Valencia Progress

I am almost to the sleeves on my Valencia! I am so proud! I love this sweater!


This is the front. I decided not to do the waist shaping, since it is so heavily ribbed. I really want to make sure it fits and this way it definitely will!


This is the cable up the back. I also love that since the yarn is my handpainted superwash worsted each ball is a tiny bit different. So the first one was very purple and the second one has a bit more blue in it. I like that it looks on purpose as it shifts in color.

I can't wait to get it all done and then try it on. I might even get a photo up here with me wearing it, instead of Maud. We'll see, I make no promises.

Valencia KAL

So, I have been doing some knitting, in between contacting instructors for the CGFF, putting together promotional items for Chrissy's CSK, and taking care of a 4 1/2 month old who is starting to teeth. Ah, life is exciting. Anyway, on to the knitting!

I started with recovering the yarn from this sweater. I wasn't happy with the sweater from about the time I knit it. I mistakenly knit the wrong size. Also I tried switching yarn back and forth to avoid pooling or stripes with my handpainted yarn. It didn't end up pooling, but it did end up making this line where I switched balls of yarn, right down the front of it, which drove me a little crazy. So, what's the point in owning a sweater you are never going to wear? Well, my solution is to rip it and start over with the yarn! The yarn is my Superwash Worsted in color Sugarplum Fairy.

I decided I wanted to knit the new sweater by Gardiner Yarn Works, called Valencia. Which always reminds me of the song by the same name by the Decemberists. This is the back of the sweater.


This is the front of the sweater. This is one repeat of the cable pattern. At this point I put it on very long needles and tried it on. I found it was too small, so ripped out and tried again. The trick with this sweater is it has a lot of negative ease so it will be form fitting. I somehow lied to myself and thought the second to the last size would somehow magically fit with 10+ inches of negative ease, even though the pattern very distinctly shows it being worn at 8 inches. Silly me, so I ripped this one and knit the largest size, which has about 6 inches of negative ease. I am actually past this point on the second try. This top knits up so fast and so far has been a lot of fun! I just haven't quite had time to photograph it.

Anyway, at this point I came across a couple of other people on the Gardiner Yarn Works group on Ravelry who wanted to have a knit-a-long for the sweater. So I have decided to join them since I'm already knitting it myself. Chrissy even pops in occasionally to answer questions and give advice. So if you want to knit one too, make sure to check out the group on Ravelry. I am sure I'm going to learn a lot while knitting this one!