Subtlety

In knitting my handspun Boxy sweater, I am getting a very similar feeling to the one I had when spinning for it: This all looks the same. This effect is magnified by the fact that I am often working on it at night, when it's dark outside and the lighting inside is fairly dim. I can see that the sweater is growing, but the fabric looks the same to me because the color change is so gradual and so subtle. I had to take a photo in bright light in the morning to really convince myself that the colors are, in fact, shifting.

See those little pops of blue? That's the beginning of the first color fade. I spun the yarn on purpose to gradually shift from one color to the next. This is a three-ply yarn, so the faded skeins start out with all three plies being the first color, then they move to two plies of the first color and one of the new, then to one of the old and two of the new, and finally to all three of the new.

The last time I measured the fabric, I was somewhere between 9 and 10 inches of body done. The pattern calls for 16 inches of length for the body, but that is also supposed to be a somewhat cropped length. My plan is put half the stitches on another circular needle when I get to that length so I can try it on. I suspect I will want to add additional length, as I have plenty of yarn and am not generally too fond of cropped sweaters anyway.

My other current project is anything but subtle, and it's getting surprisingly close to completion.

This is the second sock in the pair from my sock blank; I've just started the heel flap. If the first sock is any indication, I should be in that hot pink section on the blank when I finish. I think I could easily finish up this second sock this week, but I think I will probably put the project aside when I get to the toe so I can save it for Stash Dash, which starts next Friday. I hit my 10K goal last year, and this year I am hoping to at least match that. There may be a potential change in the calculation of spinning yardage, and if that happens, I may increase my goal. Regardless, I hope to use the event as good motivation to be productive and get things done.