State of the Project: Suolaulu sweater, part I aka That's a lot of Emotions for a Sweater :D

As I mentioned in Tuesday's post, I cast on the Suolaulu sweater on Monday evening! 

Here's what happened...

After seeing the yarn and pattern sets on the Nurja IG and deciding that ordering a set from Finland was a bit too pricey for me, I spent some time thinking about my own stash and decided to use the natural white Kihnu native sheep's wool yarn that I bought when I visited the island earlier this month as the main colour. I do have other, coloured fingering weight yarns in my stash, but nothing that seemed suitable to use as the contrasting colour. The colours of the Retrosaria Pegulhal yarn in the sets are all very natural and fit in with the swamp theme, so I wanted something that was earthy AF. Inspired by Estonian Seto patterns, which traditionally use red and white (representing life force and light, accordingly), and also by the fact that traditional Kihnu knitwear patterns always contain some red (to protect the wearer from evil), I decided to look for a red shade. 

I turned to the e-shop of the publishing house that printed the Haapsalu scarf and shawl books. They also sell yarns and needles that they consider suitable for traditional Estonian handcraft. I couldn't pick a shade right away, so I ordered three different yarns: a cranberry red one and a madder red one from Aade Lõng, an Estonian yarn manufacturer, and a pure red one from a Norwegian company called Rauma Ullvarefabrikk.

Here they all are: 

I decided I liked the cranberry red one the most, and it also went very well with the swamp theme, so that's what I went with. The next step was winding the hanks of yarn into balls, which I spent the better part of Saturday night doing. I don't have the right equipment of course, so I had to improvise: 

The yarn I bought from Kihnu is also earthy AF. It made my living room smell a bit like a barn (which I don't mind, I like sheep) and it feels just a bit lanolin-y still, but I was very worried that I would mess up the hank or cause it to felt by washing it, so I decided to just wind it, make the sweater and wash that - I'm going to have to wet block it anyway.  Here is the end result:

Jenna the designer actually commented on the picture when I posted it on my IG, saying she thought it looked like cranberries on snow, which I definitely agree with!

On Monday, I started checking Jenna's Ravelry store for the pattern as soon as I woke up, and luckily I didn't have to wait very long - it was posted pretty early in the morning and I was super excited and happy about that. I began knitting the sweater later that night and worked on it for most of Tuesday. I also took it to work with me yesterday and today and even managed to make a fair bit of progress, because the shifts were relatively quiet (I mean, you're not really allowed to use the q-word in my profession, but my shift is over, so I think it's okay?). I am currently about halfway done with the colourwork portion of the body: