20120728

Second Third

Gap Cotton

I'm getting around to some sweater killing again. I need the change of pace lately. I've been busy (on what? I'll tell you later). Anyway, this practically vintage men's sweater is one of three yarn batches which will be combined for… something. Don't know yet.

This sweater dates around 1998-2000 or so. The Gap was really pumping these out during that time. I know because I bought quite a few. In fact, the other two thirds of this sweater yarn combination project are from my very own closet. The first one was unraveled a while back, and the yarn has just been sitting around because I've got no plans on breaking out size zero needles, at least not for cotton. That's why I'm combining all these, possibly shooting for size three needles. The third one is just sitting in my closet waiting to meet it's demise.

So yeah, it's a pretty fine yarn. It's more like fat thread. This is a double thread multi-strand that's wonderfully over washed. I guess twelve years will do that to cotton, but surprisingly enough, there were no breaks during unraveling. The charcoal color has cooled significantly, however. This was another reason I wanted to combine this, as the subtle color differences of washed charcoals from three different sweaters should yield an equally subtle result. I like subtle, especially when it originates from a complex, pain-in-the-ass process.

20120717

Shear Charlie 3

Shear Charlie 3Shear Charlie 3

California summer is in full swing. These summer nights are what the Shear Series is all about. The open, loosely-knit ribbing breathes so well, especially on those night time bike rides. If you've never gone on a bike ride on a warm summer night, you probably don't even know what I'm talking about. Go do it tonight. It's awesome.

This is Shear Charlie #3. I clarified the design on the second one, and I wanted to do one in this charcoal lamb's wool. This is the sixth hat I've knit from this yarn batch. It used to be a men's sweater from The Gap. I have enough for one more, but I did manage to find another one of these sweaters. The exact same sweater. That seriously never happens, so yeah, awesome.

Shear Charlie 3

Charlie 3 is definitely my favorite Shear so far. I dig the way the fold-over matches the banding. Shear also does a lot of subtle, technique-type things which would just confuse everyone if I tried to explain it, so I won't even try. I dunno what I expect you to walk away with from that last sentence. Maybe that as a conceptual design, the parallelogram element has matured significantly since it's inception in the Skew Series which managed to go from Alpha to Foxtrot (that's six versions) before evolving into Shear. And yes, I'm still pushing forward.

Shear Charlie 3 WiP

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