unDurrow

In May, I started a sweater for Jesse, based on the Durrow design. I used mystery wool, 4 cones obtained for a grand total of $8 at a weaving group's yarn tag sale in the spring. (They're the four brown cones to the left of the red skeins in the first pic of this post.) I knitted 2 strands at a time because the yarn is fairly thin, but thank heavens I washed and blocked my swatch, as it bloomed tremendously with a good washing -- softened, fluffed up, changed from rough to wonderful. The yarn might appear to be a solid brown in these pictures, but there are tweedy flecks of red and green mixed in there too. Jesse wasn't too fond of the cable in the original Durrow, so we switched to the Genesis Hall cable pattern chosen from Vogue's cable Stitchionary and I knit all in the round.

Made the sleeves and body longer than called for in the pattern, to accommodate Jesse's height, and added some short rows so the back wouldn't ride up. I had never done a saddle shoulder before and the instructions as written didn't work out for his build. After tearing back to underarms, I added even more inches to the body and sleeves, then subbed in Elizabeth Zimmermann's saddle shoulder guidelines, which worked beautifully. I just love how the cables carry up the arms and across the shoulders. Believe it or not, I didn't tap into the 3rd and 4th cones of yarn until well into the yoke/saddle shoulder -- AMAZING how much yarn is wound onto those cones.

After a couple of good soaks in hot water and detergent, a spin-out of the excess water in the washing machine, and a few good thwacks to fluff up that yarn, we had a finished sweater met with greath enthusiasm on all sides. Jesse was perfectly cozy in it, combined with his beloved Habitat hat, for our Christmas tree hunt yesterday.

In the end, the only bit of the original Durrow pattern that remained is the 4x2 ribbing that makes up the body and non-cabled portion of the sleeves. :-) So a dash of Durrow mixed with a hefty scoop of personal tweaks and a heaping helping of Eliz. Zimmermann's guidance, simmered for a few months with lots of other projects mixed in, resulted in one very pleased young man and a mom who was happy to oblige.