Happy New Year everyone!
Oogy and I have completed 2013's Thing-a-Month theme. It went very well until we both got rather busy as the holidays approached. My October luxury fiber project is stagnant and December's woven rug was disappointing enough that it will not be mentioned again, and certainly not shown. These minor issues should not distract from the overall success of our endeavor. If I had to choose a favorite, it was
January's BFF scarf, which I wear at least once a week.
We have devised a new theme for 2014: Many Rs. You are probably familiar with the 3 Rs of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. This concept can be extended to apply to knitting, and might also include Reinvent, Reassemble,
Repent, Repurpose,
Repulse, Resume,
Revile, Revise, Refine, and so on. This theme is meant to encourage us to look deep into the stash for items that have been languishing there.
My first R project this year is to Revise a sweater that I finished last year, after struggling with its design for a few years before that. I used wool from Beaver Brook Farm in a very homey natural brown color, with a subtle accent edging of another CT-grown wool that I dyed blue. I wore it once, but hated the way the sleeves were set. The sweater body was too wide at the shoulders, making the sleeves poof out in a very unflattering manner. I dug it out of hiding and took it apart.
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| It was finished, but not exactly wearable. |
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| I ripped it out to the waist. The resulting ultra-curly skeins were washed and made into nearly-new balls. |
I decided to make the sweater a bit longer in the body, so I added about an inch before making new underarm openings, and then proceeded to reknit the back and front. The earlier version featured an interesting neck-line, but the revised version is a high crew neck, not quite mock-turtle neck. It is on the drying rack and will be featured in the next blog post.
My assistant was his usual helpful self during the revision.
I hope your 2014 is off to a great beginning!
