Keith Moon: A Sweater

I had this idea that the next time I wrote a blog entry, I'd be showing you some cakes of yarn and maybe six or so inches of knitting.  However, in the week since I last posted, this sweater has been flying off my needles.  It's helped that the yarn is an aran weight:

This is the handspun merino which was my big spinning project during 2016 (I didn't do much spinning at all last year).

I cast on 6 January and by last Thursday, I'd got the body done, up to the armholes and I cast on the first sleeve on Friday morning and by Sunday morning, that was finished and joined up to the body:

The pattern is Keith Moon, from the Yokes book by Kate Davies.  It wasn't a design that immediately made me think I wanted to make it, but as I saw more and more examples and interpretations on Ravelry, the more I liked it and decided to spin the yarn for it.  As I'd got some blue and green in a mixed bag of pencil roving I'd bought from World of Wool, I decided to use those colours for the stripes.

In the original, the hem facings are knitted in the same colour, but I decided to be a bit different and used the blue for the body hem and the green for the sleeves.  I've also changed the sleeves.  In the original, the sleeves are three-quarter-to-bracelet length and have a flare at the cuff.  I started off following the pattern, but decided I'd be happier with a narrower cuff, so cast on fewer stitches and just increased at the same rate as the pattern said to.

On Sunday, I cast on the second sleeve and by this morning:

I'm about 17 rounds away from finishing the second sleeve.

Give it another few days and I reckon I'll have a new sweater to wear.

We woke up to a cold, frosty morning today.  We had a bit of snow last Thursday.  It didn't settle, but I had to drive up to DD1's school for her GCSE certificate presentation, which wasn't pleasant as in the places where there are no streetlights, visibility was poor as the snow was coming towards me.  It was clear by the time we came back though, which was much better.  When I took the rubbish bags out for collection, I looked up and saw the sunrise.  My word: I haven't seen one like this for a while, so I grabbed my camera and dashed outside to snap a couple of shots before the opportunity passed:

Lovely colours; quite inspiring.  By the time I took the recycling boxes out 20 minutes later, the sun had risen and the sky just looked light grey, so I'm glad I managed to catch the above shot.  It always surprises me how quickly the sun and moon move around the sky.

I'm off to do some household chores and then I'm going to crack on with that second sleeve.