Tag: yarn

So Faded Sweater

LinnKnitting

My So Faded Sweater has been finished!

I started last summer but put it on a long hiatus during the winter. I am very happy with the result, but there was a reason to why I put it on hiatus. The yarn.

I used Hedgehog Fibres yarn for this sweater. I love the colours of Hedgehog Fibres yarn, but it turns out I’m not fond of knitting with the yarn. I used the yarn base “Sock” which is 90% wool (superwash) and 10% nylon. I found it both stiff and so thin my hands cramped.

I do love how the sweater looks but if I did another So Faded, I would chose a different yarn.

For this one I used the colourways (in this order): Monet, Damp, Crybaby, Monarch.

I loved the pattern though! Easy to read and knit, nothing complicated. I love the shoulder decoration with the purl knits! So Faded Sweater by Andrea Mowry.  I’m even thinking of making one of these in solid colour. Loved it and love how it wears.

 

 

Vintersol Sweater

LinnKnitting

This beautiful sweater caught my eyes immediately. Jennifer Steinglass’s designs are beautiful and had intrigued me for quite a while when she released this new pattern called Vintersol.

 

Vintersol close up

Yarn
For this sweater I wanted to try the Icelandic yarn Lettlopi. I had heard so much about it that this time I really wanted to try it. Garnr.se has a great selection of colours and a great homepage where you can arrange the colours next to each other to see which ones fits together. It is really a great feature!

For this sweater I ordered:

1418 Straw (main colour)
1703 Mimosa (contrast)
9426 Golden Heather (contrast)
0051 White (yoke background colour)

This yarn is not the recommended, but I found that it worked out really nicely. Be sure to make a swatch too see if you need to adjust your needle size.

Pattern
The pattern is worked from the middle of the sweater. This was a first for me. After having knitted the sweater I can say it is not my preferred method. I got frustrated when I had to unravel the temporary cast on border (a few rows knitted with a different colour) and then make sure all stitches was lying at the correct direction.

Vintersol body without arms

But I guess this is just a thing that you might like or not. The pattern itself was easy to follow. For the edge at the neck I didn’t quite understand the i-cord instructions, so I made the i-cord bind off the way I have learned from before.

I made some adjustments to the sizing for myself which made me have to unravel parts of the sweater. I’m not sure if it was my changes (did I choose a size too small?) or if it was the pattern itself. I found that the added stitches underneath the armpit were too few and I couldn’t fit my arms into it. I had to add stitches myself and I think I added in total 12 stitches underneath each armpit.

I knit loosely and so I used my measuring tape a lot to make sure the body got the correct length. It is always good to measure the body of the sweater and not just looking blindly at the number of rows you are supposed to knit. I knitted way less rows than recommended, because my stitches are quite “long” and I reached the desired length quite fast. I barely had time to make a waist shaping before I had to increase again for my hips.

 

Finished piece

I am in love with this finished sweater. I love how the colour combination turned out and the soft feel of the yarn.

I soaked the sweater in water and laid it out flat to dry. This really helped with all the unevenness I had in the yoke after knitting. Knitting with three colours was a hassle, but it turns out so nice!