How to knit a sweater in 10 days

1. Dive deep into stash. Way deep.

I bought this yarn in 2008. It's been sitting in storage, half-knitted into a cardigan, for well over a decade. It's made a transatlantic move with me.

The cardigan it was originally destined to be - Sylph Cardigan from Interweave Knits - was never going to get finished. Flounces are just not for me anymore. But let's take a moment to admire the eyelet ribbing and the subtle twisted stitch columns - there's a lot to like about this pattern, even though it isn't for me anymore. 

I gave it the Marie Kondo "thank you, goodbye" and ripped it all out. 

The yarn is Knit Picks Elegance, 70% baby alpaca, 30% silk.

It's been a long time since I knit anything big with alpaca. Alpaca blended with wool, absolutely - I love the softness and warmth it adds. But not on its own. It's too loose, too heavy, too unpredictable. To me, the bounciness of sheep's wool is the perfect pairing to the stretch of knitting. I want my stitches to spring back into shape. Alpaca is soft, fuzzy, lovely... and saggy.

(I have a woven blanket made of 100% alpaca which is one of the most lovely things I own. The weaving has so much structure, letting the alpaca have all the softness and drape it wants without compromising on shape. I do believe some fibres are better for some crafts than others.)

So I would not have bought a new sweater quantity of an alpaca-silk blend. And yet, here I have it. And yes, the sleeves stretched out several inches after blocking, but that makes it even cosier, with the cuffs riding down over my hands.

2. Embrace Betwixtmas.

I didn't take a lot of time off work during the holidays, but I still had plenty of time to myself and a lot of dark evenings. I brought it to Christmas Day and I worked on it continually. Miles of stockinette went down easy. Somehow, the sleeves finished themselves before I could even blink.

3. Find beauty in simplicity. 

The pattern is All Day Everyday by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne - a baggy, drop shoulder, straight up and down, simple but very effective design with a few tiny cables down the front for interest.

An open cardigan with no buttons (or button-bands) to worry about - I know I will get plenty of wear out of it, being able to throw it on without thinking.

It's knit all in one piece from the top down, and the cables are crossed every right side row, so there was very little to keep track of and very few ways to mess it up.

4. Fall slightly in love.

Even if the alpaca turns out to have been a mistake, it was gorgeous to knit with. Watching the cushy fabric grow beneath my hands was addictive.

It really feels luxurious to wear - plush and fuzzy, drapey and very warm. The sunny colour - a medium yellow that's not too bright, and light, but not pastel - cheers me on through the winter greys.

5. Follow instructions, but trust your instincts.

I first cast on a size with 5" of ease - and very quickly ripped it out and cast on again two sizes smaller.

The designer recommends 10-20cm (4-8") of positive ease. But I knew, personally, I wouldn't be happy with that.

The alpaca will grow, and I don't feel good in clothes I'm drowning in. I made a few more modifications based on knowing my body and what I like to wear. But I resisted the urge to add shaping to the body or anything else too fancy. 

I added my own custom sleeve shaping which I'm very happy with - increasing the armhole height, it just skims my large upper arms, then the decreases ramp up from the elbow while keeping extra ease around the wrists in a way that I think is very flattering.

6. Add some drama.

I really thought I was going to run out of yarn. The pattern called for 1500yds, while I had 1200 of a long-discontinued yarn. By all accounts, I should be 3 full balls short. 

But I decided to carry on: The design assumed 10-20cm of positive ease, and alpaca will stretch, and I'll embrace the cropped look if I need to. And I can unravel my swatch.

I didn't need to unravel my swatch. But something about the added pressure, wanting to see how far I could get, urged me on row after row. 

I knit the body down to the armholes - then I knit each sleeve - and then, carefully counting each centimeter, I knit as much of the body as I could.

So I finished with 11 balls and 10 days. Knitting more than 50g per day. It's a decent length - I might have added an extra inch or two if I had had the yarn, but it's definitely not cropped!

