Saturday, September 29, 2007

the sheep emerge to graze


It's amazing how little knitting gets done when all one's time is consumed with reading! Nevertheless I have set aside just a few hours to knit and have finished the yoke on my recreated baby sheep sweater. This time I am taking better notes so that I can post the pattern; I hope to have it up soon.

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do to give the sheep some texture. In the original sweater the sheep were knitted with a strand of laceweight mohair carried along; this did not give as much halo as I had hoped. Then I tried a boucle yarn, but the gauge was really too big. So then I hit on using the same gauge of white yarn as the rest of the yoke, but knitted in garter stitch. I think that this was the way to go. When doing the math, then for the yoke sheep, I spent some time considering what to do to make the sheep symmetrical, and, not wanting butt-to-butt sheep in the center back, I hit on this idea:


Why can't one sheep face forward? I did some blue french-knot eyes just to make it clear that that's what's going on. I like his little face.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a wonderful baby sweater! I do not even have children but this makes me want one to dress it in. peggy

Suzanne (5-15) said...

That is very cute - great way to incorporate the no butt to butt sheep...

I haven't really done much color work, I'm trying to work up the nerve to do a sweater.

Suzanne

Jodi said...

The fair isle sheep pattern is so sweet and whimsical. I wish I could pull off wearing a sheep sweater! Oh well, there are always children to knit for.

Amanda said...

Oh wow! It's beautiful. I cannot wait to see it when it's all said and done.

Ilix said...

What a great sweater beginning! I am excited to see what it will look like done! So sweet!

nicole said...

What a great idea! That little "forward-facing" sheet is awfully cute.

Carrie K said...

Look at that cute little face! Good idea.

And aw about your twisted purl stitches!