The Filey

The Filey is done! While I would not say that it is a beautiful as It is knit from Frangipani on (mostly) 2.5 mm needles. Pictures to come.

My wife is having the kitchen redone, so the furnace is off and the windows are wide open to let the dust out.. The temperature is about 55 F (13C) and the Filey is very comfortable as my sole upper body garment.

I was helping the guys place sheetrock on the ceiling. The freedom of upper body movement while maintaining warmth is amazing. With most garments, as you repeatedly raise and lower your arms, the movement of the garment pumps cold air around your torso. (I.e., The other guys on the sheet rock crew got cold, and they were wearing more layers than I was.)

One change that I made was that as originally knit, it was a bit short, so I lengthened the welt by 3.5 inches, and this seems to have pushed the comfort zone down by 5 or 6 degrees F. I was very surprised at how much of a difference this little change made. Now, I am very pleased with the warmth to weight ratio of this sweater. I really consider hand knit wool, THE wonder fiber for producing warm garments.

Rain finally arrived, and while my wife did Christmass shopping, I sat in the plaza and knit. The Filey is not knit tightly enough to be comfortable in a good rain. I got cold. The 2.5 mm needles were too large for Frangipani. It is a very warm comfortable sweater, it is just not warm enough to wear shorting sail in a rain squall. It is not nearly as warm (or rain proof) as my gardening gansey.