Not too long ago, I was adventuring in a great experiment. For over a year, I lived here in Portland Oregon without a car – taking public transportation and riding my bike everywhere.
Not only did lots of knitting get done at bus stops, etc. but on one lovely day, a fellow rider pointed me to an incredile house sale where I traded one dollar a skein for some glorious Harrisville Higland Heather wool…
I wound it all up and gave it a little squeeze of fresh Portland air for good measure and then left it to linger in deep stash, waiting (and waiting, and waiting…)
But something in the changing weather and leaves all around me in recent weeks awoke my fascination with this lovely yarn. The color of the majority of it is actually named “FOLIAGE” and it has all the beautiful variations of the russet, gold and splashes of persimmon you see in the autumn landscape.
I cast on an IBA cardigan – which is perfect for this yarn.
The Highland Heather has some nice body to it and I’m thinking will produce one of those essential wear-it-around-the-house-for-everything wrappers I love to put together.
My favorite yarns seem to be those that can last the test of time and don’t have to be babied but work for their room and board! So far, it’s turning out great – the front bands and back detail are lovely and dimensional with the heathery tones.
The only problem (besides not having more hours in the day to knit knit knit and get it done faster), is I’m not really sure I have enough to make this as long as I’d really love it to be! Lately, I’ve be enthralled with Really Long Cardigans – and if this could go to almost knee-length, it would be awesome.
You know what that means, right?
It’s time for, drum roll, another edition of Yarn Chicken here at Studio Chic.
I have 5 skeins of the Foliage color; my estimates, based on years of making bottom-up sewn sweaters are roughly:
• 1 skein for each sleeve = 2 skeins used
• 2 skeins for the Back and
• 1 skein each for the Fronts
Ooops. That’s 6 skeins (I only have 5 in Foliage) AND this is a top-down sweater! Hmmm. Would my normal theory hold?
To test it, once I finished the Yoke and its current ball of yarn, the Iba cardi was about 4″ beyond where you split for the Body. To that point, I’d used 2 skeins.
Next, I put all the Body stitches on scrap yarn, so I could knit the Sleeves and see how much yarn remained.
With whatever, if any, yarn was left over from them, I could add it to my 1-skein targeted for the lower Body and just knit until the yarn runs out! (Cue: FAVE knitting action!)
This time, I also basted the Body SHUT with some scrap yarn – one of my Pet Peeves with top-down sweaters is how they flop around when you’re knitting the sleeves – IMHO, lots of avoidable wear’n’tear cut down with this little detour. This means it can sit in my lap (nice bonus: a little warmth) and I can go to town on those sleeves.
When I’m ready to go on with the Body knitting, it’s an easy remove and back on the needles.
Notice also, I might just have an ace-in-the-hole here too, IF I’m game enough.
I have one skein of Mustard (gold) which just might make a nice wide bottom band – it blends rather nicely with the Foliage and would be a brisk counterpoint to denim jeans.
…stay tuned & find more details on the IBA CARDIGN here…
I think the mustard would look great around the bottom of your sweater. that gives me an idea for some of my stash, although by the time I get around to that yarn I’ll probably forget. I need to keep a journal of ideas/suggestions.
What a great idea to baste the front together while making the sleeves. I’m in the process of working the sleeves and am going to try it.
Love the autumn feel of your IBA. I have the pattern and yarn – just need to finish some Christmas knitting first. Would adding buttons and buttonholes mess up the design too much? I don’t button cardigans very often but love not having to drag a shawl pin around for a closure.
Oh! Can’t wait to see it!
Buttonhole, etc.: although you can’t see it in the pictures, the fronts of the IBA overlap but it’s designed to hang gently open.
Because of the way the bands are worked “as you go”, I don’t recommend adding permanent closures, which would stress the fabric and make it pull/distort.
How about a few stripes at the bottom for interest?
I think it would look great on you with the mustard. I would need to make it stripe to reduce the “OMG, my hips are huge” factor. Love the colors, though.