Banging out a Sweater

Hi there.

I know, it's been months and months.  I got out of the habit of blogging and Life took over somewhat in 2015 and then, every time I thought I should write something, I either didn't have much to write about, or something cropped up and, well, the longer it got, the harder I found it to start up again.

But, a new project has spurred me on to start blogging again.

I *could* blame those Mason-Dixon ladies for leading me down the path of temptation, but that wouldn't be fair as it's really just my weak will that's led to this.

This is the Stopover sweater by Mary Jane Mucklestone.

About ten days ago I read this post on the Mason-Dixon website about a knitalong for an Icelandic Lopapeysa-style sweater.  I'd been thinking about knitting such a sweater for a while and this seemed like a nice pattern, and joining in a knitalong is always fun.  So, out of the window went my resolution of Not Buying Yarn and I placed an order at Deramores (and found a 15% discount code in the copy of Let's Knit I'd bought).  My yarn arrived at the end of last week and I knitted a swatch on Saturday.  As I've been knitting something else, I concentrated on that during Sunday and Monday to get to a place where I could put it aside for a while and I cast on yesterday and knitted quite a lot, around household chores.  I decided that each morning, before I started knitting again, I'd take a photo, so this is where I'd got to when I went to bed yesterday evening.



I've had to do a bit of maths as I decided to knit a bigger size at a smaller tension/gauge than the pattern stated.  I've also added an extra couple of inches to the bottom before starting the waist shaping (my first round today was the first decrease) as I prefer my sweaters a bit longer than the original (don't like things that ride up above the waistband of my jeans when I bend over).


I'm hoping that before too long I'll have a nice, cosy sweater to wear.

I'll be back tomorrow with a progress update.