As per my Top 5 Goals and Reflections from the past year, I decided that I wanted to jump right into participating in some community sewalongs and knitalongs. Andi Satterlund was hosting a Selfish Sweater KAL from January 1 to Valentine's day and as I had my eye on a number of her patterns I thought this was the perfect opportunity to join in.
The KAL was actually really fun. It really helped my motivation to see everyone knitting the same thing at once and get excited about finishing my own sweater. It worked too, I actually finished this sweater right on time. I then didn't take photos of it for ages but still, pretty pleased with how it all went. Ravelry link here.
The KAL was actually really fun. It really helped my motivation to see everyone knitting the same thing at once and get excited about finishing my own sweater. It worked too, I actually finished this sweater right on time. I then didn't take photos of it for ages but still, pretty pleased with how it all went. Ravelry link here.
The pattern is Chuck, a cropped cabled sweater. I love the cabled pattern and the cropped length suits my penchant for wearing dresses and high-waisted skirts. The pattern was actually fairly easy despite the cabling. The worsted weight yarn made for a quick knit. My only criticism of the pattern was that at some times during knitting I had to reference between a chart and another page of written instructions which can be logistically cumbersome.
I made a Large as things have been fitting me snugly lately and I was between two sizes. I should have made the medium though as I have plenty of ease all over but especially in the armpit area. I did do a few more decrease rounds at the waist to bring the sweater in a bit as my waist measurement fell in the medium size but I think just making a straight medium next time is the way to go.
The yarn is some Cascade 220 heathered dark purple from my stash that I salvaged from vest project that was not going well. The first 3 balls were fine but when I got to the second there were lots of breaks in the yarn and I had to weave in a ton of ends on my final sleeve. At that point though I had knit so much of the sweater I didn't want to switch yarns so I persevered. I wonder if the one ball was left out for moths to eat while the rest was stored away nicely. Not sure. These days I try and keep all my yarn in sealed ziploc bags to avoid that. I love the colour but if I were to choose something for this project again I would go lighter so the cables would be easier to see.
I also made this skirt. It might look just like the skirt I just posted but it's actually different. It is the hollyburn skirt and it is made from the very same purple chambray but it is view B instead of view C. It's medium length with the tabs on the belt. I made this version first and wore it so much to work I made the second shorter version.
I serged the seams to finish them and hand stitched the hem. The tabs were relatively easy and I like the button detail. I think it's funny how much the length of the skirt changes the look. The short skirt looks quite casual and modern to me while this skirt has a bit of a '40s flair especially when paired with the cropped sweater with (unintentionally) boxy shoulders.
Overall, I'm very pleased with both and will likely make both again very soon. The sweater in light grey and the skirt in coral for spring.
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