St Brigid: August 2004 Archives

Lots and lots more to go!

I finished one whole repeat on St Brigid. I'm still in love with the Silky Wool.

dark grey yarn + grey day = poor pic

That's the best pic I was able to get. The yarn and overcast skies is making for bad blog imagery.

Thanks for all your suggestions last week about the wonky single knit stitches. I've been pulling the purls REALLY REALLY tightly and it has been helping. It's not perfect but it's much improved. I'll post a pic when I can get a decent one of the stitches.

Starmore Row Gauge?

I've heard comments about it being really difficult to attain Starmore's row gauge. Does anyone know what a full repeat should measure? My row gauge is tighter than it should be. So even though I'm short I will be doing all 8 repeats. No shortcuts on this sweater!

Funny thing is, I thought people typically got fewer rows per inch than her gauge.

Remember my St. Brigid swatch from a few days ago?

The astute observer may have noticed that my single knit stitches are wonky. I don't know what to do to fix it. I've tried making sure I tighten the yarn when I switch from P to K and then back to P. Isn't really working. I've tried wrapping the yarn in the other direction and untwisting it on the WS row. Also didn't do the trick.

What else can I do? I'm really annoyed with the way it looks and for some reason I just can't seem to get it right! Grrrrr.....

I did a few more rows on St Brigid last night and I love the way the cables are showing up!

The yarn is a dream to knit. It's soft and it doesn't split. And at almost 200 yards per hank it's a good value too.

I was greeted by a UPS box swen I went to get the mail before we left for Cape May on Thursday. I had placed on OldNavy.com order and thought it was that. Since I ordered fall clothing I almost didn't even open it. But boy was I glad I did. It was my Webs order!!!! Amazingly, the person who took my order must have went back into the warehouse right then and there to pick my order.

So you know what came with me to Cape May, right? Yup, a cone of Donegal Tweed in grey heather.

It's a gorgeous yarn that reminds me alot of Rowan Felted Tweed. The big difference between the two is that the Donegal is a much harsher yarn. The alpaca in the FT makes for a very soft hand.

I swatched and washed on Friday morning. I got perfect stitch gauge the first time round after washing! Here's the swatch:

I'm not sure how obvious it is in the pic, but I was a little concerned about being able to distinguish texture in this yarn. The swatch is done in double seed stitch and it's not that clear. It looks sorta bubbly but you can't really see the texture clearly.

I cast on and decided I'd see how it looked after a few rows. I got through about 10 rows when I finally had to concede. It just wasn't showing the texture of the cables enough. I think it's a combo of the darker yarn plus the tweed that's just too much to show off cables.

I did go into Cape May's LYS -- Fiber Arts Yarn Shop. I'll write a full review (probably tomorrow) but for now I'll tell you that while they did carry a few contenders I couldn't find a color I liked that had enough stock. This sweater takes a ton of yardage!

So yesterday I decided to stop by another LYS and purchased a yarn I never would have expected for this sweater -- Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I also thought this yarn felt too silky for my taste, but the store had a sweater sample and the washed yarn was beautiful! I wasn't concerned about cables showing clearly in this yarn since that's what Elsebeth is known for. I went with a medium grey (big surprise, right?). Here's my swatch:

The texture shows up much better in this yarn. In its prewashed state it felt very airy, but it bloomed alot once washed. The yarn is lightweight and spongy. I'm very happy with it.

Once I finished swatching I did cast on for it again, but I only got through a few rows. I'll post pics later in the week once there's something worth showing.

Cape May

We had a great time! I took some pics and I'll get together a mini-album of them later in the week.

A big thank you goes out to everyone who gave me input and advice on my yarn choice. I did some more thinking about it last night as well.

I was very tempted to order some Alice Starmore yarn. The tweeds are amazingly complex and it has a lovely spin to it. But, I've had some bad experience lately trying to choose colors over the web and I didn't want to risk spending all that money on AS yarn and being disappointed.

I do have the Leo scarf kit so I looked thru the colors to see if there was something that jumped out at me. While I did find a reddish brown and a blue that were "OK", none were quite the shade I had in mind.

So, the AS yarn will have to wait for another day.

And then Naomi's comment came through. She mentioned she ordered some Donegal Tweed from Webs. I checked out Webs and Wow! This is it. At $10/pound -- that's 15 bucks with a couple hundred extra yards -- I'm comfortable taking a chance. Heck, if I really dislike them all I can probably offload them on eBay for a profit.

I couldn't decide so I ordered 3 colors: Dark Blue Heather w/med blue nubs (#2012), Dark Grey w/med blue nubs (#2013), and Teak w/rust nubs (#3232). The woman said it can take 2-3 weeks to get the orders delivered. Ugh! I mentioned that I wanted to get started on my knitalong Sept 1st and she said she'd try to get back there and pull the yarn herself if it was possible. *fingers crossed*

So, an extra big thank you goes out to Naomi for pointing out this sale to me.

I was over reading Katy's blog yesterday when I saw she is co-hosting a St. Brigid along. I really shouldn't be starting another project -- especially another big cabley one. But as luck has it I finally have my hands on the pattern. I've loved this one for a long long time. I don't think I can bear to watch the St. Brigids unfolding before my eyes.

Last night I found myself here perusing yarn colors. Can you believe it though, VY doesn't seem to have a good heathery grey! I've been considering grey or a navy. I know you're thinking the navy would be too dark. Be in person I've seen some gorgeous dark cabled sweaters and they look really nice. Plus, if I'm going to be putting in all that effort it might as well be in a color I love.

So, I'm considering a few other yarn choices:

• Rowan Felted Tweed - I've always loved this yarn and its light weight is a definite plus for such a big sweater.
• Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK - Nice color choices as well, but with a heavier hand.
• Jaegar Matchmaker Merino - Large color palette and machine washable

I've also been considering Araucania Nature Wool. I'm making one sweater from a drabby green right now and it does show up cables nicely. It would certainly be an economical choice.

So dear readers, please weigh in with your opinions. Do you like one of the ones I listed? Any bad experiences? Or, have a better yarn in mind?

I'm not concerned as much with price on this one as I am with a yarn that will be a good long-term choice. This will undoubtedly be my biggest project I've ever undertaken and I want to make sure I pick the right yarn to go with it.