5.18.2010

the sweater i knit in a day

It must have been last summer that I found the yarn at a Smiley's sale. Who could resist buying a whole bag of Rowan Biggy Print for $6 - a yarn that normally goes for over $10 a skein in stores? I'd used some in college to make hats, and loved the colors, but it was too expensive to become a favorite yarn. Smiley's only had a solid-colored bright pink, not my favorite, but I bought two bags with the vague notion of making a sweater.

An extensive Ravelry search for patterns for patterns was the next step. I wasn't interested in a solidly stockinette sweater. First I searched patterns with Rowan Biggy Print (or their similar yarn Big Wool) as the recommended yarn, but nothing caught my eye. I poured over page after page of projects knit with both yarns, but nothing clicked for me. Then I searched for yarns that seemed to be the same gauge and searched patterns with that as their recommended yarns, and that is how I found Wrenna.

When Sarah came to visit me last October I cast on for Wrenna, thinking that she could help if I got stuck on my first sweater project. A couple of days and about 14 rows into the sweater I lost a couple of stitches. I needed something more mindless to knit while hanging out with Sarah, and something more portable than 400g of superbulky yarn for our excursion to Boston, so I set the project aside & started some socks.

Fast forward to May: Sarah is coming back for another visit in less than 2 weeks (!!!), and I'd promised her the leftovers from the 2 bags of yarn once I'd finished the sweater. My DVR was at 90-something% full because I've been away on the weekends, and too busy during the week to watch much TV. I'd blocked out Sunday for a road trip to Webs' tent sale, but it just made more sense to stay home & knit down my stash (and my DVR) rather than aquire more.

Sunday morning I cast on the sweater, and 13 hours later I cast off the second sleeve :) I either used a whole bag of yarn or I lost a skein or two, I can't tell yet because I weave in ends as I go. There's a photo on my project page but it's got a lot of stuff in the background so I'm not re-posting it here.

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