, dictates that this week I must go back to working on my MIL's Cape Cod sweater. However, we were (as usual) running a bit late this morning, and the thought of carefully placing the four highly-prone-to-tangling skeins of yarn for this sweater strategically in my bag really got the back of my neck all tense. No, I needed a project I could just dump right in my bag so I could get the heck out the door. What could I bring that would satisfy the spirit of The Schedule? Why, the blue alpaca Stornaway sweater, of course. :) It and the Cape Cod are both Christmas projects, so I can trade one of my Stornaway weeks for a Cape Cod week and still be good, schedule-wise. So, into my bag went the sweater-in-progress and the big honkin' cone of alpaca, and away we went. And what a fantastic freakin' decision that was. The alpaca is sooo soft. It feels sooo good. I am sooo loving working on it. I will be hard-pressed to go back to the cotton/linen blend of Cape Cod next week, I tell ya. It felt so good that at lunch I lost my head and offered one of my knitting co-workers the opportunity to feel up the cone. My other co-workers present were kind of shocked. All of them (the knitting co-worker included) thought it was very strange that I would brazenly invite someone to - ahem - 'stroke my alpaca'.

2005-Feb-17

In hunting around for some knitting stuff last night, I happened once again to touch the cone of alpaca yarn. A trancelike state was immediately achieved. My husband, watching me at the time, thought I'd hurt myself or something. Then he realised I was merely communing with alpaca. I believe eyes were rolled. But then about five minutes later he touched the stuff and said, "Hey! This is really soft..." and started stroking it reverently. I HAVE CONVERTED HIM. Muahahahaha.

2005-Feb-2

No progress, just a photo:

2004-Nov-22

No work was done, other than moving all the working stitches onto different needles to free up various sizes of circulars for the cream Stornawawy sweater, but one of the other things I did this weekend was figure out a good gift ideal for this BIL for Christmas. So now there is no pressure to complete this sweater this year! (Other than the usual pressure of the softness of the alpaca calling my name, of course.)

2004-Nov-18

No progress, but I did have to put all the stitches on a holder to free up my 3mm circular so I could continue work on the cream Stornaway sweater. And that meant getting another feel of the alpaca. I just about melted. Unnnhhh, that stuff is niiiice.

2004-Nov-15

No progress. Amazingly, I resisted. I swear, the alpaca is calling to me. Augh! It is my cherished hope that I will finish the other two Christmas sweaters well in advance of the Big Day so that I can try to get this one in time for Christmas, too.

As of 2004-Nov-08

I am LOVING this yarn. Really got going on the sweater this weekend and finished the bottom ribbing this morning in the car. Gosh I wish I could finish it in time for this Christmas, but this is unlikely. This is dangerous - this is a very tempting project and I can see myself putting off high-priority projects to work on it. I will have to be strong. Tough, because the yarn is so soft. Argh!