It's June in Georgia - A Great Time to Think Sweaters!

Now that the move is settling out a little, I have some time to actually look at some of my in progress projects. One of the major ones is the sweater for Necropolis I agreed to make after his post Christmas pronouncement of "You never knit anything for me."

Well, this is true. I never really considered it as 1) Nec's tastes in clothing are almost as particular as mine and B) I figured it was a waste of good yarn to make the effort. However, with his whiny-butt statement, I set off on the unenviable task of trying to find something I thought I would find remotely interesting to knit, and he would agree to wear. Eventually, I stumbled on one of Brooklyn Tweed's submissions to Interweave Knits in the Fall '07 issue. It's called Cobblestone, and it just a basic sweater. Now, Nec's not generally a sweater type of guy. And, I was very upfront with him (ad nauseum) that if I took the time to do this, I would be expecting more than the occasional wear. He agreed, and I set off to find the right yarn.

This proved to be a challenge of epic proportions.

We live, basically, on the line that equatorially bisects the state, affectionately referred to by all Georgia History students as "The Fall Line". Last winter, I wore my wool coat a grand total of twice, and only because I wore a lighter weight dress than the temperature required. We haven't had anything resembling real snow or ice since MUC was an infant (he's now 7). And, even I don't wear pullover style sweaters unless it is COLD (re: not in a very long time). So, if I expect the sweater to see some wear time, the yarn would have to be a special blend. I was thinking something like a lighter weight wool, but with some of the same warm/cool properties of a silk blend as well. Try finding that in a commercial yarn. It was either near impossible or prohibitively expensive.

Which lead to my chatting it up on Ravelry on one of the boards. I ran across someone who actually does the washing/dying/carding/combing/blending, and better yet, she was a dream to work with. I gave her my less than specific, obtusely general ideas, and she turned it into a roving that was just wonderful. I spun it into a yarn, and checked to see if the gauge was at least in the ballpark, and we were cooking with gas! (By the way, I really can't say enough wonderful things about Julie and her fiber, so if you're looking for something of that nature, I really suggest you check out her Etsy Store ).

I've spun a specific amount of the fiber, to check my yards/oz, and then we'll determine the exact amount I'll need for the entire project. This is something I'm really looking forward to seeing to the end result.