This was my last finished knitted project of 2016, and my first *blogged* knitted project for 2017!
I finished it just in time, too – Tennessee has finally decided that it is indeed winter, and dropped the temperatures to match!
I haven’t knit as many sweaters this year (or, in 2016) as I did in the past – when I started knitting, I was on a huuuuuge cardigan kick. I knit SO MANY FUCKING CARDIGANS. I still love cardigans, but I rarely wear those OG knits from my first couple of years as a knitter. Most of them were great for my lifestyle at the time – I worked in an office and I needed to cover up my shoulders to make my dresses more appropriate for work. Now that I’m not stuck in a dress code, I rarely wear cardigans in the summer, unless I’m anticipating some crazy A/C abuse (Tennesseans looove their A/C). I have found that I prefer to knit and wear full-on sweaters – when I knit in the round, there’s no purling (woohoo), so it’s faster, and I find them more versatile and easier to wear than cardigans. Again, I don’t live in a climate that really needs a million sweaters – so I focus my knitting attention primarily on socks these days haha. But it’s fun to knit a sweater every once in a while!
I have been loving these marled yarns that seemingly EVERYONE is knitting right now, and I wanted a nice cozy turtleneck to add to my (tiny) sweater collection. Something with minimal shaping – but not overly loose – and long enough to cover my butt (I feel like the older I get, the more my butt gets cold. What gives with that? Do I have a sensitive butt now?). Finding the yarn was really really easy. Finding the pattern was another challenge in itself.
First, the yarn. I was given an opportunity to review some yarn from We Are Knitters, which I totally agreed to do because 1. Yarn is really expensive; and 2. We sell some of these kits at Craft South, so I thought it would be nice to actually see what they were about. Of course, I’m super cheeky so I asked for an entire kit to make my sweater – specifically, I had my eye on the Kide Sweater. I love that loose, slouchy shape, the not-too-tight turtleneck, and I thought it would look great in that Petite Wool spotted black colorway.
Similar to Wool and the Gang kits, the We Are Knitters kit includes everything you need to make and finish the project – in this case, I got the pattern, 6 balls of the Petite Wool (which is basically a bulky yarn), a set of US 11 straight wooden needles, a WAK tag to sew inside my sweater, and a plastic needle to weave in the ends. It came in a recyclable paper bag. The pricing structure is similar to Wool and the Gang, maybe a little bit cheaper. I think the stuff that comes with WATG is a little bit nicer, though – for example, the WATG needle (for weaving in the ends) is metal, and the WAK needle is plastic. The WATG knitting needles are rosewood, and they are suuuper nice. I was not very impressed with the WAK knitting needles – they are also wood (beechwood), but they just feel a bit cheap. Very lightweight and the tips are not smooth. They were the wrong size for my gauge, so I did not use them for this project. I also preferred the WATG yarn over the WAK yarn, but they aren’t exactly the same thing so I don’t know if that’s really a fair comparison.
The WAK Petite Wool yarn is really pretty, but it’s not the easiest to knit with as it is spun very loosely. It’s almost like a thin roving – it’s twisted just enough to get the two colors together, but because it’s not twisted very tightly, it’s prone to pulling apart or getting split with your needle when you knit into it. It’s quite lofty, which makes it a HUGE PAIN IN THE BUTT to unknit, since it really just wants to cling to itself forever. That being said – it feels good in the hands, knits up gorgeously, and is incredibly warm to wear. I have worn this sweater several times – including a 20 degree day in NYC this past weekend – and the cold couldn’t penetrate that barrier. It’s not super itchy to begin with, but I washed it in a Wrapture (which is a no-rinse wool wash with lanolin) and it got even softer. Love love love wearing this yarn.
My real beef with this kit was the pattern itself. The images on the website are really nice, which is what initially drew me in. However… it’s a pretty terrible pattern. It’s definitely very beginner-based, but I don’t think you’d end up with a nice sweater if you followed these instructions. The sweater is essentially knit in two giant pieces that get connected at the side seams. This includes the sleeves. So you start out really small, gradually increase until the piece is torso-sized, and then gradually decrease to the wrist of the second sleeve… then you sew the two pieces together all the way up the side and sleeve seams. I am not crazy about batwing sleeves on a bulky sweater (which is basically what this will end up being), and I feel like something knit out of yarn this heavy needs more structure to keep it from getting weighed down. I also don’t like the way this yarn looks sideways – which is how the stitches will end up, based on the pattern shape. Had I known this, I would have only asked for yarn, not a full kit – but unfortunately you don’t get to see the pattern schematics until it’s in your hands. So I scrapped the pattern and picked a different one, because at the end of the day – I’m the one knitting and wearing this sweater, and I want it to be something I actually truly love.
