FO Friday: Katie

I had forgotten that I hadn't blogged about this yet! I'm very pleased - it's a new sweater.

Rav project page
The pattern is Katie, a top-down raglan with a colorwork band and a few other thoughtful details.

The yarn is called Ethical Twist - a 70/30 wool/alpaca blend. It's sadly discontinued - it has just enough alpaca fuzz and softness, while still being light and elastic. Plus it came in all natural colors - the brown, called 'Mink', is this fabulous heathery brown that I really love. If you can find it, I recommend it (and you might be able to find it at a discount).

I did make some modifications - I used a thinner yarn and a tighter gauge, so there was some math involved. I didn't use yarnovers for the raglan and I made up my own waist shaping, including moving the colorwork band up a little higher. I had intended the line to hit at the waist, but it doesn't quite - starting the colorwork at the waist meant that the visual line of the gradient effect fell somewhat below that point. Doh! I don't mind though :)

I also added the colorwork motif to the sleeves - the original pattern just has totally plain sleeves in one color, but I wanted more balance between the light and the dark.


It was a fun knit - I thought the stockinette would get boring, but the small amount of colorwork did a great job of breaking up the monotony. It knit up quite quickly.

My favorite bit of the sweater has to be the thumbholes in the sleeves. Ideal for cold weather - I finished the sweater just before the last cold day of winter, and loved rolling down the sleeve cuffs when I went outside. It's really cozy.

One thing I did, and I'm very glad I did this, to make sure the sleeves would be the right length: I blocked the sleeves before knitting the cuffs. My sweater sleeves have a tendency to stretch out during blocking, so I knit both sleeves to the point of starting the cuffs and put the stitches on waste yarn. Then, I washed and blocked the sweater as I would normally, and then finished knitting the cuffs after it dried. That way my sleeves were the perfect length, rather than my thumbholes reaching past my fingertips! ;)


I also made a matching hat, with which I am somewhat less enthused. Maybe I didn't shape it right, or maybe the slouchy look just doesn't suit me. Ah well, live and learn. I'm really thrilled with the sweater anyway! Fun knit, good fit, lovely yarn. What more can you ask for, really?

~Joyuna