To Friendship

It’s amazing how quickly the mountains fill in here when the trees start to leaf out. It was only a few weeks ago that I would look out the window and see bare trunks all around, and now everything is green, green, green! I love this time of year – it feels like every day there is something new blooming, Kyle’s gardens are exploding with foot-tall plants that I swear weren’t there yesterday, and the birds are happily chirping away from dawn to dusk. I am giddily washing my handknits and putting them away for the season, but that hasn’t stopped me from adding to the pile of knitwear in my wardrobe.

I can’t even tell you how excited I am to finally be adding this sweater to my closet. This is a really special one for me for a number of reasons, and I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out (minus that blasted collar! We’ll get to that later.)

I wanted the yarn to be the center of attention for this sweater, so I chose a pattern for a simple stockinette pullover (Whispers by Les Garçons) as a blank canvas. Up close, every stitch is unique and the colors really pop, but as a whole garment they blend together like watercolors to make a subtle, cohesive item.

So why is this sweater so special to me? Well, it all started back in 2011 when I was in grad school in Pittsburgh. I had made some really wonderful friends through my previous knitting blog, several of whom still read this blog now, and one in particular who is solely responsible for this sweater. Dearest Joan invited me to visit her and her family in New York during the summer and I spent the better part of a week in her company, her hospitality unparalleled. The truly remarkable part of the trip (other than Niagara Falls, and the zoo, and, well, JOAN) was that she had a spinning wheel delivered to her house for me and she was determined to spend the week teaching me how to spin before sending me home with a new hobby and a new wheel all my own. I had been spinning on drop spindles for a few years, but had never even seen a spinning wheel with my own two eyes before this.

A poor photo, but you’ve seen this wheel in several posts before, and this was its maiden voyage. (Boy, it sure doesn’t shine like that anymore. I am making a mental note to give it a spa day soon.) This is a Kromski Minstrel and was my dream wheel, and is still perfect in my eyes. An entirely modern wheel, but with the look and feel of traditional wheels of times gone by. You all know how I feel about textile traditions, I don’t think I need to say more at this point. It makes my heart flutter, but I digress.

Not only did Joan gift me with this wheel and the skills needed to use it, she also helped me make some truly one-of-a-kind fiber to spin. We started with undyed mixed BFL wool, which begins its life as cream with stripes of brown. We then dyed the wool in five different colors.

Once it was all dry, we divided the colors into a number of different piles so we could blend them together on her drum carder.

At the time, Joan was making batts and packaging them in this super unique and absolutely adorable way, making them look like cupcakes and selling them on Etsy under the name Cupcake Fiber Co. Genius, and so delicious looking. Each batt was about 1oz. of fiber, and it looks like I went home with about 36oz. of wool! More than enough for a sweater.

I needed to get some spinning under my belt on the wheel before I felt comfortable enough tackling such a large project, but once I felt like my spinning was consistent and predictable, it was time to dive in. I started spinning these batts in 2012, and finished all of it in 2013.

(I am just as surprised as you are that I still have all of these pictures on my phone after 11 years.) Of course, the spinning was done, but skeins of yarn do not a sweater make. This yarn was so special, and so full of memories and friendship and experiences that I could not make myself knit it. What if the sweater was a complete flop? What if I ran out of yarn and couldn’t get more? What if I picked the wrong pattern and everything turned out a total disaster? I couldn’t risk it. So instead, I moved this yarn with me everywhere I went. When it finally came with me to North Carolina, it was in fact the sixth time that I had packed it up and moved it to a new apartment, a new house. But it was finally time to honor this yarn, and Joan’s incredible gift, and complete this project I had started 13 years ago.

And y’all, this sweater isn’t a flop. I have yarn left over, the pattern is fantastic, it fits perfectly, it is soft and comfortable and has the most beautiful drape. I had nothing to fear, and one really spectacular sweater to gain! To date, this is the first and only sweater quantity of yarn I have spun myself, which makes it even more precious. Thank you, Joan, for the gift of spinning and for your continued friendship, both of which I carry with me all these years later, now in a physical, tangible piece of knitting. I am beyond thrilled with how this turned out.

But let’s talk about that collar for a moment (you didn’t think I forgot, did you?) I knew it wasn’t right from the very beginning. This sweater was knit from the top down, which means the collar is the very first thing you knit. I could tell it was small right off the bat. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to fit it over my head. But did I do anything about that? Noooo I did not. I kept right on knitting, stopping every once in a while to tell myself again that gosh, that collar sure seems suspect. But I did slip it over my head a few times, and with a bit of yanking I could get it around my neck, so certainly the final blocking would take care of it. I continued down the yoke. Now, most crew necks scoop down in the front just a little bit so the collar has a bit of shape. It lets it rest nicely above the collar bone, the front of the garment below the collar doesn’t have excess bulk, everything lays nicely. This sweater, however, does not have that shaping built into the pattern. You can see in the first picture that the collar cuts straight across the front of the sweater. And do you know what that causes?

This little bloop of fabric beneath the collar that has nowhere to go except to poof outward. I knew it was going to happen. I saw it happening. I know enough about garment construction that I could see the writing on the wall even before I started knitting, but I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT. I told myself it would be fine. I wouldn’t mind. It’ll block out. Maybe it won’t even happen. All lies. And yes, in the grand scheme of things it’s not a big deal, and I still haven’t fixed it, but it does bother me enough that I might attempt to fix it at some point. Trouble is, that would involve some pretty serious sweater surgery that I’m just not up for at the moment. So until that day comes, we’re just going to relish in the fact that this sweater is complete, and beautiful, and comfortable, and ready to wear when the weather turns chilly again.

It took me a while to finally take photos of this sweater, but I finished it on April 20 and I am shocked, even still, that I haven’t knit anything else since then. I’ve been spending my time working on embroidery instead, but I do plan to pick up a half-finished vest I started almost a year ago now. I had knit all the way up to the underarms, but I am reverse-engineering this vest from a photo online because the pattern is no longer available, and in my eagerness to get started I really only got as far as figuring out how many stitches to cast on and how long to make the body. I told myself that I’d figure out the colorwork when I got to it and, well, here we are and it’s not figured out yet. I have to do some math to make sure I shape the armholes nicely, start the neckline shaping in the right place, and have the pattern centered, but once I have all those boring details sorted I can start making progress once again.

And because I am never one to sit still (lest I fall asleep, heaven forbid), I’ve started weaving some new towels for my Etsy shop as well.

I don’t know how it’s possible, but I didn’t list anything for sale in 2023, and it’s about time I get back to it. I designed these towels over a year ago and had intended for them to be ready for Spring 2023, but that time is long gone and now they’ll be ready for Summer 2024 instead. This warp is only going to make ten towels and they’ll go quickly, so if you’re interested keep an eye out for when they become available. I’ll try to post here, but my blogging is always delayed, so your best option is to either follow my shop on Etsy, or join me over on Instagram where I’ve just started an account, @springcreektextiles. I’ve always been averse to Instagram because, as you can tell, I am quite wordy, but I thought I’d give it a try and it really is proving to be much quicker to snap a photo, type a quick sentence or two, and send it off into the world. Never fear though, this blog isn’t going anywhere.

Hope you are all well and enjoying the season.