And it's knitting!!!

I needed something to knit while I spin the yarn for the last three hats for my hat book rewrite so I started a little jumper in some 8 ply wool that I bought from the op shop (translation for anyone who didn't understand that: I'm knitting a sweater in dk weight wool I bought from the charity thrift store)

I'm about three inches shy of starting the armholes and two rows after that, the v-neck.

It's knit in the round up to the armhole shaping, then you join in the sleeves that you've knit from the bottom up to where they join the body, then 2 rounds without shaping, split for the v-neck and knit back and forth whilst doing a double decrease on the raglan seams every right side round.

It's a lot simpler than it sounds, believe me.

Details:
Yarn: Colour Fusion 8 ply in colour "rustic fawns" by Shepherd of New Zealand - pure new wool
Pattern: My own, formula courtesy of Priscilla Gibson-Robert's "Knitting in the Old Way" new edition. I'm using the raglan jumper template.

The yarn is a little scratchy but it feels like it's the type of scratchy that a bit of hair conditioner will help. It's rather dry from having been in storage. I'm totally in love with the colour and texture though. It's a 2 ply yarn with subtle changes in colour and very slight thick-and-thin changes throughout. It's obviously supposed to mimic a handspun yarn made from natural light brown fleece and I think it's really lovely. I have no idea if it's possible to buy any more (I haven't googled it) but if you're a hand spinner it would be super easy to duplicate.

One thing about Knitting in the Old Way: I worked out my v-neck shaping several times and was very confused to find that it always started at about the same time as the armhole shaping. I thought that looked too low, and not being the kind of person to have read all of the front of the book (as the author suggests, ahem), I had missed a very important sentence that goes a little like this:

"The average v-neck starts about the same time as the armhole shaping".

D'oh.

So I was right all along but since I've almost always relied on software to make my original patterns before, I just didn't know it. I have knit other jumpers using PGR's book, but they were all crew necks.

So now I'll be knitting away on this little jumper whenever I need a carry around project, at least until I've finished spinning the wool for the first hat! It's incredibly enjoyable, not having to worry about a pattern. This is the fourth raglan jumper that I've made from the book and I can't wait to try out some of the other styles!