Kninja Knitter

The Down Cellar Studio Pigskin Party kicks off in a week. I’ve been doing a lot of planning and prepping for this annual make-along event. One of my most anticipated projects is my next Aran sweater, my third sweater project from Irish yarn purchased in 2024. This type of project is what inspired this blog, so I’m eager to get started so I can share the journey with you.

As with all garment projects, gauge is a critical element if we want the result to be a wearable item. When I knit my first adult sweater back in 1986, I had no concept of gauge or swatching. The result was a cropped sweater with gorilla-sized sleeves. No shade on gorillas, but my teenage arms were swallowed up by those sleeves! It was several years before I attempted another sweater, after improving my knitting technique.

For this project, I have chosen a cabled sweater, always a good (if somewhat stereotypical) choice for Aran weight yarn. The challenge factor is leveled up this time because my yarn is black! My last cable sweater was a more-traditional natural cream color.

Last year I attempted to start an Alice Starmore design, but I stalled just a couple rows into the bottom hem ribbing. The black yarn made it harder to see the stitches to continue the rubbing, and I just wasn’t feeling motivated to continue. So I frogged that effort at the beginning of this year, and I began a renewed search for the right design.

My final design selection is the Fireplace sweater by Madeleine’s Knits, an Italian med student. There are only fifteen projects listed on Ravelry, and more than half of them were test knits. The ones with photographs look lovely. I’ve noted a comment within one of the projects concerning the alignment of the hem ribbing, so when I get closer to the body bottom, I’ll investigate. The beauty of hand knitting garments is we can modify any elements within the design to suit our preferences.

This week I completed my gauge swatch for the project, and my stitch count is spot on. My row gauge is off a little, but I didn’t block aggressively, and it’s less critical for the design since major pieces are knit to a designated length rather than a specific number of rows. I did note the pre-blocked dimensions, too, so I can do some math to assess the expected length after blocking based on my row gauge.

One final note regarding the yarn: I purchased the yarn from Springwools in Dublin, Ireland, using a gift certificate I received from my best friend for my birthday in 2024. She gave me the gift certificate ahead of my trip, and I visited the store while I was in Dublin, and I spent time looking at the Aran weight yarns. But I waited until returning home to make my purchase. I probably could have had my order shipped home if I’d ordered on site, but I was a tad overwhelmed by the environment at the store – which really resembled a warehouse.

Now that I have my gauge swatch completed, and my knitCompanion file is ready, I’ll be set to cast on next week. This is a top-down design, beginning with the upper back. I’ve identified the milestones and target dates for them to be sure I can complete this project by Christmas. We’ll see how I do against those milestones! I’ll check in next week following the cast on.

Knit on.