Sooo, looking for another pattern ended up taking me WAY too long. It is apparently quite difficult to find a semi-fitted, turtleneck sweater knit out of a bulky yarn that does not have cables or lacework. I started with Caribou Trails, bc it had everything I wanted and I figured I could omit the side cable without any problems – but after downloading, I realized the instructions don’t include any neckline shaping. You basically knit the tube for the turtleneck and just go straight down. My WATG Teen Spirit Sweater is shaped like this, and it’s not the worst, but I don’t want to knit any other sweaters like that. Actual neckline shaping means the front dips a little lower than the back, and it doesn’t push against your collarbone. Caribou Trails got scrapped (bummer that I had to pay for it to learn this, but I’m not going to argue with a knitwear designer over $5, I mean, come on haha) and I resumed my search until I found Eased, which was WAY more up my alley! Good fit, good length, and the turtleneck almost looks like a hoodie without a hood. And it had that neckline shaping I wanted, so, sold 🙂 The pattern I used is the version for bulky yarn, but I may go back and knit the version in the lighter weight yarn as well.
The pattern was super easy to follow, so not a lot to report there. I knit and washed a couple of gauge swatches until I settled on size 10 needles, which gave me a lovely feeling knit fabric. After washing, I figured that the back (purl) side looked much nicer than the front (knit) side, so I just knit the sweater as instructed and then turned it inside out after I finished it haha. I love the effect – the sweater looks like old-school TV static 😉 As a side note, this Misfits song was stuck in my head pretty much the entire time I was knitting it haha
I knit the size 33 and the only fitting adjustment I made was to add another round of decreases to the sleeve so they’d be more fitted at the wrist. Something went haywire with my row gauge, btw – I calculated it in my gauge swatch, and measured carefully to ensure that the sleeves would be long enough (after measuring some of my other sweaters and deciding that 19″ was a good sleeve length for a sweater like this), but they still ended up too short. I didn’t realize it until after I wore it for a day and moved around a bit. That was pretty easy to fix – I just undid my cast-off, put the stitches back on the needles, and knit another 16 rounds (4″ with my gauge) in rib knit. I need to re-block the sweater as you can see a slight difference between the original rib knit ending and the new rib knit beginning, but I did this right before I left for NYC and I wanted to take the sweater with me. These photos are the original shorter length sleeves, fyi.
The collar is my favorite part, but man, those instructions are weird! You knit in the round, add yarn-over button holes (so far, so normal)… then instead of binding off, you whipstitch all the live stitches to the inside of the collar. I am guessing that the bind-off would make the collar lay weird, or maybe not be as stretchy, so I followed the instructions with a blind trust, but I was definitely a little concerned about just sewing down live stitches. It did turn out nice, though! The only thing I don’t like is how thick the top of the collar is, so I am going to focus on flattening that more when I re-block the sweater. I may also try a steam iron, we’ll see. One last thing – instead of doing a crochet chain drawstring, I just used black twill tape. I think it looks nicer, that is all.
I do NOT know why the left sleeve looks so much shorter, ignore that! I promise they are the same length HAHA
Overall, I do love the yarn and the finished sweater. Not especially impressed with the pattern itself, although I think it’s probably fine for a super beginner who just wants to finish a sweater and not necessarily fuss over fine details. I think it is the same for the supplies that were included in the kit – they aren’t terrible, but they’re not the best quality I’ve used. A beginner who’s working on their first project wouldn’t know the difference, and wouldn’t have a problem with using them. But the yarn itself is fabulous to wear and I definitely recommend that, whether or not you decide to get the kit as well (you can buy yarn in bulk lots of 5 or 10, and it’s a little more discounted than buying the balls individually).
Speaking of balls of yarn, I only used about 4.5 to knit this sweater… so I still have another ball and a half to knit something else with. Probably a hat! If you have a good/plain beanie pattern suggestion (bulky weight yarn, approx 250~ yards), holler!
On an unrelated note – I just got back from a full-on tourist weekend in NYC and, omg you guys, so amazing. I stayed in the Kimberly Hotel, which is way different from my normal housing – it’s not the cheapest hotel (rates start around $150/night), but it is really well-priced for the area it is in. It’s very central, and an easy 10-15 minute walk to lots of cool things -including the Garment District (YEP!), Central Park, the Natural History Museum – not to mention there are tons of great restaurants just in the surrounding blocks. In addition, there’s a sweet rooftop lounge with really good food and drinks, the rooms are quite nice (I think I might have had a spiritual moment every morning in that WATERFALL SHOWER) and the people who work there are incredibly good at what they do and incredibly intent on not letting you open your own door or hail your own cab 😉 Not an experience I’ve ever personally had before, but now I see why people opt for those fancy hotels!
