13.01.2021
I love rustic tweedy yarn. This past year I have been enjoying using handspun and commercial tweed yarns for my projects. The bits of color add texture and interest when viewed up close, and blend optically at a distance.
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| Small tapestry weaving in progress |
It was a happy day when beWoolen yarn shop stocked Tahki Donegal Tweed. The perfect project to highlight the lovely yarn was
Doocot, by Kate Davies. The pattern calls for DK weight yarn (11 WPI). This yarn is Aran weight (8 WPI). WPI means wraps per inch, a way to determine the thickness of yarn, something I did not know about until I learned to spin. It is also helpful to measure the WPI when a commercial yarn label is missing. The
Craft Yarn Council (a very helpful resource, by the way) has a chart showing the yarn weight system.
Back to the sweater...to knit the appropriate size for myself, I went up with my needle size and yarn weight and down a pattern size and the numbers and measurements from the pattern were perfect with the correct amount of positive ease. The only other adjustments I made were to the sleeve decreases, which I did every five rows to the cuff ribbing and to widen the neckband ribbing. It worked out beautifully.
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| Tahki Donegal Tweed yarn for a sweater and a mini skein of handspun |
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| Donegal Tweed, Fossil colorway |
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It helps to have a knitting buddy in the camper. We were staying at Itasca State Park when the yurt was unveiled in Bemidji
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| There was enough leftover yarn for a pair of mittens |
My second sweater with Donegal Tweed is
Dacite. I knit one for a yarn shop sample in 2014 and then taught a class. I received an update to the pattern through Ravelry. Carol Feller, the designer, updated the pattern with extended sizing. It was a good opportunity to knit this sweater again and teach a class. The pattern is well-written and fun to knit, as there are lots of fun knitting techniques throughout. In my excitement to take the sample to beWoolen, I did not snap a photo of the sweater when it was done blocking and the buttons added at the neck.
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| Hot off the needles |
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| The back has a natural dip (no short rows) because it and the sleeves are worked in stockinette stitch. |
