NaKniSweMo

Whooo Hoooo! November 1st and time to cast on for the 2nd Annual National Knit a Sweater Month (not to be confused with National Novel Writing Month--although I've heard rumblings on Rav of some people doing both! Yikes!) My project for the month is Cobblestone for CD. Since we last met, I've swatched in Forest Heather Wool of the Andes with no luck. I hated the fabric at the suggested gauge. Prior to Stephanie mentioning her love for Valley Yarns English Tweed, I had been keeping my eye on cones in a couple of colorways. Once she talked about the yarn on her blog last month, the number of lbs available of the yarn began to drop rapidly. I moved quickly and got 2 lbs each of Lichen and Dark Gold. All the lichen has been skeined, washed, rinsed, and balled--that's over 2000 yds. I swatched last weekend and came close to gauge with a size 8 addi, but I really didn't like the fabric that produced either. I also had swatched with a 7 and loved the tightish fabric it produced. Knowing I had more than enough yarn to make a larger size with the smaller gauge I've decided to knit the smaller gauge on 7s to get a nice warm sweater for CD. I didn't have enough yarn of the WOA to do this and couldn't justify another yarn purchase after the English Tweed, which was all originally planned to be used for me. I really thought that I would have gotten the Cambridge Jacket finished before today, but I still have 2/3 of a sleeve left. Instead of casting on Cobblestone with the other hanging over my head, I'll finish the sleeve first--should have that done by this evening. That will leave the rest of the month to concentrate on Cobblestone with occasional forays into The Teen's hoodie.

About the Cambridge Jacket, you may recall that the sleeve caps were rather puffy after my initial attempt at Barbara Walkers inset sleeve knit from the top down. I went with the numbers provided in the pattern, but that was the mistake. After reading about Brooklyn Tweed employing BW's method on his Jarrett (and yes, I did add this sweater to my queue, because it would be oh, so perfect for my dad, even more perfect than the Cambridge Jacket. So, if for some reason, this one doesn't work out, Jarrett is waiting in the wings for him. But I digress......), I tried to find the tutorial mentioned in his post. Sadly, the author had removed her blog in July. Christine being the great friend and 'net guru she is, told me about web archive at SnB last week, and then sent me the link to the very tutorial I needed! Thanks Christine! After doing a bit of math, I used 80 stitches rather than the 96 called for in the pattern and the sleeve caps look perfect now; they fit in nice and flat, no bunching at all. No more sewing in those nasty sleeves, although I don't mind seaming the body anymore, after trying mattress stitch.