I wanted to knit this as part of Zanete’s first ever KAL, but just couldn’t find the right contrast yarn for the Birdstreet - even after visiting three shops on my travels in Scotland as part of the Great British Yarn Crawl!

After trying four shades of orange/coral/peach/grey, none of which gave me the right finish, I went back to the stash and found these yarns I’d bought in New York; one is in a similar colour scheme but a shade darker, I’d been saving it to knit up with a lace weight mohair from the same dyer but it seemed so promising that I thought I’d give it a go with a grey single (https://kraeo.com/products/fire-in-the-sky-on-little-sister). Bingo! I knit a quick sample and it was perfect, so I’ll fade that into the Birdstreet once the colourwork is finished.

10.05.23
I’m on row 48 of the yoke and each row is taking 15/20 minutes. Luckily I’ve trained myself to hold the contrast yarn in my left hand and use the technique for trapping floats that I learned whilst testing the Melancholia sweater, so at least it feels like a smoother process than if I was throwing both colours.

13.05.23
Chart A of yoke finished. Measures 9.75cm so need to work a few rows of Chart B before separating for body and sleeves.

25.05.23
Phew, finally finished the colourwork, have to admit I was getting a bit antsy with it as I’ve never done such an intricate design. I was also fading the main colour into the first of the Birdstreet yarns so I’d added an extra headache. And for some reason the tip of the left needle kept finding its way down my right thumbnail #ouch.

54g of contrast used, 93g of main (…Dead Heart) and 9g of Merry Berry.

17.05.23
So, I decided I don’t really like the transition from the main yarn to the sock, it’s too pink to show the last of the colourwork and the yarn is too thin. I knitted a sample with the sock held with a black laceweight merino and worked two rows of that alternated with two rows of the original main colour. It worked really well and gave me the thickness of fabric I was looking for, but the black gave too crisp a colour so I’ve ordered a grey merino/cashmere blend to see how that looks.

28.05.23
I’ve now worked 6 rows of chart B with the two yarns combined and am really happy with the results. Separated for body and sleeves during row 72.

30.05.23
Finished chart B and carried on with main yarn. Decided to add some length to the front to accommodate my boobs so worked 4 short rows starting with the 8th stitch of the side panels.

04.06.23
Arrrrggghhhh!

Tried on the jumper and decided it’s too big so frogged a week’s worth of knitting. Have now gone down to size 3.25mm needles, wish me luck.

06.06.23
I’m still not happy with the body so I’m doing the sleeves instead. Just finished the colourwork - I didn’t start the decreases when directed as I was already juggling 5 needles, two balls and one cone of yarn.

10.06.23
Finished left sleeve (body 3mm, rib 2.75mm). I’ve left a thread through the cuff stitches until after blocking in case I need to amend the length.