My knitting has been OFF THE CHAIN lately with regards to how productive I am. I don’t feel like I’m knitting any faster or even more frequently than usual, but I’m averaging a finished piece every month and a half or so. My ultimate goal is to replace all my cheap/pilled acrylic RTW sweaters with beautiful wool handknits, so I like to think I’m making good progress here 🙂
And here’s my newest one! Isn’t it pretty?
(I know these pictures are awful and washed out; I tried using my camera on “auto” for this photo set. Um. NEVER AGAIN, holy shit).
This pattern is Audrey in Unst. It’s been in my queue forever – I actually started swatching it with the purple yarn that eventually became Peggy Sue. The pattern calls for DK weight yarn, but I could NOT get gauge with such a heavy yarn (I’m a loose knitter), so I set the pattern aside and made, well, Peggy Sue.
Two sweaters later, I was ready to try again. I’ve been very good about stash-busting for the last few projects, so I treated myself to a new fancy yarn from my local yarn store. This is Malabrigo sock yarn – a merino wool in a light fingering weight. Again, I know the pattern calls for DK weight but since my gauge was all crazy (and when I did get the stitches small enough, they were so tight that the fabric felt stiff), I took a leap of faith and sized down in both yarn and needles.
Spoiler alert: it worked!
I still consider myself a relatively new-ish knitter, so please don’t take my word for gospel, but I assume you can go up or down a yarn weight as long as your gauge swatch matches that in the pattern. I had the same number of stitches per inch, even though my yarn was lighter and I was using size 2 needles, and my cardigan fits perfectly. Which is even more impressive to me, since this sucker is knit bottom-up – which means I couldn’t try it on as I went. I’m so daring, y’all.
This pattern was very straightforward and easy to follow, although I gotta say – I don’t like how she wrote some parts of it. When doing repeat rows, she doesn’t give you an exact number of rows to do, or a finished measurement, so at first I was kind of guessing and hoping I was following along correctly. Think like: “repeat decrease row every 4th row one time, then every 7th row five times.” Usually a pattern will follow up with: “… for a total of 39 rows.” I like to follow patterns that hold my hand through the process, so I didn’t like that. But, you know, minor complaint.
I knit the size 32.5 for everything except the waist and the sleeves, which I did in the size 30.5. This was pretty easy – the pattern gives you stitch counts, so once I got to the waist shaping, I just continued decreasing until I got to the stitch count for 30.5. When it came time to increase, again, I followed the stitch count until I had the same stitches for the 32.5. I wanted my sweater to be very fitted and it is exactly that!
I love how it looks open.
Fingering weight might be my new favorite yarn weight. It feels so dainty to knit up on tiny needles, and it feels SO NICE to wear in this heat! Not bulky or hot at all! Well, ask me again come winter, but for now – fingering weight FTW!
It does feel drapey and stretchy, which makes me slightly anxious and gives me flashbacks of cotton yarn stretching out, but I took these pictures after wearing the sweater for an entire day and the shape is still nice. That’s wool yarn for ya!
Isn’t the yarn such a pretty color? It’s slightly variegated – enough for visual interest, but not so much to take away from the design of the sweater.
I love the lacework at the yoke! So much fun to knit!
The twisted rib too foreeeever, but it does look nice.
I tried to get a good picture of the buttons, but it was difficult. They have an argyle design etched into them. I bought these specifically for the sweater at last month’s flea market – they were kind of expensive (they’re from the 20s-30s and the guy tells me they are vegetable protein), but they are perfect so I had to.
I guess that it’s! Full Ravelry notes are here!
LLADYBIRD 