7. Get excited for the future. 

Now that I know I can go from idea to finished garment in two weeks, so many possibilities open up to me. 

I have at least 5 sweater quantities of yarn in my stash - I rarely get through them because a sweater in my size feels like a mammoth undertaking. And yet! Ten days. It's possible. I can fill my wardrobe with beautiful sweaters.

(PS: Happy 17th anniversary to the blog.)

~Joyuna

Oh no, I love it

Do you ever do something in hopes that you'll be proven wrong? That you'll find out that doing things the hard way isn't worth it after all?

I cast on a sweater on 2.5mm needles. I've knit sweaters out of tiny yarn before - I've made a laceweight cardigan, but it was tiny yarn on great big needles for an airy wisp of a sweater. Not this. This is substantial fabric, not a hole in sight.

Tiny, tiny stitches. Delicate little stitches in stockinette and twisted rib. Over 300 stitches per row.

Reader, I'm heartbroken to say that I adore it.

I don't really wear most of my handknits. Even DK feels too chunky most of the time. I overheat, or the thick fabric gets in my way, or it doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of my outfit. Whatever the reason, I just don't wear them that often. (Not never...but not often enough, and not as often as they deserve.)

I'm ashamed to say that most of the knitwear I've been wearing the past few winters has been shop-bought. So thin and versatile!

I had stashed away some seriously beautiful sock yarn. I say sock yarn, but it doesn't have the qualities I like in a sock yarn. It's too soft, gently spun, squishy. The ball begs to be petted. I can't see it as socks, but it's a beautiful yarn nonetheless - the sadly discontinued Regia Angora Merino. The colour is a rich purple, a saturated yet dark aubergine. It's soft and smooth with just a tiny haze of bunny hairs sticking out.

It's the kind of yarn that I am happy to be running through my fingers for a few hundred thousand stitches.

So I have a special yarn, and I have a lovely pattern (simple, elegant, with just enough interest - Oolong by Laura Chau), and I have a light but warm cardigan to look forward to.

Sure, it's a little disheartening to knit for an hour and a half and only have 2cm to show for it... but if I can just sustain my momentum a little while longer, keep admiring the fabric, keep petting the skein, I'll get through it and I'll have a sweater I can actually add to my everyday wardrobe!

~Joyuna

An assessment of WIPs

On a lark the other day I decided to check if some of my favourite old blogs were still updating. Turns out, the Yarn Harlot is still going strong.

I found this post of hers rather inspiring: An airing of UFOs and taking a good hard look at them.

The beginning of the year brings out a decluttering urge in me. Or if not decluttering, at least surveying my hoard. I'll never be a minimalist (not even close), but sometimes it feels good to let go of things that are burderning you, rediscover lost loves, and just get a sense of where you are with everything.

I keep a lot of things on the needles. I have a short attention span and a fickle heart. I know this about myself and I don't try to restrain myself too much - knitting is my hobby, after all, and in the grand scheme of things, a halfway-finished project isn't a tragedy.

But I lose things, and I forget things, and my body changes shape, and my tastes change, and worst of all, sometimes the moths come. So it feels like a good idea to take out all those projects and get a sense of where they are.

PS: If like me, you haven't been keeping up with Yarn Harlot, I highly recommend this post about the whole family knitting a wedding blanket. It chokes me up a little.

Now, on to the WIPs!

---

Angostura Vest

I'm surprised to see I only have a few inches done on this, because it felt like I had put a LOT of work into it already. I spent a long time planning it, trying to figure out how gauge works between ribbing and negative ease and a yarn that will stretch.

Its fate: So long as I can find my notes, I'd like to pick it up again, hopefully before next winter. But with the fiddly cables plus the fact that I'll need to seam it, I might not actually finish it this year.

Sheep Heid

Love this in theory, but there are two problems:

1. I didn't check gauge, it's too big, I'm planning to felt it but I'm scared about how that will go.

2. Moths have struck. I took the project off the shelf and one of the little things flew right in my face. Now it isn't as bad as it could be - they only just started to nibble, there are a couple of broken threads but no big holes. It's fixable.

