25 September 2011

Stripey jumper



And here are my plans for the rest of the year. First of all, I've just bought some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran, to replace my lovely arm-warmers that I lost two years ago:


They were in Teal, but this time it's Navy. And, I've just realised, they were DK and the yarn I've just bought is Aran, so they will probably be a bit thicker and not quite as long. Hm.

My second plan was for a jumper. I haven't knitted a jumper since the teal one which I finished in 2008, because jumpers aren't generally my style so much. However, they are everywhere on the catwalks for this season, and I love the big-jumper-and-pencil-skirt thing that I've seen in a few magazines. So I had planned a big pink jumper:

Top-down raglan (of course - I don't knit any other way if I can help it!), ribbed, straight-sided. But then I got 500g of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan on ebay:

I am not usually one for the crazy textured knits, but that's because they're usually polyester. This is gorgeous - a pain in the hole to knit with, I expect (I've only swatched so far), but incredibly soft and probably very, very warm. So I've moved away from the idea of ribbed, and also I think I like the idea of it being a bit more cropped and blousy. A bit more like:

But this, of course, means I have to find some beige or orange Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Asktrakhan from somewhere, and it's been discontinued. Wish me luck...

2 comments:

mirhi said...

Did you use a pattern for the arm warmers?

marykmac said...

Hello! No - they're just made up. V simple - they're basically the right width to go around my arms at the widest point, then I decreased 4 stiches (one at N, E, S and W) about two inches in, and increased 4 again in the same places at roughly where they hit the wrist.

To make a hole for the thumbs, you knit 4-5 stitches with a piece of waste yarn, finish the whole thing and cast off, and then go back, take the waste yarn out, and pick up those stitchs on either side of the hole (so 8-10 stitches all together), and knit a thumb. Dead easy!