Apres Noel

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Things are winding down here. Dave has gone off to the cottage, and there's no more planned visiting for a while, so it's just me and the cats and my yarn.

After all the holiday knitting (everyone but Dave got a knitted gift!), I decided I deserved to knit something just for myself - it has lace and beads and alpaca - but I'll share it later...

I know you all want to see the finished Saranac sweater.

The zipper was a total pain to put in, but I'm pleased with it otherwise. As you can see - it fits perfectly. I only made one modification to it, and that was to the collar. In the original pattern, the collar is knit long, then folded in half and hemmed. I thought it looked really bulky - so I just knit the collar to three inches and cast off.

The sweater is knit in the round from the bottom up, and while it's nice to not have seams, once you join the sleeves and start on the yoke, it's really bulky and a pain to manipulate. I don't know if I'd knit another man's sweater that way - they are just too big.

One detail I really liked was the garter stitch along the raglan decreases. I think it adds a nice bit of interest in an otherwise simple sweater.

The yarn I used is Baruffa Merinos Otto. Its a really nice soft merino yarn and I'd definitely use it again. I got this back at a tent sale held by the Needle Emporium several years back. If you every get a chance to go to one of the tent sales do - this yarn was an absolute steal!

Another small project I finished up was a pair of wee socks to match the larger pair I made. 

These will go to the little brother. I was suppose to see them all on Boxing Day, but a big storm blew in and scattered our plans. We are going to try to get together in January.

And now..it's back to lovely alpaca lace....