Its fate: I'm putting it away for long enough to get over the moth trauma, and then we'll see what I can do. It's halfway done! It's handspun!

Hexipuffs scrap blanket

This project is stored on a shelf just above my bed, so I see it all the time, just staring at me.

It's a weird one - one of my oldest projects, and every time I re-visit it I think that I'm very close to finishing it, and then something else comes up. I'm running out of stuffing. Or it's not quite big enough and I need to add some extra columns. Or I need to mend it. Etc.

Its fate: Yeah, I'll finish it off one of these days...

Un-puffed Hexipuffs

What kind of monster am I, casting on a second project in the same pattern before I finish the first one? My fickle heart. In a moment of weakness, I hunted down every variety of beautiful honey-coloured yarn I could find, to make this honey-themed honeycomb blanket. I love it, it's my dedicated on-the-go project.

Its fate: I adore it. There's a hole in my life when I don't have hexipuffs to work on.

Kalajoki socks

Picked this up again just recently, after thinking about how much I loved the yarn. This is The Fibre Co Cumbria Fingering, a wool/mohair blend in a very heavy 'fingering' weight which makes a beautiful cushy fabric. And oh, that colour! A bright red-leaning purple with just a hint of heathered dimensionality.

Its fate: Back in the saddle! Nearly finished the first sock.

Garter Stitch Mashup Blanket

This project isn't bad, I just have a glut of blankets in the house at the moment, so there's no urgency. I have two crocheted blankets in the rotation, I received a nice big one for Christmas, I have a really beautiful quality woven alpaca blanket from my mom, and we have one for every chair and sofa space. We're not wanting for blankets. So I'm not compelled to work on this, even though it's reasonably fun.

Its fate: Save for later.

Leighton House mitts

Beautiful. BEAUTIFUL. This pattern, and this yarn, makes me wax poetic. The way the colours shine on Wensleydale. The delicacy of it. The way it's silky, but woolly at the same time. I'm smitten. But I know exactly why I put this down. The colourwork is too much for my tiny brain to handle.

Its fate: I'll keep it in mind for the day when I want more of a challenge.

Dreambird shawl

I've gotta pick this back up sometime. I know why I bounced off it - the instructions are funny, and I made some mods, so each row was a lot of thinking. But if I can get into the swing of it, it could be something really fantastic.

Its fate: Read some other people's project notes and try and make sense of things.

Rainbow Scale Mitts

Wow, how 'bout this one. I made one mitt already! I'm half way through the second! Why did I drop it?

This was intended to be a design. I love this stitch pattern. It won't be worth it to publish this pattern, but I owe it to the mitts to finish them. It would only be the work of an afternoon or two.

Its fate: Pick it back up when I need some instant gratification.

Pink socks

OK, *this* is probably my oldest WIP. Look, it's on double-pointed needles! I haven't knit a sock on DPNs since... I can't recall. I don't love the yarn, I don't love the colour, and I think I was only knitting these to get a chance to re-photograph this pattern (one of my own designs).

Its fate: This one is on notice. I'm not frogging it, yet, mostly because I don't think I could do anything better with the yarn either.

Handspun Romney shawl - Emanuela

I have complicated feelings about my lace projects. My style and identity have evolved since my days of wearing lace shawls. Dang, this is pretty nice though. Handspun Romney, the yarn is thin but strong.

Some of the edge stitches fell off the needles and laddered down, so I have to do some restoration work before I knit this again.

Its fate: Save for later.

Lady Russell shawl

Oh. *Oh*. Hello, beautiful.

(Forget what I just said about lace. This, I would wear every day of my life.)

I didn't get to keep the sample of the original Lady Russell shawl from Jane Austen Knits, so I cast this on pretty soon after finishing that so I could have one of my own. Decadent yarn, big lovely shawl, with a real weight to it. If I remember right the lace pattern is relatively intuitive. I'd like to make this one of my projects this year.