Since this was a fun / non-work trip for me, I did a lot more touristy-type stuff – although I did nip in the Garment District to grab a couple things (really, I got out of there with the smallest bag ever haha). If you haven’t checked out the Tenement Museum, PUT THAT ON YOUR LIST. It’s not really sewing related (I guess the workers were in the garment industry, but that’s about it), but it’s an AMAZING museum. One of my top 10 for sure. Another thing I really enjoyed doing was walking to Bergdorf Goodman and creeping on all the designer clothes. I only had an hour before I had to catch my flight home, but OH MY GOD I could have stayed there all day. I have never ever understood the appeal of designer clothes – but that stuff is so impeccably made, and it’s fascinating to look at. Some of the pieces made me want to cry over how beautiful they were, as cheesy as that sounds haha. And while I have always found designer stuff to be really over-the-top and kind of goofy looking, seeing it in person really makes you appreciate the artistic side of it. I never thought I would say that I love Gucci, but, their 2017 Resort collection is killer. And the Valentino 2017 Resort collection literally brought a tear to my eye when I was oogling over it. I NEED TO FIND THAT TROPICAL SILK ASAP.
In other news, I’m heading out again this Saturday for my trip to Egypt! I won’t be posting on this blog during that time, so expect some silence. If you want to keep up with me via social media, I will be posting on Instagram (assuming I can get some internet signal over there haha), so you can follow that if you feel so inclined! Otherwise, I’ll see y’all later! ♥
*Note* The yarn was provided to me by We Are Knitters, in exchange for a post review. Although they also supplied a pattern and needles, I used ones that I purchased on my own. All opinions in this review are 100% mine!
LLADYBIRD 
You need to seek out a copy of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s “Knitting Without Tears.” Borrow one from a library if you can … though it is not expensive. Very freeing to be able to work out your own version of basic garments. EZ was an amazing writer and teacher.
I’ve been suggested that book several times, although I’m not terribly keen on the idea of creating my own pattern. I’d rather not spend the tie designing and doing the math, I just want to follow instructions that have already been written 🙂
She also includes regular old patterns in there. Even if you don’t knit, it’s worth reading. She was an engaging writer. Knitting Almanac includes lots of stories — and patterns presented in both a chatty style and in “pithy directions.” The autobiographical Knitting Around tells of amazing people in amazing times. (Among other things, EZ’s mother invented Meals by Motor, the British forerunner of Meals on Wheels.)
Really cool sweater! I love that you decided to wear it inside out. Thanks for the reviews of WATG and WAK. I get all their emails and wondered on the quality. Thanks too for the info on the Kimberly Hotel. Will definitely file that away for a future trip to NYC. Glad you are knitting again!
You are welcome! Always happy to spread my opinion around haha 🙂
A list, eek.
1. Any chance we could see (sometime, or on IG if it’s easier) a picture of the so-called “right” side, for comparison? I do love how the “wrong” side looks. (TV static, I miss thee.)
2. “These photos are the original shorter length sleeves, fyi.” Did you want them long enough to roll up, or to cover your hands? I can see doing that – just want to make sure, ’cause these sleeves don’t actually look too short, per se.
3. “Not especially impressed with the pattern itself” – am assuming you mean the original Kide in the kit, not the Eased you ended up with?
Have fun in Egypt! Also, it’s nice to know $150/night in New York is still fancy, since when I’ve window-shopped* the websites of famous hotels there, e.g. the Plaza, the Waldorf etc., they’re more like $400, gulp.
*the nearest I’ll ever get to them, thanks anyway
I will see if I can take a photo of the inside, but I make no promises haha. Honestly, it’s a little underwhelming from the right side… which is why I liked the the wrong side so much!
The sleeves don’t look too short in the photo because I pulled them down. Due to how fitted they are, they ride up over the course of the day and end up about 2″ above my wrist. The new longer length makes them slightly longer than they appear in the photos – I either cuff them back about 1″, or let them go over my hands, depending on how cold I am haha
The Kide pattern included in the kit was the pattern I didn’t like. The Ease pattern is great!
I thought that coat pic was from The Kimberly Hotel. They’re one of my company’s clients and the rooms are so memorable that I recognized it in your pic. They do know their stuff. Excellent coat and sweater. If I ever finish my Erika Knight chevron sweater (sock yarn on 2s) I will try a larger weight sweater.
