Silk Ribbon

I Love knitting with ribbon.  You can use large needles and still get a fabric that is light and still quite wearable unlike knitting with bulky or superbuldy wool or cotton, which just turns out huge an heavy and usually unflattering as well.  Sometimes I need a project that goes quickly and yet is wearable and flattering.  How many heavy bulky sweaters does anyone need after all?

One of my knitting acquaintances feels very strongly that real knitters only knit wool and perhaps cotton or linen, although she hates linen,  and only knit cables and colorwork to add design interest eschewing novelty yarns.  Now I love all those things, cables, intarsia, novelty yarns (at least sometimes).  I love doing color work although it is not as portable as, lets say, a ribbon sweater.  And I love knitting beautiful wool, silk, cotton or linen sweaters on small needles.  I find the finer guages are much easier to wear in this overheated world that I, at least, tend to live in.  But I also love simple shapes out of interesting yarns.  Does that make me not a real knitter?  Perhaps.

One nice Friday earlier in the year, when Colorful Stitches had their sale, I felt like going up to Lenox.  George felt like going too, which was nice as we made a day of it, stopping for lunch in Hudson and meandering around.  I am very fortunate to have a husband who enjoys the occasional wander through a yarn store.   When we arrived, I immediately started looking at the Rowan yarns and some others which were on sale.  George was taken by a ribbon sweater on display knit in a silk ribbon (not on sale).  He was so enthused I sent him on a mission to find out about the yarn and see if there was any he liked so I could make one (for me of course).  He found this yarn, which is a beautiful combination of blues and purples and so it went into the basket.

I started knitting on the way home.  Unfortunately I did not get much time to work on it the next week or two.  I finished the sweater when we went to Washingto DC for four days the end of February, business trip for George, fun for me.  Who can ask for more, museums, knitting, nice dinners.  hmm...

And here is the final result revealed:

I Adore this sweater.  The color is wonderful.  It fits closely without being to revealing.  It is light enough that I can wear it under a jacket with a suit but it also looks gret with casual pants or a skirt.  Oh, almost instant gratification is sometimes a wonderful thing!