Its fate: Put this one on deck for after I've finished a couple other things.

Icelandic Shawl - Lambton Panes

Good yarn and pattern combo, I just need to get into the headspace for it.

This is Einband yarn that I got in Reykjavik 4 years ago, and now I've since been to Iceland once again. Oops. Well, at least I didn't bring back any yarn this time.

Its fate: I can't see myself working on it at the moment, but I want to finish it eventually.

Peaks Island hooded scarf

It's a scarf. A seed stitch scarf. Dear god.

Its fate: I'm halfway done, so I'll consider picking it up again soon. But if that doesn't stick, then it's off to the frog pond.

Missing in Action

I know I have these projects in the house somewhere, but can't locate them at the moment.

Oolong Sweater (rav link)

How do I lose two finished sleeves and a sweater's worth of yarn? Just Joy things. I would like to pick this up soon if I can find it, as a few miles of stockinette in tiny yarn would do my soul good.

Ten Stitch Blanket (rav link)

Garter stitch blanket of handspun wool samples. It's been hit by moths before and it probably has again, wherever it is. It can stay in its corner until I feel like doing some mending.

Queen Anne's Lace (rav link)

I don't know about this one. It's beautiful, and I mean beautiful. The yarn is gorgeously delicate, and a great colour. But I don't wear my lace at the best of times anymore, and I certainly wouldn't wear a circular shawl. It'd be one of those projects that I cast off, block, look at lovingly, and shove into the back of the wardrobe. Even if I find it, I don't see myself finishing it, at least for now.

---

I am really glad I took this opportunity to take stock, and I've been inspired to pick up a few of these projects or slot them in later in the year. The temptation to cast on new projects is great, but I was really losing sight of everything I already had!

~Joyuna

The humbling experience of learning to knit all over again

Someone I know lost half of her index finger. She was an avid knitter and crocheter, and it's been hard for her to have her crafts taken away from her. This Christmas, I'm hoping to help her back into knitting. I ordered two sets of Tunisian Crochet hooks - the extra-long crochet hooks with space to hold extra stitches - and a yarn-tensioning pin.

The technique where the yarn is held in front, flicked with the thumb, and tensioned around the neck or a tensioning pin is commonly known as Portuguese Knitting, though it's used in many places around the world including Peru, Turkey, and Egypt too.

I can't say for sure yet whether this knitting style will be suitable for my friend - but since there are different movements and different muscles involved, it's worth a try.

Before I can show her how to get started, of course, I have to be familiar with this style of knitting myself! I used these instructions by Andrea Wong from Piecework magazine. Andrea also has a wealth of videos, including more advanced stitches, on her Youtube channel.

My personal style of knitting is a little bit idiosyncratic - resting the righthand needle against my body, left hand moves the stitch, right middle finger flicks the yarn. I never learned the proper English 'throwing' style. But I've learned a few other techniques - Contintental knitting, two-handed colourwork, backwards knitting... so picking up a new style should be no big deal, right?

Yes and no! The first few rows were intensely humbling. Where do my fingers go? What do I do with the yarn?! For a moment I was transported back to making my very first garter stitch scarf. But after those first few rows I understood what I needed to do, and a few more rows after that I even got into a rhythm. Having some years of knitting under my belt helped - I could tell at a glance whether the stitch was correct after I'd made it - and my friend has many decades more experience than me, so she should be able to get into the swing of it too.

The hooked needles are a revelation, honestly. I felt like I didn't need as much fine control in my fingertips because the hook was doing the work for me. It's a very pleasant way to purl!

The left-hand hook did get in the way a little bit but I just had to keep it rotated so that the stitches would slide off and not get caught in the hook. (I needed hooks on both sides because I'm knitting flat -- but most of the hooked needles I've seen *meant for this style* are DPNs with the hook on one side, so you're knitting off a smooth needle, and onto a hook. In the round = no turning, no need for a hooked left needle!)

