arguchik | i has problem...

i finished another sweater last night. i have been a little manic with the knitting lately...going a little stir crazy, i guess. i have been having good writing days lately too (not every day, but many days), so i'm not knitting to the exclusion of my real work or anything. but still, i started this like a week and a half ago.

to be fair, this sweater is knit on #10.5 needles, which, for the non-knitters out there, are big--6.5 millimeters, specifically. plus it's a really simple design (i wrote it myself, with help from jacqueline fee's book the sweater workshop, as with my previous sweater project). so this sweater knitted up fast. it's a beautiful 100% merino wool rambling-spun yarn (i.e. it's 1-ply) in a space-dyed marbled pattern (it's what they call "self-striping" yarn because the color repeats are of really long periodicity). the pictures don't do it justice. the base color is a reddish brown, which runs throughout, and that is twisted with space-dyed turquoise, green, and gold, hence the "stripes." i like that the stripes turned out unevenly, so the sleeves don't quite match, and the body striping changes at the yoke. i have plenty of yarn left to build a hat.

because the yarn is so beautiful, i kept the design of the sweater really simple. it's straight-up stockinette stitch with 2x2 ribbing at the cuffs, hem, and neck. it's seamless with raglan sleeves (PSSO, PSSO-R for the raglan decreases). i wanted the hem to be boxy, so i used the same number of stitches as for the body and did the ribbing on slightly smaller (#9) needles. (i did the cuffs and the inside of the turtleneck collar on #8's; the outside of the collar on #10.5's.) the sleeves turned out a little bit too long, so i rolled them up. the sweater has a relaxed fit and hits at the low hip (it covers the fly of my jeans).

i'm very happy with it--i wanted a simple, everyday sweater made out of interesting yarn, and that's what i got. it's super comfortable, lofty, soft, and itch-free even against my neck.

my next big project will be knit with this beautiful 50% alpaca/50% lambswool yarn from berroco, in an eggplant color. i'm still deciding what i want to do with it. in the meantime, i'm going to knit some smaller stuff. L wants a cover for her "clicker" (it's a law school classroom item), i have a scarf in the works, and

glaucon wants a hat or two i think. he has also requested that i knit him a replica of the dude's sweater from the big lebowski, which i think will be pretty straightforward once i figure out how to graph the pattern.

here it is: