One down and 7 more to go.

A word of caution – Rowan Felted Tweed yarn makes 1×1 tubular bind off a tedious job since the tweedy bits and alpaca hair that have a tendency to cling while sewing. Whenever I wasn’t careful pulling the yarn from the darning needle through the first knit stitch it would inevitably stick to the near by purl stitch and leave an ugly blob. Practice make perfect, right? Here’s a closer view
after much practice.

Jean’s formula for picking up stitches is actually very simple and looks great. Strategically pickup one stitch for every row/stitch and then decrease 10% of the stitches on the next round. At least that’s my interpretation of the instructions. Also, I’m not sure if she mentioned this in class, but I noticed that her DVD mentions picking up stitches with a needle .5mm or 1.0mm smaller than the one used for the body. I used one that was 1.0mm smaller and didn’t switch to a larger size to finish the rib.

Kate asked about my supple rib swatch. It’s for one of my class sweaters yet to be created so I don’t have a pattern. In fact I might never create one because this stitch probably won’t work so well for my class project. I tried adding ribbing and it look odd. This stitch really doesn’t need any. I’d suggest checking out Jo Sharp’s Knitted Sweater Style for a V-neck and cardigan that use this stitch pattern. Also her first booklet has a pullover called Tundra that uses it as well.