The hooks are not necessary for this type of knitting, but I found it a great help, and I think they would be especially good for anyone with motor issues, RSI, or other issues with their hands.

I'm pleased to have had a short introduction to a new technique, and I look forward to showing it to my friend. Hopefully it will work for her and this will let her start creating again!

~Joyuna

Proof of time passing

Knitting, like a lot of crafts, is time-intensive. It's no wonder I have come back to it during these strange times. I pour hours into my yarn and needles, and receive something tangible in return. I trade my empty evenings for a woolly sweater.

I've been working in the garden, too. It's so comforting to watch my seeds sprout and my seedlings develop, gaining new leaves and reaching up to the sky. Seeing a row of peas that wasn't there two weeks ago helps to separate one day from the next.

Time seems strangely elastic now. I'm not the first to notice it - plenty of people have talked about this online. At first, when the news never stopped coming, when new measures were being taken each day, everything moved so quickly and yet the last 2 weeks of March felt like a lifetime. Meanwhile, as I settle into isolation, April has passed by in a blink.

But I have proof that time is passing - I have handspun yarn, and I have half of a sweater, each treadle and each stitch counting a second that ticked away here at home.

My partner and I are both fortunate enough to be able to work at home for the most part. My family and friends are all thankfully healthy. I hope wherever you are and whatever your situation is during this, that you and your loved ones are safe.

~Joyuna

New pattern: Little Grey Stormclouds

These are my Little Grey Stormclouds.

These are my typing gloves, my reading gloves, my knitting gloves, my this-office-is-too-darn-cold gloves.

These were my mojo-rejuvenation project, my startitis project, my instant gratification project.

Easy, lazy knitting, and a well-loved FO. For me, they're the ideal combination of process knitting and product knitting. I loved knitting them and I love wearing them even more.

They're a straightforward knit, with practical touches:

1. Mock cables

I love the look of cables, but I do not like knitting cables. This mock cable is dead simple when you get the hang of it, and I include a photo tutorial in the pattern.

2. Open thumb

No waste yarn, no picking up stitches. Just bind off and leave your thumb free.

3. Short hand length

Again, it's all about keeping your fingers free. Nothing getting in your way, just a little extra warmth around your palm and wrist. And less length means less knitting, so they knit up super-quickly.

4. Tight gauge

Knitting these gloves at a dense gauge makes the stitches really pop, and gives them extra durability. I've been wearing mine since 2015, shoving them in pockets, tossing them in bags, and generally mistreating them - and there's still not a single pill. From a 100% merino yarn!

It's a simple but very effective pattern, and I've graded it for four sizes to fit a range of hands for all genders.

for $5.00

Sizes: 7 [7.75, 8.25, 9]" (18 [20, 21, 23]cm) measured around the hand at the base of the fingers

Yarn: Between 110-165 yards of fingering/4-ply weight yarn (Shown: Shibui Sock, 100% merino). That’s less than 50g of your typical sock yarn.

Needles: US 1.5 / 2.5mm DPNs or circs, or whichever size gives you 8.5 stitches per inch in stockinette in the round

Pattern is fully written (not charted), and includes a photo tutorial for working the mock cable stitch.

~Joyuna

Mending with needle-felting

When it comes to mending, I darn my handknit socks for a strong, secure, and nearly seamless (with duplicate stitch) finish. However, I've recently learned I could also needle-felt to mend my woollens, and it's been a revelation!

It has advantages and disadvantages:

• Quick, easy, mindless. It's fun to stab things.
• It can handle irregularly-shaped holes that might be annoying to darn.
• It's easier to felt than to darn onto very thin yarns/fabrics, like store-bought knits
• You could felt an attractive design over your mended area
• I can use my fibre stash. I also bought a needle felting kits with a few grams of 30+ colours for a perfect colour match. You can even blend colours.

But...

