Handspun Hell

Since I put a progress meter up for my hand spun camel sweater, I thought I should at least give you the lowdown on what the heck it is. This is the first (and possibly the last) hand spun yarn that I ever made a significant quantity of. When I bought the fiber, I really reeeaaaallly wanted to make sure that I would have enough for a sweater, so I bought two (count em'- 2!) pounds of it. Two pounds of camel hair fiber takes, like, a billion years to spin, in case you were wondering. I did not spin all of it- I stopped when I became so ragingly tired of looking at camel colored fluff that I wanted to pluck my eyes out and throw them at my spinning wheel. So now, two years later (now that I have finally gotten off of my butt to knit the sweater), I am hoping, praying, that I have enough to actually knit the sweater with. If I don't, I will have to spin more of it. Which I don't want to do.




Anyway... I digress. Obviously they yarn is camel, and, well, I would not say that it is of the highest quality... my hand spinning skills at the time were, ummm, still "under development." What that means is that the yarn is lumpy, bumpy, itchy and scratchy. None the less, it was spun, by hand, by yours truly- and dammit, I'm makin' a sweater out of it. You see my cool fashion sketch of my sweater- (and yes, I know that you are all guessing that I am the model in the picture- it's true! I am! That is just what I look like, and those are Dolce & Gabbanna boots that I am wearing too!) the reality is slightly less appealing. I am sure that when it is blocked, though, it will look exactly like my sketch....

I knit both the body and the arms of the sweater from the bottom up, and will be joining them together to knit the shoulders and collar all in one piece. I have no idea how that will work out (or if it will work out!), but what the heck, I'm a brave gal (I am woman hear me roar) and I'm not afraid to rip out. I'll let ya know how it goes!