Anemone

January 2014

I've wanted to try some West Yorkshire Spinners yarn for a long time, what with them being a local company and all. When I looked into it and discovered that it would cost me about £20 - £25 to make this sweater I was very pleasantly surprised.

This sweater by the way, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a test knit of the just-released masterpiece by Svetlana Volkova, Anemone. It is just perfect.

See my project page on ravelry for all the useful things I spotted during the process of making it. I was initially worried that a straight up and down sweater might not be too flattering on me, being a little bit on the top-heavy side. Thanks to the fact that I worked some of the increases incorrectly, and ended up with a tighter fabric than intended, my size medium came out closer to small. This means a fairly clingy fit on me (about 5/6" negative ease) and so waist shaping wouldn't have added anything.

I love test-knitting. Being part of a group all working on the same thing is great motivation, and I always learn new things. I felt very lucky to have spotted Svetlana's request for testers in time to get involved with this one. If I hadn't, I would have been buying this pattern now for sure.

Pattern: Anemone by Svetlana Volkova
Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Airedale Aran
Colour: Light Brown
Amount: 4.25 Skeins
On ravelry: here

Frances

January 2014

Sometimes you see the name of a traditionally inexpensive yarn company slapped on the side of a ball of something of such quality that something in your brain short circuits and you shout "bargain" and buy a bagful. So it was with James C Brett and his pure merino dk.

So then, I needed a dk pattern which called for roughly 1,200m. I considered this top-down cardigan, but that called for a dk yarn to be knitted at a gauge of 18 sts to 10 cm, which is very loose, and I'm a bit wary of doing that.

How I settled on Frances, I can't recall. I must have been going through a bit of a cable phase, because shortly beforehand I embarked on Aidez, and there was a certain logic to making a transitional-weather garment with this merino, given that it just begs to be worn next to the skin.

If I appear to be regretting my choices, it's for one simple reason: this pattern is written so as to make it as unnecessarily-labour-intenstive as it could possibly get. Not only should it apparently be knitted flat and then seamed, but the cowl is then also knitted separately, and then sewn on (rather than picking up stitches around the neckline like any sensible person would do).

It made me cross, and I put it into hibernation for a long time. Thank goodness for International Knit a Sweater a Month Dodecation, or I might never have got it finished. I hate sewing.

Pattern: Frances by Debbie Bliss
Yarn: James C. Brett Pure Merino dk
Colour: PM8 Plum
Amount: 9 Skeins
On ravelry: here