I thought I had deleted this blog? Guess I didn't. Well good for me; I felt like blabbering on an old sweater I knit 3-ish years ago, instead of working on the sleeve of my current make, or swearing after the hem of a shirt I'm sewing.
Procrastination~
I discovered this pattern through Dunderknit's Knitting Vicariously episode 39. (Caroline, I miss your online presence dreadfully) video in question
She went for a gradient, like many others, as the pattern eases the blending of colours by adding a strand of mohair of one colour through out the whole sweater. It truly blurs the edges of colour change, and with some good choices, make for a seamless transition.
I fell in love with the pattern at the same time as I fell in love with the hand dyed yarn of a Tampere store.
 |
| Nurja Merino Single in colour Sielu |
The world's gothiest rainbow.
So I went for this rather than a faded version, as they also dye mohair in the same colourway. I thought Adding anything to Sielu other than more Sielu would be a downgrade.
 |
| Oil spill coloured yoke |
It's also the only make where I held 2 strands. After that the trend exploded and 2-strands-held-together became The Big Thing and I didn't follow along.
I cast on 88 stitches using the Alternative Cable Cast On after trying and failing 4 times the Tubular Cast On.
The dip stitches making up the columns came with video instructions, which was appreciated. But I still ran into a problem, as many others did. I was of those who had this gaping ladder between the dipping column and the flat work. I went to see in people's projects and it seems most have this going on, but almost nobody mentions it. In all the fluff and darker colours, it was visible enough to bother me.Fixing that was off the beaten path and time consuming, but I owe it to the Ravelry user BrightEyesKnits who explain how they managed it: treating the ladder like a dropped stitch, and bringing everything up with a hook, creating an extra stitch that woud then be decreased to retain the desired stitch count for the yoke.
 |
| Sad desaturated pre-sleeves shot |
The whole body is knit in reversed stockinet, but the pattern has you doing that inside-out to avoid purling for days. It's a nice thought. Only, they have you just flip the pullover inside-out and go from there, nothing else. That creates a small hole where the switch is made. It's fixed with a simple shortrow technique to avoid the gap.
The final product is one I can only wear in the most frigid conditions, as mohair + merino combo will keep me more than toasty. It's soft, it's cozy, I love that the colours make no sense. Despite the couple of hurdles I had to jump to get to the end, I love this jumper.