• The finished patch is fuzzy, which you can see on the right side.
• Obviously, the mend doesn't match the surrounding stitches.
• The felted patch is less elastic than knit fabric.
• I already had some needlefelting supplies lying around, but maybe you don't, and then it's another craft rabbit hole to fall down.

I have darned several of my storebought jumpers in this way. It works great to close up small moth-holes in fine-gauge stockinette, and a snag in this ribbed jumper where I couldn't find a good colour match in my yarn stash.

You can see the fuzz in the mended area if you're looking for it, but it's barely noticeable.

When the original fibre has a bit of halo already, or if the garment has gone fuzzy over time, the mend blends into the fabrics texture. I find the action of the needle will fuzz up your existing yarn a bit, so I would not use this for an intricate stitch pattern or a really 'crisp' yarn.

Thin store-bought merino jumper, right side

Remember not to felt multiple layers of fabric together, and move your foam block periodically so you don't felt your knitting to the foam!

Thin store-bought merino jumper, wrong side

Sometimes I want a really clean finish, and I pull out my darning needle. But sometimes I just want to plug up the hole with some wool, and, (more and more often these days) I want to stab something over and over. So needle-felting is great for that!

~Joyuna

Pinstripes & Chains set - now for sale on Ravelry

The Pinstripes & Chains mitts and tam patterns, originally published in Knit Now Magazine, are now available as Ravelry downloads.

These quick accessories are easier than they look - the slipped stitches are a clever way to create vertical stripes while only working one colour per round. If you're up for more of a challenge, you can work the cabled "chains", but they're totally optional.

Since you're using two colours, these are a great project for using up the odd balls and scraps that you might have accumulated - and there's lots of room to experiment with colour combinations.

If you make size Small or Medium, you can make both a hat and pair of mitts with one 50g ball of each colour.

If you buy both the hat and the mitts together, you'll get a $3 discount.

Buy the set:
$7.00

Buy the mitts pattern:
$5.00

Buy the hat pattern:
$5.00



~Joyuna

My 2:1 stashdown challenge

I bought a lot of sweater-quantities of yarn last year. I won't say how many, but it is significantly fewer than the number of sweaters that I actually knit during the year.

The problem is, it's much easier to plan a sweater than it is to actually knit a sweater. I get the thrill of finding the perfect yarn for a pattern, I click "buy", and I quickly move on to the next shiny object. It's not a character trait I'm particularly proud of, but there it is.

My last yarn purchase of 2018 - soft and snuggly Blacker Swan

This year, I aim to practice some self-discipline. No more impulse buys, and I will keep my stashing to a net negative: For every 2 yards I knit, I can buy 1 yard of yarn. If I want to buy a 400yd skein of sock yarn, for instance, I need to have already knit 800 yards of yarn.

And if I want to buy a sweater's worth... I need to finish two sweaters. Or the equivalent yardage on other projects.

I think this will be a motivating challenge for me - I'm not going "cold sheep", but I'll still be working down my stash overall. I have to earn my yarny treats.



Here's to a productive 2019!

~Joyuna

Eleven Years.

I can't believe how time has flown. Eleven years ago I made my first post on this blog.

I had only been knitting for half a year, and I already had taken my first steps in spinning. I never go in just halfway to a new fixation.

In some ways, my approach to my crafts hasn't changed much. I'm still afflicted by startitis and sometimes overly ambitious (I had been spining for about 2 months when I decided to spin a sweater).

Knitting led naturally into designing, as I gained confidence modifying existing patterns and coming up with my own. It's been a long time since I've released anything, but the creative spark hasn't left me.

My first bulky raglan shrug - my latest handspun sweater

Of course, in the meantime I have also gained two degrees, moved countries, and built a career in marketing. I got my first digital marketing job partly thanks to my blogging and my designing - and now, in turn, I am taking a critical eye to my older patterns and using the graphics and layout skills I've gained from my jobs to pay it back.

The time and energy I've had to devote to knitting has waxed and waned over time - currently, I'm in a new upswing.

281 knitting projects. 227 FOs. 77 handspun projects. 29 published designs. (and, while I can't promise any timeline yet... more to come)

Happy new year, everyone.

