In June 2006, I attended a dyeing workshop that was part of an XRX retreat up near Asheville with mom. While we were there, she bought me about 1700 yds of the most beautiful yarn - 50% merino / 50% silk worsted weight yarn from Ellen’s Half-Pint Farm. The yarn has sat in my stash, untouched, since then. However, I finally decided that this yarn needed to be transformed into Sahara. So I got out my dyes and started playing with colors. The first attempt left me with straw color that I liked, but didn’t think would look great with my skin tone. So I overdyed it and ended up with a sort of milk-chocolate coppery brick color (it’s a really difficult color to describe, honestly - it looks different under every different light source). Satisfied, I started knitting Sahara.

The p3tog-tbl that was called for in the neckband stitch detailing was omitted and replaced with your standard run-o-the-mill p3tog. The added tension of purling through the back loop just wasn’t working for me, the yarn, or my poor wrists. Honestly, whoever came up with the brilliant idea for that stitch ought to rot in hell, IMHO. :)

By the time I finished, I realized that the third skein of yarn I had used for the bottom of the sweater, the neckband, and one of the sleeves was a slightly lighter shade. It’s fine for the neckband and the sleeve - barely noticeable - but the bottom of the sweater had this nasty stripe that I had to undo. I set it aside for a few days because I couldn’t bear to rip back and reknit that section right away. But I finished it in time for my trip to Ohio for TNNA with mom, so in all, this sweater took me about 2 1/2 weeks to knit. Not too bad.

It was a pleasant knit - the yarn was lovely, the pattern (aside from the p3tog-tbl) was a breeze to follow and work through, and I’ll most likely repeat it with a different yarn and longer sleeves at some point. I really liked it. :)

Specs:

Pattern: Sahara by Wendy Bernard, via Stitch Diva Studios

Yarn: Hand-dyed 50% silk / 50% merino worsted weight from Ellen’s Half-Pint Farm

Needles: US 6 and 5 bamboo 24″ circs (Clover)

Date Started: May 15, 2007 (Dyeing done May 14-15, 2007)

Date Finished: May 31, 2007

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