Osborn Fiber Studio

I have one more finished sweater to share with you from November. This is the first sweater I’ve ever knit from a kit. One year for a birthday or Christmas, I forget which, I asked my mum to get me any colourful kit from KDD, as I’m such a big fan and hadn’t tried their kits yet. Mum made a great choice and got me the kit for the original colourful version of Lilia’s Day. The pattern has since been re-released in a natural-shades, two-colour version that is also very striking.

The way I’ve been continuing to knit sweaters so quickly this fall is by means of evenings at home watching TV with Jared. We’ve been working our way through the Defenders series, formerly on Netflix and now on Disney+, for maybe a year or so? We’ve enjoyed all the shows (except Iron Fist), and we enjoy the wind-down time together. (PSA it is very much an adult series of shows.) Plain knitting just keeps my hands busy, and I’m more than contented with the sweaters that keep appearing.

So, after being freed from Sleeve Island for the Weekender-Metamorphic sweater, I jumped right on sleeve island and cast on the sleeves first. One week of mindless knitting letter, and I had wearable swatches.

This was my first time using the Schiehallion yarn, and it’s very much like a mill-spun version of the 2-ply DK yarns I’ve been spinning on repeat for the last two years. It’s a breed-specific blend of 70/30 Corriedale/Cheviot. The softness of the Corriedale dominates the texture, but the downy Cheviot gives it some extra puff. It’s gently twisted, but since it’s plied in the S direction I don’t untwist it while I knit.

It felt familiar, somehow, even though I’d never used it. So I felt perfectly comfortable guessing at a size, casting on sleeves, knitting them as giant swatches, then blocking them to confirm my gauge was close enough. It was right on the money, so the body went on the needles, and I knit it absent-mindedly over the course of a week or so.

Now, here’s where I started to trip over myself. I like knitting my sweaters from the top down, especially seamless yoke sweaters. Bottom up is great for being modular, for knowing your gauge and fit are good without having to rip and re-knit yokes. But with top-down, you can adjust the size as you go depending on how much yarn you have. Bottom up seamless sweaters often have me second-guessing. The size I picked was at the top range of sizes calling for 9 skeins of MC, and I stressed about it all the way up the body.

If you can name the video game I’m playing in the background of this picture, let me know so we can be best friends.

I was this far into the yoke when [what I thought was] my last ball of yarn ran alarmingly low. Now, I’ve given away the punchline in those brackets. It was, indeed, not my last ball of white. My last ball of white was hiding at the bottom of the bag with the rest of the balls of colours. But the important thing was that I thought it was my last ball, and everything that followed came of not looking far enough into the bag.

Because this yarn was so spinnerly and felt so familiar, I was convinced that I could replicate it. When I started to think I was running out of yarn, the desire grew within me to give it a go. I knew it was worsted spun, so I would choose one of my fleeces and comb it. It would be the perfect excuse to try out my new Lock Pop, which Jared had bought me in May and I hadn’t used yet. So that’s just what I did, and I had a ton of fun doing it.

I lock-popped wool from this lovely rescued Tunis fleece until I had 100 grams post-popping.

I learned that combing popped locks is a dream. Post combing, I had 80g of these perfect nests.

I unplied a scrap of the commercial yarn and used one of the plies as a guide for my singles.

And I made this gorgeous skein, which I’m immensely proud of.

Here it is next to the commercial yarn, and here’s what I learned from the project. Gauge-wise, my handspun was a perfect match, and I’m over the moon with how even it is. (Thank you hand-combed prep!) I could have put in a titch less twist; commercial yarn always has less twist than I want to put in my handspun. My yarn is definitely a shade or two more yellow; the locks had significant yellowing that isn’t going anywhere. And texturally, the Tunis is more wiry and hairy. Schiehallion has that almost felt-like softness and matte texture of a gently spun finewool; the Tunis is more hairy and shiny.

In very poor light, though, the match was good enough in the project. I transitioned the Tunis yarn into the yoke by using two rounds of new yarn and one round of old until I ran out of the commercial yarn. In natural light it would be more glaring. I think it would have been the sort of thing that no one would have noticed if they weren’t looking for it. I would notice it, and it would make me feel clever. If other knitters noticed it, I’d have a story about how clever I was.

But you already know what happened next. I had just bound off the collar, and was looking through my bags to see if there were any stray needles to put away, when I found the missing ball of white. I had a good laugh and went to bed, then the next day I ripped the yoke back to where I’d added the Tunis yarn. I re-knit it that day, with half a ball to spare.

It would figure that even when knitting a sweater from a kit, in the exact yarn and colours shown in the original pattern, I’d find a way to turn it into a goofy story.

The fit is great. I knit the 6th size, which has about 5″ of positive ease for me. That’s been my sweet spot for pullovers for a couple of years now.

The yarn is really excellent. A++ would recommend. Though, obviously, now I just want to spin it. I love that it’s smooth and worsted-spun, but the Cheviot keeps it springy. I will keep an eye on how it wears.

I wore it all last weekend during a visit to Arviat, and I’ll wear it in the next couple of days when I film the next episode of the Wool Circle. It’s very festive, and it’s getting me over my inexplicable hesitancy to wear white or cream.

I think I’ll wear this loads all during the holiday season.

I’ve just faced down the calendar of December events, and I’m feeling panicky, so I’ll cut this post off here. I hope your Christmas Crazies are manageable this year, that you find lots of time to reflect on the reason for the season, that you get to enjoy your loved ones, and that the spiritual discipline of celebration bears much fruit in your heart. Happy making, my friends.