Haha how funny! Small world 😀
And duddde try knitting a bulky sweater next… it goes SO FAST. This one took me less than a month to knit, its amazing haha
I love it!! Perfect colors and pattern match. Have a wonderful vacation!!
Thank you so much!
Have a wonderful and safe time in Egypt! (Don’t think you’ll need the beautiful sweater!)
Nope, it should be pretty warm while I’m there – which I’m super excited about haha! Thank you!
P.S. Some Egyptian cottons need to be soaked in salt water. (My mom told me when presenting me with some fabric. Why? Please tell me.)
That is really weird! I’ve never heard of that, but I’m totally going to ask when I go over there haha
Hot salt water, to be exact. In order to cut costs, people who manufacture and dye fabrics will skip the final ‘setting’ of the colour, and that last vital rinse. If you want to avoid staining the entire rest of the load in the washer….boil the fabric before cutting it out. Salt and/or vinegar can be used to help set the colour. They are just added to the boiling water.
I bought a piece in Bangkok, and figured it needed repeated rinsing to get rid of overdye. By the time I was done, I was mad. I put the material in the sink and poured lightly salted, boiling water onto it. Let that sit till it was cool enough to handle…drained it, kinda squished it down till the ‘bleeding’ seemed done. Repeated process till the fabric quit bleeding. Did this at least five times, and then gave up and hung it out to dry. Did it again the next day, don’t recall how many times. Very, very annoying. In the end, this denim was turned into my favorite capris ever…. but it wasn’t without effort.
(This isn’t only Egypt, this happens all over south east Asia…It cuts costs, and the customer can’t tell one way or the other till they have washed it.)
Enjoy your trip. And if you haven’t hired a tour guide, there is a really huge guy who runs a nice (not terribly pricey) guiding service. Can’t recall his name to save my life, but he was the number two ranked arm wrestler in the world. A gentleman, with arms easily as big as your legs… his tour covered all the most interesting things. Carpet factory, perfume oil shop, make the time to go through a spice/nut shop the smells are completely worth it.. don’t forget to ask an Egyptian about “koshari”. (Koh-shah-ree) It is a cheap local dish involving chickpeas, various spices, different sizes of pasts
Weirdest note ever.
Interesting! That is good to know, and doesn’t surprise me at all about that last setting getting skipped… manufacturers seem to always be cutting corners.
Great sweater. I love reverse stockinette as the right side.
Thank you!
I went to Egypt for a study abroad semester in 2004 and at that time there were tons of Internet cafes in the bigger cities. You go in and pay for the time spent – super cheap bc pretty much everything there is super cheap. Some nicer hotels had pay to plug-in service in the rooms, too. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding some internet somewhere. I don’t know if you’re going on a guided tour but if you aren’t watch out and be aware of your surroundings. Young white women in Egypt are especially vulnerable targets to all sorts of crime. We had armed guards carrying m16s under their sport coats everywhere we went and crossed the desert with extra security bc of “desert pirates” – no joke. I know lots has changed after the revolution but just be careful. If you have any other questions feel free to email me. Vinthill at Hotmail dot com. Btw, totally spring the $10 it takes to ride a camel around the pyramids at Giza. You won’t regret!
I’m sure I can find internet if I truly need it, but honestly I’m looking forward to being able to unplug from it a bit too (I imagine it’s easy to find in Cairo, but the cruise I’m taking does not say anything about wifi sooo that might have me off for a few days haha). I have several female friends who have either lived in Egypt or visited solo, so I’ve talked with them plenty about what to watch out for and how to dress/act. Everything I am doing that is touristy will have a male guide, it not have me part of an entire roup. And yes, totally gonna go ride a camel! I already booked it HAHA!
This is so pretty, I love it! I purged all my knitting stuff a few years ago (dumb!), but we live in Hawaii and I didn’t ever have reason to wear anything knitted AND I didn’t have time (I could be sewing!) Fast forward a few years, we are moving to Utah (military) and my kids now have plenty of dance/sports for me to sit and keep my hands busy. So I bought a pair of knitting needles and decided it’s time to take it up again. Your sweater inspires me!
Nikki
http://www.pincutsewstudio.com
Not dumb, now you get to buy all nice new knitting things! 😀 So happy to have inspired you 😀
Pretty, pretty! I agree with you 100% re sleeves. And, as I also prefer knitting my sweaters in the round, mostly top down ones, it’s no fun at all to take the time to put the in-progress sweater on waste yarn so I can try it on — mostly to see how the sleeves are fitting. But it’s one of those necessary evils y’all 🙂 (hailing from southern WA state, I’ve always felt somehow entitled to a li’l bit of Southern). Envy those yummy accents!
