Cowichan Cow

What a lovely, perfect weekend I had. The weather was beautiful and I indulged myself in whatever I felt like doing. It was glorious!

I managed to get some pictures of some yarn I spun out of the last of my alpaca/silk bumps:

And I even splurged on an awesome ball of Zauberball that was calling my name:

But it wasn’t all pictures and shopping this weekend. I made a decision for the Rhinebeck sweater. I have decided against all sanity and went for the Cowichan knit sweater. Yes, it’s a bulky weight and may make me look equally bulky, but Rhinebeck can get COLD people. Besides, when I’m wearing such a cute sweater no one will look at my muffin top, right?

The pattern calls for unspun wool, and I luckily picked up some White Buffalo a while back in several awesome 70′s shades. I held 6 strands together as directed (which is holding from the outside and inside of the cake, as it is wound with 3 strands held together) and got a fabric similar to a piece of plywood.

So, this morning on the train I started again with three strands, and it’s coming out much better. I don’t have a picture of the new progress for you as it’s dark when I get home, but rest assured I will not look like I am wearing a box with the adjusted thickness. No worries, lots of knitting has been done tonight, and I feel like I do have enough time to get this done for Rhinebeck. The key here will be to knit the colourwork sections at home and leave the large plain sections for train knitting so I only have to take one of the huge yarn cakes with me. As much as I love yarn, I don’t want to lug around 2 pounds of it on a daily basis!

So let’s all wish me luck that the new gauge will result in a fitting sweater that I can wear at Rhinebeck. Hopefully you all love the colours as much as I do as you may be seeing a lot of this in the coming weeks. Speaking of the colours, is it just me or does the yarn I bought look really similar to the sweater I am knitting?