WIP: Wisteria Sweater

I've started a new sweater with hand dyed yarn. During the years I've significantly improved my abilities in designing my own sweaters and now I'm pretty comfortable when I plan a sweater or a cardigan bottom-up. But I've shied away from top-down designs and know little about these constrictions, and more specifically how to make the front lower than the back. But it was high time to dip my toes into these design challenges too, so here is my first self-designed top-down raglan with a round neckline.

I started the sweater imitating Boknits' version of Water's edge cardigan. I had made some calculations for the neckline, based on my experience with designing it bottom-up. But due to my inexperience I felt unsure in the result and hurried the increases, so the neckline is not as low and smooth as it might have been if I had followed my initial notes. I'll know better next time.

When I reached the waist I decided that I'd prefer a lower gathered panel, like in Kim Hargreaves' Swallow, so I continued knitting and gradually increasing at the sides until I reached the beginning of the hips. Now I'm at the peplum part and so far I'm loving it.

The yarn is a mix of two different Zegna Baruffa bobbin yarns - Merino extrafine 1500 m / 100 g, which dyed perfectly and Mousse 1400 m / 100 g, which is sort of mohair and almost didn't absorb the dye. For the dye bath I used the plum dye from my previous dye job and some light red. Because I first skeined the two yarns together and then dyed the skein I suspect the merino absorbed the dye and left little for the mohair. The latter remained like a light lilac cloud over the deeper coloured merino. Frankly, I was initially very disappointed, looking at the skein, but as I began to knit it I grew to like it.

The sweater is very light - I've almost finished the body and so far I've knit about 80 g of the yarn! However I noticed that with the change of the number of stitches around the body I got some pooling of colors around the waist. It's not that noticeable but next time I should better follow the advice indi dyers often give - alternate skeins.

And to improve my dyeing knowledge and experience I recently bought this excellent book by Felicia Lo. My next dye job will probably be an attempt to replicate the yarn on the cover.

Sea Breeze Haruni

My third Haruni is ready and I am very happy and proud with it! It is intended as a present for the leader of the National Biology team, an incredible University professor and a very kind, warm and genial person. I know she wears shawls and I wanted to make something unique and beautiful for her. Haruni was almost my immediate choice as a pattern - I know it, I love it and it is easy and quick for me to knit. But the yarn? I was certain I wanted it to be hand-painted but my attempt at marbled pastels was not very pleasing for me.

Here's the finished Haruni, fresh off the needles, unblocked and in its initial colors. As I have the red Haruni I knit for Gaby a few years ago, I've positioned both on top of each other to illustrate the difference blocking makes for lace shawls. The new Haruni is knit with a bit thicker yarn (375 m / 100 g) compared to the red Cashmira Fine (500 m / 100 g) on 3.75 mm Addi lace needles, compared to 3.5 mm Addi for the red shawl and I also made two more repeats of chart A, which relates to larger charts B and C. So, though the unblocked new shawl looks the same as the blocked red Haruni, it is actually much, much larger, which was my aim (the teacher is a woman, much larger than Gaby and I wanted a shawl that would fit her comfortably).

I had about 60 g left of the yarn and I knew I wanted to change the color. I really didn't like the pale babyish tones I got from my dye job.

So I split the remaining yarn into two mini skeins and tried going into two directions - turquoise glazing or purple overdying. I made my dye solutions, then I dyed the miniskeins in a portion of the respective solution, proportionate to the weight of the miniskein to the weight of the shawl, so that if I liked the result I would know that the remaining part of the dye solution, applied in the same way to the shawl, would produce the same result.
I like both skeins, but the turquoise glazing was closer to my initial idea, preserving the purple and green undertones of the first dye job, so this is what I chose for the shawl. And I'm keeping the plum dye for another project as i really like the color of the second skein.

This is the size of the new shawl after blocking - the lace is open and it has grown significantly bigger than the red Haruni.

I LOVE the new color of the shawl - it is rich and subtle and interesting. I hope so much that the recipient will like it too.

Pattern: Haruni by Emily Ross
Yarn: Italian bobbin merino extrafine, 135 g, hand dyed
Needle: 3.75 mm Addi lace circular needles
Time to knit: 4 days

Asherton Reversible Scarf

Modelled above by my son, this is another present for a friend. The pattern is easy, yet interesting and engaging with its pure geometric lines and it is totally reversible. For me this is one of the best men's scarf patterns out there.

Pattern: Asherton Reversible Scarf
Yarn: Zegna Baruffa, Spring 1, 100% merino, Italian bobbin yarn, 200 g
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: 4 evenings

The yarn is very thin - 800 m / 100 g, so I knit it in four threads held together. The color is gray melange, with subtle purple, yellowish, blue and red nuances mixed with the lighter and darker gray and it's a chameleon - dependent on the direction of the light it might look lighter or darker.

The size I chose is 20 cm wide and 160 cm long - I think an average size for a man's scarf. For this size I did three repeats of the pattern in width and ten and a half (the half is for symmetry) repeats of the pattern in length.

This merino is very soft and pleasant to the skin, I hope the new owner would appreciate it. I had ordered 300 g of this yarn, so now I'm knitting a hat to make it a set.