Haha yeah, I don’t like the part about putting the sweater on waste yarn so I can try it on, but I do it anyway because its less than it would take to frog part of it if the sizing is off! And I won’t tell anyone your secret! 🙂
Beautiful sweater! Thank you for pointing out the Tenement Museum. I never heard of it so I must check it out one day.
Thank you! Definitely check out that museum, I really really enjoyed it and I think you will too!
oh, forevermore…. I am NOT “anonymous” but when I switched from a Dell laptop to a MacBook Pro somehow some things are not transferring over, like my name? Still trying to figure how how to fix this. At any rate, forgot to wish you a MOST wonderful trip to Egypt!
Haha no worries! I feel your pain – computers drive me CRAZY, can’t figure them out half the time! Thank you for your well wishes! ♥
I love your finished sweater! I’m totally with you on the purchasing patterns thing, I’ve been burned more than once on poor tech editing or poor directions, and I’m a pretty seasoned sweater knitter. Lately I haven’t bothered purchasing patterns unless there’s a specific stitch or colorwork pattern I need the instructions to. I knit almost exclusively in fingering weight yarn (because I will definitely wear a fingering weight sweater), but there aren’t a ton of patterns out there, and I’ve knit A LOT of the ones I like already. I actually purchase patterns written for worsted weight (because there are SO MANY!) and then do math all over them to get them to work for my fingering weight gauge. I think my favorite I’ve ever done using this was Delancey, which is an amazing cardigan with really great instructions.
That hotel sounds amazing! A friend of mine was recently in Vegas for a work conference and her hotel room was super fancy, she would finish for the day and then go and soak in the tub with some bath bombs she bought at Lush rather than do the standard Vegas-y things.
Wow, I can’t believe you re-math all that stuff for your knitting! That is some serious dedication (but you know what you mean about sticking with fingering weight, because I agree that those are the most comfortable/flattering weights to wear). It is hard to find good sweater patterns in that yarn weight, but there are definitely plenty of worsted haha. I wish I was confident enough in my skills to re math a pattern or do frankenpatterning, but I still mess things up enough that I need the instructions.
And YES, that’s exactly what I would do if i went to Vegas. Screw partying and casino-ing, I would much rather lounge in a fancy-ass tub hahaha
Love it! I really need to get into knitting, then I could do things like this. 😉
You should, knitting is the best!! 😀
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
LOVELY–INTERESTING PATTERN TEXTURE AMD WONDERFUL FIT!
Thank you!
Nice sweater! Sewing down live stitches, is pretty standard, actually. That way you avoid an inflexible BO edge, and instead get a lining (to a collar, hem or cuff) that matches the body of the sweater in stretchiness.
That makes perfect sense! I figured there was a good reason that I am just not experienced enough to know about. Thank you, this was a good comment hahaha
WOW, Lauren, what a post!!! Lots of info to process there! The sweater came out lovely after all your tribulations with shitty patterns, haha!! With your expert level in sewing and knitting, girl, I’d totally go for making up your own patterns following, for example, Budd’s Handy book of Sweater Patterns. If you think about it, you end up doing your own pattern (after a waste of time and money) anyways. I totally agree about expensive designer clothes. They seem unreal in magazines and such, but you see them in a window and the craft is astounding. About the beanie, I might have the pattern you are looking for (WATG’s Gobi Beanie, got it free). Where can I send you the pdf?
And enjoy your trip to Egipt, we are here waiting to see what inspiration you get from there!
Ooh that would be awesome if you can send me the pattern! Thank you so much! My email is lladybirdlauren@gmail.com 🙂
Great sweater! I love all the mods, and completely agree that the sweater has to be exactly what you want it to be, or it never gets worn! I laughed because I have actually made a bulky-weight batwing sweater and it does…not… work. Plus it makes me sweaty. As for hats, I’ve used a pattern called Cocoon by rilile (free on Ravelry) that I absolutely love for a slouchy beanie if that’s what you’re looking for. Actually just blogged about it yesterday. Not sure how heavy your yarn is but I’ve made a version in Berroco vintage chunky that worked out perfectly. Have fun in Egypt!
Fantastic! I don’t know how to knit. What a cute sweater! Nice job!
Love the way this yarn has knitted up , the sweater looks amazing , even with odd length sleeves ! Looking forward to seeing the matching beanie hat.