Mermaid Sweater

It started with this gifted yarn from my blogless friend Belle. She gave me 10 balls and I thought, that looks like enough to make a sweater! At 44 yards to a ball, I knew it couldn't be a long-sleeved, full length sweater so I had to really think about how I was going to pull it off.



This is a better picture of the yarn. All I could think of when I saw it was how it reminded me of a mermaid. See how the background of the blue green pops with the light pink and purple scales?



I went through my books, and a sweater called Wrenna in French Girl Knits caught my eye. It's knit from a very chunky yarn and I thought that I might have enough mermaid yarn to complete the design. It's knitted from the top down, has a wide collar (which would save on yarn), and I would just stop when I ran out of yarn. And hopefully it would be close enough...



I had exactly enough yarn to bind off the bottom hem with not an inch to spare. I quickly ran some white ties through it to close it for the picture but I think I'll change that later. I'm thinking a tan leather tie of some sort, or if I can think of what a mermaid would do. WWMD?



Here's a quick picture of the back. It ended up being about the right length, I don't think I would have gone much longer. The sweater is kind of heavy and it's pretty warm where I live right now so I haven't gotten a chance to test drive it yet. I might have to run some reinforcements around the top so it doesn't slip down off of my shoulders but that'll have to come after I get a chance to wear it around.



In other news, I've dyed my very first roving! Jeri from FluffysGarden, who was very generous with her time and knowledge, walked me through the process and I came out the other side with 4 ozs of a beautiful merino/tencel blend.



My goal is to someday dye enough in one batch for a sweater, spin the yarn, and knit the sweater. I've wanted to do this ever since I saw Yarnhog's project that she did back in October of '07. Yep, I've been eyeballing that idea for a long time. If I could only re-prioritize something...

I get to wear the Shawl in four days. The wedding is this Saturday!