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Hello again,
Moving on to Pt 2 of my KNITWEEK2016 series of posts in which I share all the knitting I have done in the last 12 months. I kicked off Part 1 with a post where I shared how I organised my yarn stash, patterns and supplies. The rest of the posts will be the actual garments I knitted up.
So here is what I like to call my purple haze Chuck sweater. I started knitting this for the OAL2016 hosted by Lladybird and Untangling Knots group. It was meant to go with the denim Holly-burn I recently made. Unfortunately I didn’t finish it within the 2 month OAL timeframe. Still its better late than never.
The yarn is one I have never worked with before. Its called Bernat Sheepish by Vicki Howell that I bought online from Deramores over a year ago. Deramores no longer has it online though. Its an acrylic wool blend medium weight yarn that is 70% acrylic, 30% wool. I liked that it can be machine washed cold. I chose the colour Magenta (ish) because, well I love purple.
I didn’t get the gauge with the recommended size 5 needles so I went up a size to 5.5 and the gauge was spot on. It was annoying having to do 2 swatches but worth it in the end.
I knitted the size SMALL based on my bust measurement.
The instructions were very easy to follow. This is something I have come to expect from Andi’s patterns. In fact they have spoiled me as I have found other instructions not as well written. What I also like about the pattern is that the cable pattern is provided as a chart and a written instructions. As someone who doesn’t yet understand cabling charts I really appreciate this.
I used the long tail cast on and I really like how it looks. I managed the cabling quite well and made only one mistake that required unraveling a couple of rows. For the sleeves I bound off using Jenny’s super stretchy BO. Its comfortable and doesn’t feel tight. For the neckband I used a new to me BO technique called the Russian bind off using this YouTube tutorial. It looks very neat but quite stretchy though not as stretchy as the BO on the sleeve – then again the neck on this pattern doesn’t need a lot of stretch as it goes over the head easily enough.
In the spirit of doing things properly I actually wet blocked for the first time and I must say I am converted. It wasn’t as tedious as I thought it would be at all. I checked out this YouTube tutorial and followed it to the letter. I bought some cheap foam pads on Ebay and some T Pins. Using the correct tools makes such a huge difference and I am glad I invested in these tools. In total they cost £12, so its not too bad.
Chuck SweaterÂ
Overall I am very pleased with this make and I expect I will be wearing it a fair bit. Its warm and soft and such a lovely vibrant colour. The pictures don’t do it justice. At first I wasn’t that keen on how this yarn was knitting up – its got this fuzzy/lofty look to it but once I got into the groove it was okay. I was also worried that the cable definition might not look as good because of the lofty yarn but I was wrong – the cables look fab IMHO.
Looking at the pictures and analysing fit, it looks like I may need the equivalent of a swayback adjustment? An perhaps a smaller size especially at the bust? Any advice and an honest opinion on fit will be much appreciated. Its an area that I need to work on. Is there  a book I can get on fitting knitted items?
I still have 1 ball left of this yarn and am thinking of making some simple fingerless mittens to go with it.
Thanks for stopping by. Until next time Happy hooking 🙂
Peace and love,
Hila
