Holly Sweater - Finished!

And it is done!  I finished up the second sleeve this past Sunday and blocked it on Monday.  So, my first all-over colorwork, top-down, yoked sweater is done.  I learned lots and enjoyed the knitting.   I have two more Advent calendar kits from Onling to knit up - one from 2023 and one from 2024 - but right now I am back to working on my Wallflower Blanket.  I need to finish it up so I can get started on Tesselation Nation.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Holly Sweater - One Sleeve Done!

After finishing my needlepoint excursion I went back to working on my Holly Sweater and quickly finished up the sleeve.  When I started the sleeve I worked the decreases as the pattern calls for, but when I tried it on I decided that the decreases (every five rows!) were making the sleeve too tight, so I ripped back to the row before the first decrease and worked the sleeve without decreases.  That made for much easier knitting as I didn’t have to make sure to adjust the pattern every time I decreased to line up the motifs correctly.  When I got to the cuff I worked a decrease round to get me to the correct number of stitches, from 96 stitches down to 64, which meant I worked k1, k2tog all the way around.  I also only worked 22 motifs instead of 23, as the pattern size (XS) called for, and worked 12 rows of ribbing before binding off.  The sleeve length is perfect and I like the way it gathers in at the cuff.  I think it fits with the easy of the body.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Holly Sweater - Body Done!

I finished up the body last night, and started on a sleeve.  Spit splicing the yarn is working great    I also did a long-tail cast-on for the stitches under the arm when I set up the body stitches.  The first body row begins with casting on 8 stitches, so I did a long-tail cast-on and dropped the end when I got to the body stitches.  When I got to the other underarm stitches I tied a piece of the same color yarn to the working strand and did the long-tail cast-on again.  I like the nice edge this gives, as well as easy stitch pick-up, and it also seems to reduce those pesky holes you tend to get.  Plus, if you do have any holes you have tails at each side of the underarm seam to sew them closed.  This will be my go-to technique going forward.

The pattern calls for 6 cm of ribbing at the hem, but I only did 4, 6 just seemed excessive, and the sweater is plenty long enough on me.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles;  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Holly Sweater - Yoke Done!

Since I have retired I have actually become monogamous with my projects, so I have been knitting away at my colorwork sweater.  This morning I finished up the yoke and am now ready to place sleeve stitches on stitch holders and start working on the body.  Before I get too far in to that endeavor I am going to skein up all my little balls of yarn, spit splicing them together so I don’t end up with a bunch of mini skeins, then wet them to get the kinks out and cake them up again.  I’m pretty happy with how this is turning out, and my gauge looks to be pretty spot on.  No, I did not do a gauge swatch, my earlier attempt served as my gauge swatch, and I have since checked the gauge on the yoke and seem to be on target.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Holly Sweater - Take Three!

Having finished my Peacock Shawl (a project that I had started back on November 6, 2016!) I looked at my other WIPs to see what I wanted to tackle finishing next.  When I had set it aside back in March of 2023 it was almost finished.  I had actually worked one of the sleeves, although I didn’t take a picture.  But here is a picture of the body finished.

Although it fit me, it did not have the recommended ease, and after letting my mind ruminate on it in the background and trying it on again, I decided that it really did need more ease and that my gauge was just too tight.  I had already gone up one needle size, but I decided I needed to go up more.  I was using a 2.5 mm and 3.0 mm needle, and my gauge was 32 stitches and 38 rounds in 4 inches, vice the called for gauge of 27 stitches and 30 rounds in 4 inches, so I decided to go up to a 3.5 mm (US 4) and a 3.75 mm (US 5) and try again.  To organize the yarn I got 8 bags, and put a slip of paper with the chart symbol for the color in each one.  Then I spent an evening frogging my work and winding lots of little balls of yarn and sorting them all in to the appropriate bags while watching the Chiefs beat the Texans.  My Lumos light helped me make sure I got the correct colors in their respective bags.

I had already cast on a fresh start and the larger needles, and going up the needle size seems to have done the trick with regards to gauge.  I was worried about the looser gauge looking sloppy with the color work, but so far it seems to be okay.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Holly Sweater - Body Done

Thanks to six hours of meetings yesterday I was able to finish most of the body of my Holly Sweater, finishing up the ribbing this afternoon.  I only did eight rows of the ribbing, to match the collar. I do not like a lot of ribbing.  I have considerably less ease than is recommended by the pattern, but I am pretty slender and would get lost in the sweater if I had knit it to the pattern gauge.  I do like the gauge that I am knitting to, I think the stitch work looks pretty good and I’m pretty psyched to be on the sleeves of my first Fair Isle pullover.  I have several other Fair Isle projects lined up to tackle next.  This has been such a great learning experience for me.  I have tried it on and I am very happy with the fit.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm) and US 3 (3.25 mm)

 

Holly Sweater - Yoke Done

So I cast this on in early January, and then I let it sit for a while.  I picked it back up a few weeks ago and really started making some progress.  I was doing pretty well, or so I thought, when I realized that the neck opening was going to be too tight, and that my gauge was also too tight.  As I hadn’t gotten too far into the yoke I decided to just start over again on bigger needles.  This time I was able to master the two handed knitting technique and weave my ends in as I went, so I was feeling pretty good.  Then as I was transferring to a needle with a longer cable I realized that the needle that I had been using was not the correct size - it was one size larger than what I thought I was using, and I could tell the difference looking at the stitches - they were looking sloppy.  So, I put a needle in the row that I wanted to start on and ripped back and redid it.  Lots of practice, but I think I’m getting pretty good at the Fair Isle thing, and have become hooked on colorwork.  It is just so much fun.  Looking at the colors of this kit knit up I am kind of wishing that I had gotten one of the kits with brighter colors, but I think I will like these colors when it is all done.  My gauge is still a little tighter than the pattern calls for, but I like the fabric so I’m going with it.  I’m not a very big person and even the smallest size would have been very oversized on me.  I’m just hoping that I haven’t made it too much smaller.  I haven’t tried it on since I started the body, but I did try it on before that point and the neck opening is definitely good.  And it looks pretty good on my dress maker dummy, so it should fit me okay.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm) and US 3 (3.25 mm)

Holly Sweater - Cast On!

I finally cast on my Holly Sweater this past week.  This is the 2022 Advent kit from Onling, a Danish yarn company.  I bought the kit because they had pictures of all the different colorways with swatches knitted up so you could see how they all played together.  It also looks to be a pretty straightforward colorwork sweater, which I thought would be good first Fair Isle project for me.  The yarn is the same yarn that is used in the Hanne Falkenberg kits (I have several of those and have knitted one).  The design is by Ruth Sorensen.

Here are my colors.  I have worked the collar up to the increases.  The pattern gives a great process for determining where to make the increase stitches to distribute them evenly, which I will try out, but I also have my Knit Evenly app on my iPad, which I will also consult for comparison.  I had forgotten how much fun colorwork is, especially when using the right yarn.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm) and US 2.5 (3.0 mm)