Using yarn raised on Spanish soil (see the yarn notes), this sweater is my tribute to two wonderful years living in Spain. To be finished before I leave and move on to the next exciting Vincent adventure (where I’ll probably need a sweater more than I have in southern Spain).

24-Jan: After a failed swatch attempt with another sweater with substituted yarn, I decided to just do a sleeve and measure that. Much better idea for what the yarn does lengthwise and width wise when knitting in the round for me! This yarn is pretty close to gauge, matching the measurements for the stitch count nicely. So one sleeve down, one to go! I knitted the sleeve to just over 7.5” so I’d have a little extra length.

22-Feb: Wow! Almost a month later and this sweater is done. It went so quickly. Besides the major headaches with the yarn (below), the sweater was a dream to knit up and the fit is perfect. I increased the length of the body about an inch and like how it turned out. The color work is great! The only mod I ended up having to do was to shorten the ribbing at the neck to only 6 rows because the yarn kept breaking and I just couldn’t handle it anymore so I bound off. This sweater again? YES. This yarn again? Project depending (no more small needle ribbing!!)

Final measurements:
Base of body to the start of color work in the front: 15”
Base of body to neck in the front: 22.5”
Width: 18”, give or take because of shaping
Arm length from cuff to start of color work: 19”

Yarn Notes:
This is a new yarn line from a small Spanish company dedicated to reviving the appreciation for native sheep breeds, for this in particular the native Merino breed. I was so excited about this yarn and when I pulled it out of its shipping container it was very soft and lofty, with a nice squish. It spun up nicely into a center-weight ball and was ready to go.

I was a little frustrated, then, to start knitting with it and have it break on me three times during the casting on and initial ribbing. I adjusted my knitting method to a circular needle instead of DPNs and also used long-tail cast on instead of cable to try and relieve stress on the yarn, and also knitted very gently and loosely. Same story again when getting started with the ribbing on the body, and when doing the ribbing at the neckline. It does not like smaller knitting needles or purling, even when I try to knit gently.

I did not experience breakage when knitting with the Size 7 needles in simple stockinette stitch in the round, but had to be very careful not to split the yarn.

For joining, it doesn’t join well with the Russian join method because the yarn just pulls apart and breaks, but it also struggled with the felting method, so I did use the Russian join method carefully.

Now that I’m done with this project, I would only recommend this yarn for knitting with Size 7 needles in simple stockinette in the round. It is not ideal for purling or for smaller needle sized ribbing. Even when binding off super carefully it pulled apart six stitches from the end. SO FRUSTRATING. Any pressure on this yarn at all and it just slowly pulls apart. I am not impressed with the structural integrity, and I don’t have great hopes for the longevity of the sweater. It was worth trying because I love some of their other yarns, but this yarn is a disappointment.

The white yarn seemed a bit stronger than the brown, so it may have behaved better for knitting ribbing. Where these are the two ends of their color spectrum, it makes me curious to know how the mixed “grays” in between would hold up to knitting. They just really need to do something to make the brown (Marrón) stronger because at this point it cannot hold up to regular hand knitting and is just incredibly frustrating to work with.