I Shall Wear Purple - Handspun

Hello Gentle Readers. I hope those of you in the northern hemisphere are staying warm. Mother Nature has treated us to an arctic blast. Saturday through Tuesday were bitterly cold. The birds gobble seeds from the feeder. They must need a lot of calories to stay warm. Maybe that is my excuse for cookies with hot tea. Monday the winter sun shone in the sky in and out of clouds. When the cold is extreme and persistent, the air takes on a different light. Tuesday's low was -12 degrees. Today the temperatures begin to moderate. Although it was too cold to walk, I try to keep moving indoors with yoga videos and upper body weights. "Move it or lose it" as the cliche goes. 

Today I'm joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday. I finished this sweater, knit mostly from handspun yarn. Monday night I wove in many ends. I spun the darker colored yarn on spindles that produced small skeins of yarn. 

The other yarn was spun on a wheel so the skeins were larger. The two-ply construction of the gray Patagonia Organic Merino by Juniper Moon combines nicely with my two-ply handspun. In order to achieve a reasonable gauge with the darker colored yarn, I held it with a strand of mohair silk lace. I wondered if the silk in the lighter colored yarn and the fuzzy mohair with the darker yarn would clash but given the variegation of the yarns, it wasn't a problem. 

This is what I learned while knitting this sweater. When knitting with a yarn I have used before (the Patagonia), I'm treating the yoke as a swatch. Even though it might involve some frogging, more knitting gives me a better idea of the fabric and gauge. In this case, I knit one yoke down to the sleeve split that I frogged. And that's after I knit a gauge swatch that was spot on. On a whim, I measured my chest which I haven't done for quite some time. Holy cow, my bra size and my chest measurement are not the same. What a difference this made. 😊 Thick and thin handspun yarn is forgiving. Wet block often. I blocked this sweater twice while in progress and once at the end. Knitting sleeves in tandem with the body is a little fiddly but doable.  When I finished the body, I had less than three inches to knit on both sleeves. That was fun. So now because I am old woman and whether or not horizontal stripes flatter, I shall wear purple - handspun.  

To celebrate, I cast on a pair of mitts for a friend who is having a bit of a hard time. I'm looking forward to a more color in my knitting but I thought this soft gray suited her. This pattern, with a leaf as the thumb gusset, is fun to knit. This is my fifth or sixth pair. 

Over the weekend, I finished reading Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya Myles. I thought the biography was excellent and provided a rich understanding of Harriet Tubman. Myles' research methods are intelligent and thoughtful. She respects her sources while pointing out possible shortcomings. She clearly identifies speculation and her reasoning based on research. The structure of the book including title and epigraphs for each section, the art and photography, as well as the author's notes make this a book worth reading. 

I suppose the grocery list won't make itself.  Onward we go through January. Take good care.