“The Northeast, in general, tends to be a busy demographic when it comes to hand knitting,” said Michael del Vecchio, creative director at Universal Yarn. “Many of our yarns, including Poems, grew out of customer demand. In this case, customers were desperately in search of a self-shading yarn with good color and softness that was readily available. Poems launched in 2006 with more richer, more vibrant color variations developed since then. It is now one of the top 10 yarns we sell.”
So how does this popular yarn knit up? The single-ply wool is slightly fuzzy and definitely roving-like. The finished sweater features an appealing haze in the sunlight. To construct a sewn-together garment (not knitting in the round), allow more yardage for matching the tonal shifts at the seam – both with finishing the sweater and when knitting side to side (as in the underpanel for the sweater shown here or for a sleeve.) A cold-water wash for blocking allowed for slight shrinkage – but over time, expect this will felt beautifully; so knit a little larger to allow for this shaping. Splicing in a run of color from the another colorway led to exploring what colors could result (as seen in the neck are and rib finishing on back.) The pattern used features twin nine-nine bold cables with six-stitch purl panel in between and a repeat of three purl stitches, two knit, two purls on either side to make the cables pop. Story and photo for version one linked here.
Note: For colorways available visit www.universalyarn.com.