How about a sweater recap? There's a couple of sweaters just finished and others finished during the year but not posted on this blog, just in my Ravelry projects. First is my newly knit Flaum, from a pattern by Justyna Lorkowska. It is a very good pattern, fairly simple but fashionable and comfy. Admittedly, it is a bit avant-garde due to its bubble shape, hi-low profile and tiny but functional pockets. The Fisherman's Rib stitch, which is an ever so slightly fluffier form of brioche stitch, combined with the lofty wool, makes for a smushy, squeezable fabric that is very satisfying to wear. The ochre color is on-trend, being almost brown, a bit camel and pretty bright. The yarn is Bennoto by Cloud9 Fibers. It is wool with a bit of alpaca and has a bouncy and fluffy softness, perfect for the fisherman rib stitch that is the central stitch pattern in Flaum. The yarn is still available at Webs--on sale!
Next finished was an idea that was been in my mind for years. I saw a sweater in a shop through the window (the shop was closed) and became obsessed with the look of it. It was reverse stockinette in a thick and thin cotton yarn, probably sport weight. A few months later I found some coned yarn that was a cotton/linen/rayon blend. I bought several cones of it because I had no idea of the yardage on the cone. Turns out that there are hundreds of yards, maybe even a thousand or more yards on each cone. Since then, I have used the yarn in three sweaters, but none resemble the one I saw in the shop. Once I became determined enough, I produced the replica I wanted in just three weeks during this past month. It is simple, it is quick, it requires no pattern. The yarn is probably discontinued, so it is good that I have thousands of yards of it left--I suppose.
I can end a fairly successful knitting year with those sweaters, since I worked my way through the year making a sweater every couple of months. The other sweaters that I knit are are in the collage below.
These are, from the top left, the Newsprint Top by Marianne Isager, a Graphic Elements by Tamy Gore, a Graerup Slipover by Camilla Vad, and from the bottom left, the Chevron Cardigan by Vanessa Ewing with a stitch pattern substituted for the chevrons from Tea Time, both in Vogue Knitting Magazine, a Karatachi by Kineko Uki, and above, on the middle row on the right, a Deep V-Neck Cardigan by Christy Kay Morse, and finally, nestled in the bottom right, two that I don't really like, the Hooded Pullover by Debra Newton and a vest I winged based on a photo of a designer vest. I wear the vest now and then, but the pullover is going to be frogged. Interestingly (for me), these last two sweaters are also both from Vogue Knitting Magazine. That's a surprising number of patterns from a source that offers patterns that have been above my knitting skills for years. For more info on the sweaters in the above collage, see my Ravelry progect page.
