Monday, August 27, 2007

Sierra Shell


Okay, I'm feeling a bit too under the weather to be clever or funny today. Fortunately, I wasn't too sick with this blasted end-of-summer cold to hinder knitting. Just have enough sinus stuffiness and sore throatiness to make me feel as though every thought has to slog its way through a miry morass of mental mud. Uggggh.

This short sleeve shell designed by me, using Cascade Sierra and Sierra Quatro yarn (80% pima cotton/20% merino wool). The dragon skin center panel was derived from a sweater pattern in July '07 Creative Knitting Magazine. I was interested in a raglan sleeved top, so I kind of made this shape up on the fly. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the width at the neck and didn't discover it until I'd seamed the pieces up. But picking up the neckline stitches and adding a couple stripes fixed the over-sized neckline issue and the sweater turned out more visually interesting, I think. I also added the dragon skin panel, without the cables, to the sleeves, just for fun.

This yarn was a dream to handle. It has a delicious softness and great weight and drape for a summer shell. The only disadvantage was its tendency to split. However, by using my Denise Interchangeable Needles, which have a fairly blunt tip, I was able to easily cope with knitting the cables and dragon skin pattern. I love pointy sharp needles for some patterns but the Denise needles sure come in handy from time to time.

School starts next Tuesday for our little homeschool, so if I'm a little remiss in blogging or commenting for a few weeks, bear with me.

To quote a certain California Governor, "I'll be back!"

5 comments:

Sheepish Annie said...

Nice job! And you're right. The neckline works beautifully.

So sorry to hear you're under the weather, though. I hope you're feeling better for the start of school!

Carissa said...

The shell looks great, nice and summery! I like the stripe at the neckline, it really ties the colors together.

Guinifer said...

Hate those summer colds! Your sweater turned out beautifully - nice designing job!

Tonyia said...

I love the dragon skin panels!
Hope you feel better soon!

Rani said...

I love the pattern on the sleeve! Sigh - another job well done. I just can't get myself to start a sweater, but when I do, you can bet it'll be full of cables!!! And I'll name the project after you!