knitting! really! actual knitting!

a little yarn pr0n to get you in the Saturday knitting mood. last time you saw this yarn, it looked like this. i am so deeply in love with this yarn. as are all the people who've been lucky enough to touch it. there is always a little soft moaning accompanied by noticeably dilated pupils. :-)

i'm knitting Sonnet, but with lace instead of garter and moss stitch. it's a sexy, slippery silk. the finished fabric will, without question, stretch. why am i going on?

i have decided to keep knitting in an act of blind-but-with-a-little-experience-faith. i have mentally upsized my gauge from the actual 4.5sts/in to 4 sts/in, in order to accommodate the fabric growth that we all know will happen. i reduced the needle size so that the fabric is tightly constructed [yet still drapey and lovely] before it gets a chance to grow when worn.

it all sounds like a crapshoot, yes? but it's fast knitting, so i'm not dedicating months of my life to a potential future frogfest.



i'm already at the first armhole, and the fabric is gorgeous. sizewise, i think it will be fine, especially since the lace feels infinitely flexible. in No Sheep, i wrote about how to test your geeky thing before you start knitting to get a good idea of what might happen to the finished fabric. no, i haven't done any of those things. because i'm quite sure that this sweater will either work or it won't, and i just won't know until the body is done. this huge mass of gorgeousness in 2-ply hand dyed silk will do whatever the hell it wants to, and until i've shaped it into a sweater body, no amount of swatching, pre-washing and blocking in advance will predict the result.

and i'm okay with that.