A Sleeve!

I got back on Coraline this weekend and I finished the first sleeve! Now I know how long to make the second sleeve, so it should go pretty quickly. I also washed and blocked the sleeve just to make sure that the gauge would stay the same like it did in the swatch (swatches can lie). Sure enough, the gauge stayed the same, which means that I might need to adjust for the yoke a bit since my row gauge is different from the pattern.

I love the way the knitting changes after it's washed. This is handspun yarn and it was spun with a pretty high twist. It was washed after I finished plying it, but when I knit with it, it feels very crisp. Not scratchy or rough, it just feels crisp. Once I wash it, the yarn really relaxes into the stitches and the knitted fabric becomes soft and drapey. And of course, I'm still amused by the tonal stripes.