What are my WIPs at the moment? Mainly sweaters. Which seems utterly extraordinary to me. I cannot really fathom it. I started 2017 with the aim of knitting one sweater this year. I haven’t knit a sweater for myself before although I have knit many Sasha doll sized sweaters. I’d never really been interested in knitting sweaters. They are a large project that take a lot of yarn and time to complete and not a project that I ever considered to be particularly portable. So I surprised myself when knitting a sweater became my New Year’s Resolution for 2017.
Joyride Jumper by Drops Design
At the start of the year, in January, I was going through a pile of knitting magazines, tearing out any patterns that appealed to me when I came across the Joyride sweater designed by Drops Design. I ordered the Drops Karisma yarn online from Purple Sheep Yarns. And by the end of January I had almost finished the body. When it was set aside.
As my knitting took a bit of a hiatus.
When I was able to knit again, the So Faded sweater designed by Andrea Mowry had just been released. I’d thought about knitting the Find Your Fade shawl but I felt it was a lot of yarn to put into a shawl, however, the So Faded sweater really appealed to me. It was so much fun choosing the yarns. Knitting this sweater never got boring for a single moment.
So Faded Designed by Andrea Mowry
By this time, my Joyride Jumper was languishing and I’d cast on a cardigan Summer Cool from Simply Knitting magazine. This is a cute striped cardigan but it is in pieces that will need seaming. I’ve discovered that even the thought of seaming this cardigan has stopped me in my tracks. With the back finished, the left front finished and the right front half done I kept telling myself I needed to go back to knitting it.
In the meantime, I was looking through my large stash and noticed I had several large 400g balls of aran weight yarn in a nice mauve colour. I loved the style of the newly released Baldric sweater designed by Isabell Kraemer so this one was cast on.
Oh dear, I was becoming a little like a kid in a candy store every time I visited Ravelry.com… and there were too many sweaters cast on and not so many actually finished. And did this stop me in my tracks? No…
Baldric Designed by Isabell Kraemer
I had to tweak the numbers a little for Baldric as the sweater was knit using a ribbon/tape style yarn and although my yarn was also an aran weight I could not get the specified tension. And to obtain a fabric that I liked I had to change the stitch numbers a little and add a few extra rows into the raglan shaping. This sweater, however, flew off the needles and became my second finished jumper… I love how it looks and it is now waiting to be blocked.
At this point I picked up the Joyride Jumper, and after a couple of hiccups which I’ll tell you about in a later post, I finished it. It is a gorgeously warm cosy jumper.
While I was knitting the sleeves for the Joyride Jumper, Making Magazine Issues 1 and 2 arrived in the post. I do seem to have appalling willpower these days, I couldn’t resist and cast on Branches and Buds Pullover from Issue 1.
Branches and Buds Designed by Carrie Bostick Hoge
What befell the Summer Cardigan? It ended up being frogged in favour of knitting the yarn into a striped top down seamless sweater instead. I was, yet again, browsing Ravelry and what should I see but Ravello designed by Isabell Kraemer. Ravelry really is too easy… a couple of clicks… and another pattern is purchased and downloaded. The Ravello sweater is designed for fingering weight yarn and my yarn is DK so I’ll have to tweak it a little but I think it will look amazing. I love this combination of colour blocking and stripes!
Ravello Designed by Isabell Kraemer
I always told myself, I’d knit a sweater when I lost weight, when I was a bit slimmer, etc etc, but, then, I realised that I may never actually knit a sweater for myself if I kept waiting until I was just the ‘right’ weight and size.
The crazy thing is that I have several other sweaters that I want to cast on and 6 skeins of Hedgehog Merino Singles waiting for me to decide on the right project. Should it be Veera Valimaki’s Pavement sweater or her Piece of Silver sweater? Either way, it is going to be a blended/faded one! I’m trying to resist casting on another sweater until I finish knitting the Branches and Buds Pullover and the Ravello sweater but with this particular obsession, resistance is futile!
I’ll tell you more about each of these sweaters soon… Has my unexpected sweater journey been all plain sailing? Definitely not, but it has been a lot of fun!
I may well end the year with four finished sweaters. Whether I get my Christmas knitting finished in time is a different story… I keep putting off starting my Christmas gift knitting because I just want to finish the sleeves and that was the excuse at least one sweater ago…
Have you been bitten by the sweater knitting bug recently? Which sweater patterns have really appealed to you?
Just love the blog and all the ideas. I am inspired! It’s always a peculiar time after Christmas. I am going to star5 on some socks. 8 will keep you updated. 😀
Thank you. Look forward to hearing from you. Happy Knitting, Nicolette
Hi Nicolette,
Hope you have finished another sweater and have gotten on your Christmas knitting projects. The only sweaters I knit are neck down baby sweaters as they are not too large a project. My love is sock knitting–for myself, and baby socks too.
I miss your monthly blogs and wonderful photos. Take care of yourself
Merry Christmas to you and Neil and your family.
