Hello all! My first knitting post of the year is a first in other ways. Today I’m showing off my first two knitted jumpers. Up until last year, I’ve steered clear of “fitted” knitting, mainly through a fear of getting the gauge wrong and spending lots of time of something that doesn’t end up going. I tend to stick to more flexible items like shawls, hats and socks. Even though hats and socks are fitted, they take much less time to make which means there’s less investment if they go wrong!
Knitting for children is a great way to learn techniques. I learnt to knit socks by starting with baby socks. The imminent arrival of another nibling coincided with my discovery of the free Flax Sweater pattern by Tin Can Knits. With new knitting, I find the smaller size of children’s clothing is far less daunting than something in my size. Additionally, gauge is less important because as long as I aim for “baby size”, I know it will fit at some point.
Knit Knit Knit
Tin Can Knits have a series of free patterns to help tempt people into knitting. The Flax has a cousin – the Flax light – for 4ply weight yarn for those of you who want a lighter sweater….and more stitches! I chose the original pattern which requires worsted weight yarn.
The beauty of this pattern is that it’s largely just knit stitches, with some purl detail on the sleeves. I didn’t come up against anything I hadn’t already done before – the ‘tricky bits’ were working in the round (socks) and the sleeves (essentially big thumbs from fingerless mitts). As the sweater is knit in the round, there’s no sewing together at the end – a huge bonus in my book.
I had the handy tutorial by Tin Can Knits on my phone and consulted it at each step. This tutorial was invaluable as it goes into the construction details and helped me understand why I was doing something, and visualise how it would turn out. I relied less on it for my jumper, having made Nibling’s so recently.
One particular thing that I enjoyed about the process was how the pattern is partitioned so nicely. As a “completer finisher”, it was nice to be able to tick off elements that were done
- neckband – done
- yoke – done
- body – done
- sleeve 1 – done
- sleeve 2 – I’ve made a jumper!
I knit Nibling’s jumper in about a month, which is more quickly than I anticipated. However, I started it on holiday when I had more time, and did a lot of ‘stress-knitting’ during some tense Wimbledon matches. (Wimbledon really dates when I made it!)
My jumper took a lot longer, although progress was helped by a September holiday, when I finished the bodice. Into the autumn months, the unfinished jumper sat next to our sofa awaiting some attention for weeks.
Looking through my photos whilst writing this blog reminded me of how portable knitting can be. On the sofa, on the beach, in the garden, whilst travelling…I’m rarely far from some yarn and needles.
As I have talked about in the past, lifelines came in handy. I left the sleeve ones in place until I had finished the cuffs. Having that back up is a huge confidence booster to keep going.
Both jumpers have slight errors in them on the sleeves where I got my knit and purl rows mixed up. The pattern simplicity lulled me into a false sense of security. I must have been distracted by the TV a few times because the knit/purl rows are off once or twice. I don’t think it’s noticeable though so I didn’t rip back.
The jumper is symmetrical so to distinguish between front and back, I added a label on each to help.
Sizing and yarn
For Nibling’s Flax Sweater, I chose to knit size 6-12mths, which is the second size. For myself, I knit ML but shortened the sleeves and bodice where the pattern says to knit for “x inches” because I have a short torso and arms.
For Nibling, I used some Sidar Supersoft Aran Rainbow Drops in the ‘Pick n Mix’ colourway, which is predominantly white with flecks of colour peppered throughout. The pattern recommended 2 balls, I bought 3 to be safe but only used 1 in the end. I don’t knit with a lot of acrylic yarn because I find it a bit sweaty when directly on my skin. For Nibling, I reasoned that polyester would wash better (what new parents have the time to hand wash woollens?!) and the jumper is unlikely to be directly next to her skin.
My yarn is a gloriously deep teal colourway called Caribbean. It’s Cloudborn Superwash Merino Worsted Twist which is very squishable and soft. Again, I over-ordered, buying 7 skeins and using 3-4. I’m not exactly sure how many I used because I had some partial skeins left at the end due to starting a new one for each sleeve to avoid having to weave ends etc!
Fitting thoughts
I really like the fit of mine. It’s looser than on the model, which is what I wanted. Before blocking, I thought the sleeves are 1-2″ shorter than I would like which but post-blocking they’re fine. The magic of blocking! The bodice length works well for me so I’m happy that I got that right.
What will become of the leftover yarn? Well, I’ve already started some legwarmers for ballet…! Thanks for reading :o)
My Stash Reduction Quest 