New year, new projects

In spite of the fact that I have some goals for the new year, I've fallen under the spell of a brand new project that necessitated the purchase of yarn (oops!). The sweater is from the book Homestead Classics by Martin Storey, which is chock full of great designs for men and women.

Who could resist this reindeer sweater? Not I.


I love the styling in this book. I think that's why I want to knit everything in it.






The reindeer sweater is the first fair isle project I've knitted flat, in pieces. I thought of converting it to be knit in the round, but most Rowan colorwork patterns are knitted flat, and a good deal of vintage fair isle is also knit in pieces, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's really not bad, and I can't say it's hugely slower than knitting in the round, for me. It helps to be able to knit with two hands to start with (i.e., holding the yarn in either left or right hand), and then I just had to figure out how to deal with the floats on the purl side. In less than a week, I finished a sleeve.


Instead of using RYC Baby Alpaca, I'm using Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light (does anyone else have to look up how to spell Berroco every time?). I love the feel of this wool/alpaca blend, it's so inexpensive, and I'm just impressed with it all around. The sleeve took a bit over one ball of the light gray, and about half a ball of the dark gray, which is really good, yardage-wise.

My favorite part is, of course, the reindeer (Rachel, they are reindeer, aren't they? :o).