Joyce in Utah USA
Hi Joyce, I’m intending to post more regularly during 2018! I did finish knitting 5 sweaters during 2017 as well as a few other projects although they haven’t all been photographed yet. I’ve been knitting hats or cowls to match with the leftover yarn… May be a bit matchy matchy but I like them. We had a lovely quiet Christmas seeing family and friends, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that 2018 will be a great year for you. Happy Knitting, Nicolette
Oh don’t you just love that about knitting….we can rabbit trail all over the place and enjoy every stitch!! I recently did much the same thing, I decided to do sweaters for myself. This summer I did Lush, from Tin Can Knits, in Blacker Swan. Love, love, love. Then I did Sunshine Coast in Drops Belle. I equally love that one too, at the same time I did a Gudrun cardigan in QuinceandCo. All of them I have learned a lot about fit and technique. Next up is Confetti (I think!!) I have some lovely pale pink Fyberspates Scrumptious and Hedgehog that will work well. The only thing holding me back is I’ve never done an adult fingering weight sweater. I hope I can finish it!!
So yes, knit on and enjoy the process, and the finished product. It’s good to hear others knitting rabbit trails
Hi Elaine, Gosh, I love your sweater and yarn choices! Confetti is also on my to do list. At the moment, I’m knitting Sunset Highway! Although, I’ve noticed that some of my favourite hand knit socks are starting to develop thin spots and holes in the toes… It is always great having a small more portable project on the needles all the time too! I love knitting, so much inspiration and new ideas and projects that I looking forward to casting on. Happy knitting, Nicolette
I am enjoying your sweater choices! I think my “list” just became longer… I have been doing a Craftsy KAL for the Tealeaf Sweater by Bristol Ivy. I am using the same yarn as her sample and it is knitting up to be beautiful fabric although the yarn is so very slippery and is just miserable to wind on swift-ball winder. Here is the link to take a look: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tealeaf-sweater Have you also noticed how many mystery KALs are about to start? I have signed up for Wooly Wormhead’s mystery hat KAL; Donna Druchanas’ mystery mitten KAL; a lace shawl from this month’s edition of Piecework; and a pair of mitts from Blackwater Abbey (she imports Irish yarn to the US). I think I have serious delusions of finishing anything before the turn of the next century! 🙂 It is nice to hear from you! I hope you are well?
Hi Kate, The Tealeaf Sweater is beautiful and looks like a wonderfully wearable style too. Are you joining all the KALs? I have joined the odd KAL but I’m not very good at keeping up and never actually finish them in the given time. But the camaraderie of knitting a project along side other knitters is always enticing! I just imagine I can do more than I actually can in the allotted time and then I get distracted by the next cute pattern I see. Happy Knitting, Nicolette
Living in Singapore, there is no need for sweater of any kind given the year round hot humid weather. Surprisingly, I got bitten by the sweater bug too. I knit my first adult sweater this year, and am now into my 5th one. I find that I knit faster on those pieced type, and prefer bottom up. This type of sweater isn’t that popular nowadays though, as it seems a lot of designers on Ravelry are using top down seamless type. I personally like Amy Herzog’s designs. She has a CustomFit website which allows one to key in body measurement, choose a pattern from her website, and it will generate the pattern specifically for your body. I haven’t tried that though.
Hi Min, I’ve found through my sweater knitting journey that I prefer knitting seamless top-down or bottom-up sweaters. But the main thing being seamless. I did cast on a lovely striped cardigan, I finished the back, one front and half of the other front, then I frogged it and used the yarn to knit a Ravello instead. I just knew I wasn’t going to enjoy blocking each piece and then sewing them all together. I have a cardigan that I knit virtually all the pieces 30 years ago, still sitting in a plastic bag, never actually sewn together. A bit late now! I have Amy Herzog’s CustomFit book which I found an interesting read, while I was thinking about sizing. Happy knitting, Nicolette
You have really been busy! I like to knit sweaters too, but the fitting and seaming make them more of a challenge than socks, hats, and mittens, which I knit a lot of. I try to complete at least one sweater a year, and am almost done with a cable pullover that I started in the spring. I love the patterns you have chosen. I think my next will be an Icelandic pullover from a book which I just bought. I always look forward to your posts.
Hi Sylvia, I must admit, I love knitting smaller projects. It is such a pleasure casting on and in less than a week I have a finished project! Sweater knitting definitely takes a longer term approach. Will you use Icelandic wool to knit your Icelandic pullover? Has it got a decorative yoke? Which pullover are you intending to knit? Happy knitting, Nicolette
What a surprise post!
So fun and revealing and quirky just like the rest of us!
Seriously, Thank you for sharing—you’ve given me permission and courage to “do another sweater.”
x-x-x-x-x-x
Happy Autumn to you,
Teri Byrne
Parkdale, Oregon USA
Thanks Teri, Knitting a sweater has been unexpectedly exhilarating! Which sweater are you dreaming of knitting next? I’d love to know. My dream sweater list is growing ever longer… Happy Knitting, Nicolette