I've been wanting to move my blog away from Blogspot for a while but could never be bothered to actually do it. This week was the tipping point though, and I've now fully migrated over to https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . The blogspot address will remain here but all new posts will only appear at https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . There are lots of reasons for the move but my biggest one is how hard Blogger has made it for people to subscribe to receive new posts via email. It's such a basic requirement but apparently, they think it's too much to offer. I'm basing this purely on how I myself prefer to consume this stuff. I can't be arsed with feed readers anymore and emails are easy and convenient. When I receive one, if I fancy reading it, I will click through to it and, if not, I'll just delete it. Another reason is the spat between Google (owners of Blogger) and Instagram/Facebook/Meta. I don't even know if this is still the case anymore ...
Long time no see, happy new year, etc etc etc... I had a bit of a tricky year in 2022, which affected my motivation to sew and knit quite dramatically. I'm hoping this new beginning is the incentive I need to kick-start my creativity again. So far, 2023 has proved fairly productive and I hope that'll continue. 🤞
So on with what we're here for: let's look at some knitting!
Soon after I finished my Wool and Honey jumper ***IN 2020!!!*** 🙈 I made a start on another Andrea Mowry pattern: The Weekender. It's a very simple, loose-fitting jumper with some lovely details to it.
It's knitted inside out for a start, which I love because that means you constantly knit rather than purl. It also has a cool faux seam down the centre front and centre back and I really like the slash neckline. Another small detail I love is the little split hem on the sides. It's such a nice, clever touch. The jumper is knitted from the bottom up though so it can be tricky to judge sizing but it's the perfect mindless knitting project and very relaxing indeed. I knitted a lot of it in the car during our annual trip to Cornwall last summer.
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| Cool faux seam detail |
I made a size 1 as I didn't want 10 inches of ease - mine has about 5". My gauge was spot on using 5mm needles and I love the fit of it. The finished jumper is exactly 39½", just like it should be. It's a very comfortable jumper to wear and I can see myself reaching for it regularly. It's such a simple but modern shape and that'll make it very easy to throw on with just about anything.
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| Shoulder detail |
However, I did make a couple of changes. The first was to narrow the neck opening by making the shoulder seams a bit longer than the pattern called for. I can't remember exactly how many extra stitches I added to the 3-needle bind-off but I think it was about 4 on each side and I could probably have added a couple more. I didn't want my bra strap to be seen but I still get a little bit of that. I can live with it though as I didn't want to risk not being able to fit my head through.
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| How cute is this split hem? |
The other change I made was to knit the arms for size 3 instead. My upper arms always need a bit more room because I have big Popeye energy. 😆
The yarn was a dream to knit with. It's Malabrigo Rios and it's so soft and squishy. It's a worsted weight as well which means it grows rather quickly. It was perfect for this pattern and all that reverse stocking stitch! 🤩 I used about 4.5 skeins for this and I'm planning a hat for the leftover yarn. Here's the Ravelry link for the project page.
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| Taking it out for its maiden voyage - we went out for lunch |
It's been 2 and a half years in the making and that's really daft because I love the pattern, I love the yarn and I knew the fit was going to be exactly what I wanted. The reason it took this long is that I had to unpick a big portion of the body after I joined the second skein. It's hand-dyed yarn so you need to knit from both skeins for a while for the changeover to be smooth. I definitely didn't do it for long enough and my first transition was really harsh. I didn't realise it until the second skein was almost gone as well so that was basically half of what I'd already knitted by that point and I kept putting it off.
I should have just got on with unpicking the bit I had to straight away and carried on but at least it's finally done and I'm free to wear it loads, which I absolutely will.