First Sweater of 2022!

This is my first finished sweater of 2022! It is from the Ko-michi pattern by DanDoh designs. I made a few modifications to get the fit I wanted. I wanted a narrower sweater so I cast on fewer stitches and also narrowed the single-strand purple sections. I had to increase the height of the purple parts and also the number of vertical repeats in order to get the length I wanted. I added neckline shaping to achieve a more rounded neckline and shoulder shaping to prevent the top armhole parts from sticking up too much. Finally, I finished the neckline and armholes with a few purl stitch rows. I love the artsy look of this sweater!

Two Sweaters From the Same Pattern

Hello everyone out in the blogosphere! For some reason, I haven't posted anything in awhile and I'm not sure why. Knitting has been happenning and I finished two sweaters from the same pattern. The pattern is Temporal, and I liked the first one well enough to try it again. Also, I made the first one a little too big because I managed to cast on more stitches for the front than the back. This teaches me to always do a stitch count after the first two rows just to check. The pink sweater below is the first one. Both of these are done with the same yarn but in different colors. The yarn is Cloudborn superwash merino DK and I really like it but it's discontinued.

The second version is in a deep red color. In addition to making it a little smaller, I also changed the shaping to a standard waist shaping. The pattern originally calls for a slight widening from hem to bust line. The smaller size does make it a little slimmer but since this is really a sweater that fits with some ease, I don't mind the larger pink one. For both of these, I shaped the front neckline a bit to dip a little lower since I don't like necklines right against my throat.

The pattern calls for a cotton yarn but I decided I wanted something warmer that I can wear over thin tops for cooler weather. I should get some good wear out of these until next summer.

Linen Dress -- M7242

I finished this dress late last year and it is now finally warm enough that I could take it out for a spin! The pattern is McCall's M7242 and I sewed a sleeveless version with the skirt flounce. My main modification was to change the skirt to not have a button front because I didn't see the need for that many buttons. The elastic waist also fits better if it doesn't have to be split by a front band. The fabric is a lightweight linen that needed a lining only for the skirt section. Removing the skirt opening made it much easier to just line the bottom -- the lining also serves as the elastic casing at the top. This dress is really comfy and easy wearing -- I'm looking forward to putting it to good use this in warmer days.

Five Rectangles Cardigan

I recently finished knitting what I call my "five rectangles cardigan". It's my own design and it's basically composed of five almost-rectangular pieces - one back, two fronts, and two sleeves. I say "almost-rectangles" because the back and front pieces have shoulder shaping. The sleeves were picked up from the front and back pieces, so the only finishing work was sewing up the side and sleeve seams. I fussed a bit with various ways of slipping the border stitches on the fronts so that I would not need to add any sort of finishing band. The textured pattern is a broken rib and has a different look on each side, which gives the lapels a different texture from the front. I was aiming for an easy fitting cardigan so this fits me with a bit of ease and I didn't want any waist shaping.

I didn't want a button closure on this sweater because I figured it was a good vehicle for my 3D printed shawl pin. In the name of shameless advertising, you can find my shawlpin in my Etsy Shop. :)

The yarn for this cardi is Shepherd's Wool Worsted by Stonehedge Fiber Mill, which I love. I had purchased this yarn several years ago and as I was winding it and sometimes knitting it, I noticed that it would just break in random places. Sometimes, one or two of the plies would break leaving me a thin strand. I called the company and asked about it and they said it sounded like moths had gotten to the yarn. I store my yarn just in some wooden drawers and I didn't see any moth evidence, but they said I might not see anything. I asked my knitting friends and a few said that it has also happened to them. I don't have much of a yarn stash anyway, but from now on, I'm not waiting several years before knitting my wool yarns!

Diamond patterned pullover

I recently finished this pullover which is based on the Losange pattern. I really liked the diamond pattern on the front, but my yarn is a finer gauge. I used Rowan superfine merino DK weight and the color is really a light green. For some reason, it came out white in the photo, and I was just feeling too lazy to adjust the color or keep trying to take a better photo.:) I used a standard raglan topdown sweater pattern sizing that I've knit many times before, although I made it with a bit more ease to avoid distorting the diamond pattern. It's cold these days, so I'm wearing it over a thin knit top.

For some reason, this sweater took way too long to knit. I think that's partly because I sort of got bored knitting it. However, I'm pretty happy with it now that it's done and I think it will get some wear this wiinter.

Clark Knit Cardigan

I finished this Clark cardigan some time ago and finally got around to taking photos. This is pretty much a classic cardigan, although I made mine quite a bit shorter than the pattern's length. The most interesting design element is the lateral braid that separates the ribbed sections from the stockinette and also sits at the base of the standup collar. It definitely gives the cardiagan a more crisp look.

I did have one issue with the front edges. They are done with just slipped stitches so they tended to be a little loose and also a little uneven in length. I thickened and tightened the edges by crocheting some slip stitches on the inside roll of the front edges and that made the front edges much more firm and stable.

The cardigan has quite a bit of ease which I sort of like, but I think the sleeves came out a bit too wide for me. I knew they would be wide from looking at the pattern dimensions but decded to try it anyway, thinking it might be good to accomodate thicker sleeves underneath in the winter.

My yarn for this sweater is the discontinued Classic Elite Arietta, which is mostly merino with some yak. It's a very soft yarn, so this should be a nice and comfy cardigan for fall/winter.

Wide Sleeve Pullover

I knitted this cozy sweater some time ago and forgot about posting it. It's a homegrown pattern that is simply a raglan pullover done with very wide sleeves. I also wanted wide armholes to go with the wide sleeves so I just knitted the raglan increases for a longer length than usual before splitting up for the sleeves. Also, the ratio of front or back stitches to sleeve stitches is 1:1 at the start, so the raglan lines start much closer to the center of the body. The collar is knitted double the height and folded over to allow it to stand up.

I bought the yarn for this sweater at Stitches West, which happened before the pandemic shutdown. It's called Alpakka Lin and it's a great blend of linen and alpaca. The linen keeps it strong and sturdy and the alpaca makes it really warm. I actually haven't gotten a chance to wear this out yet, both because I finished it in time for a warm summer. Winter will come soon enough, and maybe by then I'll be able to go somewhere fun wearing my sweater!