My 2019 knitting has had an inauspicious start.
Shortly before the new year, I started work on Big Love by ANKESTRiCK, using one of the suggested yarns — Ístex Léttlopi. After working on it on New Year’s Eve, I quickly realized that the resulting sweater would be far to warm for me, given the thickness of the knitted fabric at the suggested gauge. I started it over on New Year’s Day using Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted from my stash — it made a lighter weight fabric at the required gauge.
But this past week I abandoned the project, for a couple of reasons.
The entire thing is knit in one piece. Why, why, WHY do designers design such a large heavy garment in one piece? This is an aran weight jacket, for pete’s sake. Granted it is a very clever design with very clever shaping, and I liked the look of the finished product, but once I got past the armholes (it is knit from the top down) I found it unbearable to work on. Way too much “stuff” on the needle, way too much warmth, even for sitting and knitting in the winter.
The other reason for abandonment: I don’t like the texture stitch used to knit the body. It does not look good in the yarn I chose.
When I threw it down in disgust after knitting just three rows one night last week. I realized that finishing it would be a big chore, not a relaxing knit. So into the frog pond it went.
And I need to remind myself that when I search Ravelry for patterns for worsted or heavier yarn, be sure to refine the search by selecting “seamed” construction. Argh. Of course, in my opinion, every garment should be seamed (unless there is a darn good reason not to work with seams, like in the case of stranded colorwork) as the structure provided by seams makes it hand better.
To counter that sad experience, I’ll post a recent success:
This is my modified version of Svenson by Jared Flood. I did not blog about it because it was knitted in stealth as a holiday gift.
I did some pretty major modifications to the raglan sleeve shaping and the neckline. The original pattern had a weirdly wide neck that I knew the recipient would not like, and changing that necessitated changing the raglan shaping. I also shortened the sleeves quite a bit.
So you can imagine how relieved I was when the finished sweater fit the recipient perfectly!
It is knit from Wollmeise Merino DK in the 12 Mg colorway.
Book Giveaway
Thanks to everyone who left a comment to be entered in the giveaway for my review copy of Gradient Style: Color-Shifting Techniques & Knitting Patterns. The winner of my copy is sewknit2 who has been emailed.
Loki
It’s snowing today. Here is how Loki deals with that.
