Fiber Arts Friday: Cozy Stripes Sweater, part 9

While the pattern calls for the sleeves to be completed next, I will do the Collar/Button Band next... I am feeling more confident about the remaining Brown Skeins, but I want to be certain. :-)

My original thought was to start with a fresh skein to hopefully prevent the need to join skeins in the midst of this section, or worse in the midst of the button holes.

So I spent some time reviewing the instructions for the Collar/Button Band and estimating how many grams would be required for each row...  That brought me to ~25g, or one complete skein, to make the Collar/Button Band.   Then, I still need yarn to make the i-cord bind-off.  Which means I will definitely have a join in this section.

So with that information, I decided to continue with Skein #6 and force the join to be somewhere in the middle.

But first, I need to pick-up the stitches...

Picking up the stitches has been kind of a drag on this project.  I had the thought of creating a life-line as I went, but I was pretty far down the body before I had that thought.  :-/  Also, it's typical to pick up 3 of 4 rows, rather than all of them.... Anyway, I did finally get there, but not without some pain.

The blue markers are stitches that need to be added and the orange markers need to be dropped.

Since there were so many, I decided to slip the stitches and add/drop as marked and then re-count, before beginning to work the Collar/Button Band Section, which now looks a lot less ominous.  lol.

The body is shorter than the pattern calls for.  So I have the collar marked as written and the Stripe/Hem section marked as written, with the middle being fewer stitches.  I will need to keep this in mind as I work the pattern.

At the beginning of this section, I had 19g available in Skein #6.  The join to Skein #7 happened on the lapel in the short row section, so it is not obvious.  WooHoo!

Upon finishing all of the short rows and being ready to bind-off, I used the 19g from Skein #6 and 8g from Skein #7 for a total of ~26g... which means my estimate was close.

You can see from the above photo that it's hard to really see how the project looks while it's still on the needles, but I do like how the collar is laying.

I have 17g available in Skein #7 for the bind-off which is more than enough.

I am a little annoyed that the Button Holes are hard to find, but it did help me choose which buttons to use... I will think a bit on how to make them more visible.  In the meantime, the stitch markers are holding the places for the buttons.

This section took a lot longer that I hoped, and you see I have set up a second project which is resting.  I want to finish this sweater before the warm weather really arrives.  Otherwise, it will not get worked on until the fall.... AND I want to wear this sweater in the fall.  So you see, I am starting to feel a bit of urgency.  :-D

At this point I have 3 skeins of Brown remaining for the sleeves.... which I will begin next.

Skein duration:

• #1 (11/2/24 - 12/10/24) 5wks 3days
• #2 (12/10/24 - 12/30/24) 2wks 6days
• #3 (12/30/24 - 1/6/25) 1 week
• #4 (1/6/25 - 1/18/25) 1wk 5days
• #5 (1/18/25 - 2/5/25) - 2wks 4days - 14 g remain

• Green (2/5/25 - 2/6/25) - 2days - 22 g remain (begin body stripes)
• Orange (2/6/25 - 2/8/25) - 3days - 23g remain
• #5 (2/8/25 - 2/9/25) - 2days - 11 g remain
• Orange (2/9/25) - 1day - 18 g remain
• Green (2/10/25 - 2/14/25) - 5days - 17 g remain (complete body stripes)

• #5 (2/14/25 - 2/20/25) - 6days (begin hem)
• #6 (2/20/25 - 2/25/25) - 5days - 20g remain (complete hem, bind off pending)

• TINK Body Hem (2/27/25 - 3/6/25)  - 8days
• #5 (3/6/25 - 3/22/25) - 2 wks 2 days (begin re-Knitting Body Hem with smaller needles, US3)
• #6 (3/22/25 - 3/23/25) - 2 days (complete and bind-off Body Hem) - 19g remain

• Pickup Collar/Button Band Stitches (3/24/25 - 3/30/25) - 6days
• #6 (3/30/25 - 4/10/25) - 11days (begin Button Band/Collar, US3)
• #7 (4/10/25 - 4/22/25) - 12days (complete Button Band/Collar and Bind off) - 14g remain

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: Rainbow Vanilla Socks, part 1

I have wanted to make a pair of Rainbow Socks for a while.  As such, I've accumulated a selection of Rainbow Sock-weight yarns over the last few years.

I've been setting them aside for the last few months and contemplating them with different patterns... I want to show-off the colorway without making it muddy or modifying the stripe thicknesses due to changing round lengths around the heel.  Many of the alternate-construction patterns are quite interesting in this regard, but as of the end of March, I decided to make a simple Toe-up, Vanilla Sock, with an Afterthought Heel using Scarlett's Rainbow.

The yarn I chose was acquired at the Estes Park Wool Market last year and dyed locally by a new-to-me artist.

The colorway, Scarlett's Rainbow, is named after the artist's daughter and has a large number of colors in short succession.  Which means the color changes every few stitches.

This pattern should work nicely with this colorway, which I think lends itself to a pleasing set of Fraternal Twins, rather than needing to be Identical.  If I hold on to that idea, the stress of getting both socks started in the same place of the colorway goes away.... and I am always in favor of reducing stress, no matter how small it may seem.  :-)

I initially swatched with US0 needles, which yielded the recommended gauge of 8sts/inch.  However, I decided the fabric was too stretchy.  So I cast on with US00 needles.

As of this writing, I have two rounds completed per sock and the end-of-rounds are marked.

We are ready for being a travel project and will be Fraternal Twins.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!