Saturday 10 November 2012

Der Shetlandpullover

How annoying is that you get to finish a pullover in time for chilly Autumn, but the weather decides to prolong summer for two more months?

This is the story of my first winter pullover.



I started knitting it by the end of August and got to finish it one month later. Of course because of excessive heat I couldn't knit everyday, but still I managed to progress pretty quickly. 

The whole idea came after looking at these babies here:


that I had bought last spring but hadn't found a project for them just yet. Also, I was pretty influenced by my trip to the far North (Norway and Sweden), so I decided to make something warm, cozy and north inspired!
The first design I came up with was essentially a color block sweater, but the more I kept looking at it, the more I was worrying whether the amount of yarn I had would suffice or whether it would actually look good. So I decided to find a new one, and turned to one of my favorite techniques: fair isle. Never lets me down! And nor did this time!



So I started knitting and my the end of the front piece I realised I didn't have enough yarn for the sleeves. I went to the shop, where I had bought the yarn and found there was only one skein of the colors I used and a brown one. I bought them both and decided to change the design. That meant knitting the end of the front piece once more with the brown yarn and then continuing with the rest of the sweater. 


I had the main fair isle pattern on my mind but for the rest of the work I was always checking how much yarn I had left from each color. I think if I didn't have that restriction, the sweater would look much much different in the end. But I can't complain, I really like the way it is right now. ^^


Eventually, I had just as much yarn as I needed! I finished all skeins but was left with bits of red and beige. 



This sweater had also a few firsts: first time knitting full length sleeves, first time installing a zipper and first time using the mattress stitch to join the parts!


I also had the chance to use a crochet border stitch from Edie Eckman's Around the Corner Crochet Borders, which came out totally awesome. ^^


The only problem: it is still not cold enough! And the only time I wore it, was to take pictures, for which you can't imagine how hot it was.

Patience, I need more patience! :P





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