Knitting a Hand Dyed or Hand Spun Sweater

Hello, everyone! Today I listed some exciting new packages in the Storied Yarns Shop - the Ultimate Fangirl Sweater Kits! These kits will give you plenty of hand dyed yarn (in the colorway and base of your choosing) to knit a sweater, and they're available in DK and Worsted weight yarn options as well as a Combed Top option for you spinners out there. For every kit you get two full pounds of yarn or fiber!

So, how about some suggestions of what to knit with these lovely kits?

First up: the Ultimate Sweater Kits (2 pounds of yarn or fiber) ...

For the DK weight option, you will have 2000 or 2650 yards of DK weight yarn, depending on the base you choose. What sweaters can you knit with that? Quite a few, I should say!

How about a simple cardigan with a pop of textured detail at the collar and sleeves? Roheline should do the trick! This one would look really great in a semi-solid OR a variegated colorway, I think. For something with a little more detail (that would probably work best in a semi-solid "Stock Character" colorway), how about The Archer, a hooded pullover with cable details, or a cabled cardigan - Locke Street Cardigan?

For the worsted weight option, you will get 1696 or 2480 yards. Emilien is a great, basic hoodie pattern that would look awesome striped with two colorways or in one semi-solid or variegated color. Girl Friday has been a favorite pattern of mine for quite some time, and I also really love Dark and Stormy. I think either of those would work best in a semi-solid, stock character shade.

If you're going to buy the fiber option, of course your yardage will vary depending on the weight you spin and the yardage you are able to make. However, a few suggestions might help you narrow down the sweater patterns that would work especially well for handspun yarns. My friend Brittany recently published Libretto, which has a really fun shape and structure that lends itself well to textural yarns. I also really like Idlewood, which would be super cozy in handspun. The clean lines and stockinette body of the Effortless Cardigan and Atelier would also work really well in handspun, colorful yarns.

Next up: The Major Fangirl packages (24oz of yarn or fiber) ...

For the DK weight Major Fangirl sweater kit, you will receive 1500 or 1980 yards. Summer Solstice is a cardigan that would look fantastic in a boldly variegated yarn or a tonal one. Vodka Lemonade is an adorable cropped cardi that would be really nice in almost any color. Gnarled Oak Cardigan has beautiful details which would stand out really well in a semi-solid stock character colorway, and Calligraphy Cardigan, which I totally lust over, would be fantastic in a variegated colorway (note: for the largest sizes you may need to upgrade to Ultimate Fangirl for that one).

For worsted weight, try these on for size: you're going to have either 1272 or 1860 yards to play around with. I love the interesting structure of the Levenwick cardigan. The Brownstone pullover has a male model but I think works really well for either gender, no matter who that sweater will be for! Don't forget Francis Revisited; that one would be great for a colorful worsted weight yarn OR handspun.

For handspun, any of the above suggestions would probably work, too, as would Abalone - it only needs 500 yards! :)

Don't forget to check out my album of available colorways, including the milder Stock Character semi-solids in addition to all the bold, variegated options. If you're interested in a sweater package but not sure which one is right for you, just contact me on Etsy! Together we can make you the fangirl sweater of your dreams. :)

It's Finished!! My Handspun Shrug

If you've been following along with my handspun sweater project this year, then you know I spun three sets of batts to make a gorgeous yarn and then wanted to knit it into a sweater.

Except that it turned out to be fewer than 300 yards total, even though it weighs in at nearly a pound, so I didn't quite have enough for a full-sized sweater.

It's all good, though. My motto around here is "Keep Moving Forward," remember?!?

So, I settled on a sweater-like project instead: Shrug This. I made a few mods to the pattern - namely, I went up to a size 11 needles since my yarn is a little bit more than worsted weight, and I added 2 stitches per sweater section (10 stitches total) to the cast-on. I knit as directed until closing up the arm holes and then I just kept knitting until I ran out of yarn.

The result? Awesome:

I haven't blocked it yet, so right now it still kind of curls in at the front edges. I'm thinking a little bit of good blocking will help it not do that and also maybe even it out a little, and after that it will be pretty great!

Thanks for following along with my sweater knitting and spinning adventures! I'm sure this will NOT be the first sweater I make this year, so stay tuned for more fun!

In the meantime, though, I'm taking a break to knit my first pair of socks. Wahoo! I'll report more on that project later. :)

The Sweater Project: Keep Moving Forward

This week as I worked on the yarn for my handspun sweater project, I was reminded of a quote from Walt Disney (as featured in one of my favorite Disney movies, "Meet the Robinsons"):

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
–Walt Disney

 I often think of this quote in terms of my business and my crafting. Sometimes things just don't work out the way we want them to, and we just have to keep going. That's what has happened with my sweater project.

I spun my first skein of yarn and I got this:

It's a really pretty skein, and I like it a lot. Unfortunately, though, after using up approximately 20% of my singles this skein was only 55 yards bulky weight. I was worried I wouldn't have enough yarn to make any kind of a sweater at that rate.

Turns out, I was right. I finished spinning all the singles and I got this:

It looks like a lot of yarn, and it is, depending on the perspective. It's about 15oz of bulky weight yarn, but it comes in at only 268 yards. Not enough for a full-sized sweater.

I was pretty bummed about that for a little while, but then I remembered that I still had this yarn in my stash:

This is 880 yards of worsted/aran yarn that I dyed myself to use for a capelet. I decided instead that I'm going to make it into a sweater. I'm planning to knit Rusted Root with this yarn.

The other yarn will still have a purpose, never fear! I think I'm going to knit Shrug This with it or maybe the smaller version of Liesl. If I don't get around to it for a while there may even be another pattern that speaks to me even more. So I'm not at all worried about it.

I'm just going to keep moving forward - you never know what fun adventures you might find when you do that! :)