Handspun Harvest

Harvest - by Tincanknits - free pattern (Ravelry Link)
On Sunday I dug some yarn out of some totes for a new baby sweater. While doing so I ran across this skein of handspun yarn.

I had spun it this Spring while practicing to not over draft my singles, which I've had a problem with for ages. I felt like this skein, and the process I used, finally hit home in my brain. This was even a skein that I dyed myself way back in...2010? Is that right? Wow. At any rate chunks of it were underspun, and at the time I couldn't see myself using it for anything.

Dyed Fiber
But while rummaging through the yarn stash it finally caught my eye. I decided a dig around Ravelry for a suitable project couldn't hurt, so another hunt began. I quickly found the Harvest pattern by Tincanknits and everything fell into place. In fact the pattern was just published last month! The other sweater I grabbed yarn for is now on the back burner.

The construction is easy and straight forward. Directions couldn't be clearer and I really enjoyed knitting it. In fact I fancy an adult version for myself some day in a kettle-dyed yarn.

The sweater starts with the garter ridge on the back neck, then stitches are picked up along it and knit seamlessly from there down. Once you reach the fullest width of the chest sleeves are put onto scrap yarn and you continue down to the waistline. Then you go back and knit the sleeves.

And guess what? I didn't change a thing! The pattern hit me in all my niche spots and satisfied my craving for a cute and unique baby sweater that used up stash I wouldn't normally use.

After reaching the bottom edge my yarn was at quite a contrast in color with the yarn at the sleeve holes. As a result I wound a good chunk off of my yarn ball until I found some yarn that looked close enough to match the first of two sleeve holes. Thankfully once I finished the sleeve the yarn matched perfectly to the other arm hole. Don't think I could have planned that if I tried!

Not sure what or if I'll do anything with the remaining 83 yards of yarn. But I'm satisfied that the yarn was actually used to knit something. I had already felt that the fiber served it's purpose in having fun dying it, spinning it, and learning something from spinning it. Now I have a beautiful Little Girlie sweater too! Ironically this isn't yarn in colors as a whole I would normally gravitate to, but that doesn't mean I can't be smitten with the result...

Can you tell I enjoyed photographing it? The colors were just glowing and I couldn't stop.

Handspun Harvest project page