I’ve known Ann and Eugene Bourgeois of Philosopher’s Wool since the late 90’s. I first meet them at the Toronto Downtown Knit Collective Knitter’s Frolic and it was a highlight of every frolic to see them again. The sweater you see in my banner image is made from their wool.

Starting in 2004 or 2005 Van and I have seen them several times at the KW Knitter’s Fair and The University of Guelph‘s Fair November.

In September 2006 we took a weeks vacation and part of that trip was visiting their farm and store in Inverhuron, Ontario.

Van and I had talked about me making a sweater for him as a gift. He chose the pattern and Ann worked with him to pick the colours for the kit instead of going with a ready made one. We had a wonderful afternoon visiting and it was amazing seeing all the yarns there.

The pattern Van chose was the Timber Framed sweater.

In the winter of 2007 I did some swatching to figure out my gauge, as I knew I would have a hard time getting the gauge that is listed in the pattern. We figured out what size of sweater was needed. From that and my guage I built an excel spreadsheet to plot out the colour changes that were needed for both the sleeves and the body.

I printed the sheets so that Van could colour them in with pencil crayons. Planning the colours went through a couple itterations, with lots of life stuff and Van moving in the process.

In September 2010 we finally had the colours figured out and I printed out the final charts and added them to the project box. Where it sat for about a year while a lot of things happened in my life and Van and I moved once again!

The first sleeve was knit Nov. 13, 2011 – Feb. 8, 2012.
The second sleeve was Feb. 10, 2012 – early October, 2012
The body was started on Oct. 12, 2012 and I’m still working on it! It will be ready to put on the sleeve steeks in another inch or so.

The plan was to have it all finished for Fall 2012 so Van could use it as his main coat. That didn’t happen for several reasons, procrastinating being one of the big ones.

Right now I’m trying to make sure it’s done for Fall 2013!

For knitting I’m using a colour in each hand, as Ann Bourgeois teaches in her video.

I was wild and buy cialis http://www.icks.org/data/ijks/1482460255_add_file_5.pdf free after a long time. Among of which are gynecology, internal medicine, and pediatrics, to buy viagra line name a few. Do not Use THAT Referring A Person – Many beginners make this buy levitra mistake belong to the use of “That.” You must keep in your mind that never uses “THAT” when you are going to indicate towards a person. “THAT” is used for referring objects. “Who or Whom” is used for referring individuals. They include: Medical treatments: Oral pills are the most common causes that require you to seek a physical therapist is a spehttp://icks.org/n/data/conference/1482369872_info_file.pdf cheap cialist skilled and educated specifically in proper rehabilitation. I’ve made one change on the weaving of the yarns from her video. Normally the yarns are woven in every second stitch. For example, on a 5 stitch section, the colour not being used would be woven in on stitches 2 and 4.

This pattern has long sections where the colours are in blocks. If I wove in the yarns on the same stitches each row there would be a noticeable ridge on the front of the sweater on those stitches.

I’m alternating rounds of where I’m weaving in the colours. Round 1 is on stitches 2 and 4, round 2 is on stitches 1, 3 and 5. This gives a more even texture on the front of the fabric, and also gives an interesting colour pattern on the inside of the sweater.

I’m going to put in steeks for the sleeves and neck of the sweater. I’m planning on crocheting the steeks rather than sewing them. I’ll make a final decision when I’m ready to start cutting.

I’m going to make a small sample with a steek to confirm that the crochet method will work with this yarn. I don’t want to have to go back and sew this up again after it’s been cut!

Some more pictures of the sweater in progress. Click on them to enlarge them.