Sunday Sweater

This is my first full knitting project of the year and I LOVE it! The Sunday Sweater is a pattern by Petite Knit that I’ve seen popping up on my Instagram feed. It’s a bulky knit with a ribbed yoke and big, billowy sleeves. Oof, those sleeves are so yummy.

I have worn this sweater every day since it was blocked and it’s definitely my new favourite thing. My only regret is that I didn’t knit it in October because we had such a chilly Nov-Jan in the UK!

Sniff test

I asked my parents for 5 balls of King Cole Chunky Tweed for Christmas, as per the pattern instructions for my size. I ended up adding a bit of length to the cropped bodice, which meant I needed to “panic buy” another ball. Fortunately the same dye lot was available. As I was paying for postage, I also bought some of the Orkney colourway because I like the yarn so much!

It’s no secret in the knitting world that jumper quantities of yarn can get really pricey. I have found a mix of acrylic and natural fibres is a good balance for me. The natural fibres give a softness and mean that regular washing isn’t required, but the acrylic gives strength and significantly lowers the price.

Whilst I’m hovering around the subject of laundry, I didn’t believe that woollen jumpers don’t need washing as often until I started wearing them. I was really worried that they would smell, particularly in the armpit area(!). Washing and drying a hand knit jumper is quite a task, so I decided to experiment and see how many times I could wear mine. My jumpers are never directly on my skin because I wear thermals as a base layer, and I’ve found that I can wear a woolly jumper quite a few times and they continue to pass the “sniff test”. I’m converted to the theory now!

It’s good to gauge

As this pattern and designer were new to me, I knew that checking the gauge was important. The pattern recommended 7mm needles, but the swatch came out huge, so I dropped to 6mm needles. I was worried it would be too tight a knit, but it was fine.

The pattern recommends smaller needles for the neckline, but that posed some problems in that I couldn’t get it over my head! I wanted to knit a size Small based on the measurements, so decided to knit the entire jumper in the same needle size (6mm). I did change to 5mm for the sleeve cuffs as I have very small wrists.

I always find sizing jumpers a gamble because I have to get quite a way into the knit before trying on. Thankfully my first try-on, when the yoke was knit, proved to be a great fit.

Ever the cautious knitter, I left a lifeline in before I knit the ribbing in case I wanted to rip back and adjust the length. As it turned out, the length is spot-on so I should have trusted my judgement (and tape measure).

Realisations

When I came to pick up the second sleeve, I realised that I had been living on the edge with a missed stitch that wasn’t on the spare yarn. It’s sheer luck that this didn’t cause me major problems because the project had been shoved in a bag, transported to my in-laws’ house and generally moved about whilst knitting the bodice and other sleeve.

Whilst thanking the knitting Gods for this close call, my second realisation was more amusing. I was knitting a jumper I had already sewn! One of my favourite sweatshirts is an I Am Lion in a dusky pink fabric with black flecks (sound familiar?!).

As I said at the top, I absolutely love this jumper. My only grumble is that the spectacular sleeves don’t fit into any of my coats. This does limit the opportunities to wear outside of the house in winter, but I can see me wearing this in spring/summer evenings where there’s a chill in the air. Thanks for reading, and thanks to my parents for the woolly present :o)