Barn Jacket!

My sweater is done. It took days for it to dry. It was impossible to get the color right, inside or outside. The below picture shows the color best (made with flash).

You might wonder about the title to this post. When I was a little girl, until my teenage years, whenever I went to visit my grandparents, who had a farm, I naturally helped with all the chores. I especially liked to take care of the livestock, not so much the work in the fields, or house work. Anyway, working in the barn, around cows, pigs, and chickens, was pound to give off some smell. I didn't mind the smell at all, with time you didn't even smell it on yourself anymore.

Still everybody had barn clothe, which we changed into before going to work. Once I had to run and get something for my grandma form the grocery store. There was no time to change for me. At the checkout counter I was standing in line, and suddenly I could smell myself. I was a little embarrassed, but nobody said anything.

Usually you would not wear your barn clothe outside the barn, but hang it on a hook and leave it there.

As to my new sweater, it would have become my barn jacket, because I don't like it very much and will not wear it outside our house boundaries. Good enough for yard work (no barn or livestock here), and for letting the dogs out, when it's chilly. The reason why?

There are several: Even though I like orange and green, I don't like the self striping . It's hard to match it up on all the parts. I did my best, but I didn't want to unwind and cut yarn, just so I get the stripes right. I tried to start at the same color and so on.

It's also a little wide, not uncomfortable so. The biggest reason why I don't like this sweater is the yarn itself.

It is single ply, with NO twist. While knitting with it was O.K., sewing was hell! Every ball of yarn had at least one knot in it, but often more. Now I understand why. I sewed on the sleeves, and every ten stitches or so the yarn broke, just drifted apart like a feather. That meant weaving in all those ends, and that was not going to happen for me. I was really mad because of that, and decided to get another yarn left over to sew it together. By that time I didn't care very much, if it showed or not. It doesn't unless you go looking for it. I've never sewn together a knitted garment that fast! This yarn is made for felting. There were a few ends which tangled while I knitted the pieces. By the time I came to weave in the ends, some of them had felted themselves together just by rubbing against each other. So, if you think of knitting a garment with this yarn, make it a seamless one!

And, which of course is not so surprising at all, it itches. 70% wool does that. Not even the 30% soy could help to make it softer. Washing it did little to make it better. I'm a mimosa, can't stand the itch, except for my feet, they can take more of it.

Right now I don't think I'll slip into this jacket with only a T-shirt underneath with any pleasure. Just thinking about it makes my skin itch. I've encountered worse yarn, but the need to make myself a sweater, and fast, let me not think more clearly about the yarn I was about to choose.

This yarn would be perfect for a blanket though, and some day I will use what's left of it in my stash to make one. And if you like felting, you should definitely use it for that.

I did NOT buy this yarn with a sweater, or any garment for that matter, in mind. I was going to make another blanket, and have a couple of other colorways still in my stash. Next time though, I'll buy me the yarn I really LOVE to knit a garment for myself.

I made eight button holes. Cuffs, button bands and neck were done in seed stitch. For the main part I used the "dot-stitch".

I did the shoulder seams with 3-needle bind off. For the neck, I kept the stitches alive (only on the back), so there's no seam there.

Pattern: none

yarn: Patons SWS in colorway # 160448 Natural Green, one ball is 80g/110yds, 70% wool/30% soy

needles: 5.5mm

size: XL

start-finish: July 23-August 27