A totally experimental sweater

And a totally, totally satisfying experience!

I wanted to do more with my handspun than knit more scarves or hats. I wanted a sweater. I figured it was time to start.
Here is a braid of Blue Faced Leicester/silk roving from Bee Mice Elf (pronounced Be Myself) in the colorway "Old School."

I have five braids but did not want to make a whole sweater out of it. I splitted up a braid and spun it onto two bobbins.

The resulting yarn was a very nice, two-plied light worsted weight (12 wpi) with a wonderful sheen of silk.

I kept searching for a perfect pattern for my sweater, wanting something very simple yet classic. I wanted to show off my handspun and wanted to do a little bit of Fair Isle, stranded knitting.

I chose to pair the handspun with Brooklyn Tweed Shelter yarn -- a wonderful, beautiful 2-ply woolen spun Targhee/Columbia yarn from Vermont. The two-ply, woolen spun worked so well with my handspun.

Swatched:

In the end I threw out all the patterns and devised my own. I followed the guidelines on a bottom-up, in-the-round raglad sweater from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns book.

The corrugated ribbing worked out so well.

Across the chest, just before joining the sleeves and starting the raglan decrease I added the Baltic Braids -- a technique I learned at my LYS Uniquities.

The raglan decrease started with 12 rows of the Shelter, two rows of handspun, six rows of Shelter, two rows of handspun and so forth.

Just to make it a little dressy I decided to add the corrugated rib collar.

The finished product, is a totally experimental sweater.

Totally my own. And I totally love it.