PS - I'm also practicing my photography. Follow me on Instagram?

~Joyuna

You don't have to make the things you don't want to

Repeat this affirmation to yourself: I knit because I enjoy it, and I don't have to knit things I don't enjoy.

I've never liked knitting scarves. I bind them off too short, I leave them half-finished, they sit crumpled in a drawer unappreciated.

The prospect of six feet of the same stitches over, and over, and over, without change, just leaves me snoring. Sure, I'll put in a good effort for the first few feet, but I'm bound to lose interest.

Knitted scarves are not for me. I've amassed a collection of beautiful natural fibre woven scarves - thin, warm, and versatile - and the funny thing is, sometimes I've felt guilty about that. I'm a crafter, a little voice in my head says. Shouldn't I be wearing a scarf I made?

The answer is, nah.

I knit for my own pleasure, and just because I can make something, doesn't mean I'm obliged to do so. Why guilt myself into a project I won't enjoy?

So I gave myself permission to not knit scarves anymore.

Over the years I have a lot of stash that has been "earmarked" toward certain projects. And, over the 10+ years I've been knitting, my style and tastes have changed, and I also have a better idea of what I can knit that I will actually wear.

There are yarns and patterns that have sat like an albatross around my neck. I've been feeling like I have to make them because I decided, 5 years ago, that I would. Forget that noise! Why am I letting me pile guilt on myself for my own hobby?

At the beginning of the year, my Ravelry queue was 12 pages long. That's 350 patterns, give or take. Slowly, I whittled it down to 10 pages... and now, it's stabilised at 6. That's still 160 patterns that I want to knit, but it's a much more accurate picture of what I want to make now - not what I wanted to make 10 years ago and never got around to.

Am I ever really going to make a ruffled, beaded knitted evening bag? Amigurumi is cute, but do I enjoy those small fiddly projects? I already have a pair of everyday mittens, what would I do with 5 more? How many lace shawls do I really need in my life?

Karie Westermann's blog has a great series of articles about incorporating your handmade pieces into your wardrobe that covers this in further detail. I took a long hard look at what I enjoy knitting, and the handknits that I enjoy using. Now, it's much more heavily weighted towards sweaters and socks. Less lace, more texture. I haven't totally cut out everything frilly and feminine, but being realistic about my wardrobe, there's a good deal less.

It's all too easy for leisure activities to turn into an obligation - how many times has someone sighed to you about the length of their Netflix list, or the size of their to-read pile? Sometimes it's best to let it go - otherwise it weighs you down.

~Joyuna

Finished: Combospin, Harvest cardigan

It is finished! I blogged before about casting on my Harvest sweater, and the process of spinning it from various braids of different kinds of fibres.

The pattern is Harvest, a brilliant seamless and free pattern from Tincanknits. This pattern is lovely and straightforward, and there's something very satisfying about how little finishing there is to do at the end - since the buttonband is knit at the same time as the body, once you've bound off, you're done. This also makes it perfect for stripy handspun yarn, since the stripes wrap around the entire garment.

I did do a few mods that I picked up from some other Ravelry projects - one was knitting the sleeve cuffs perpendicular to the sleeves, which gives a nice mock-ribbing effect. Another is adding knit-in pockets - this is my first time using this technique, and I'm really pleased with it. Basically you knit waste yarn over the area you want to place your pocket, then slip the stitches back and re-knit. Then, you have two sets of live stitches - one to knit the ribbing over top of your pocket, and the other to knit the back lining. Then I sewed the lining against the front of the cardigan to finish the pocket.

This was a very quick knit - just over a month from cast off to bind off, and I was working on other projects during that time as well. Stockinette and garter stitch go quickly, even more so when I can't wait to see what stripe will appear next.

I did use one psychological trick to keep me motivated while knitting: after I separated for the sleeves, instead of continuing down the body, I immediately knit the sleeves next. Sleeves are a bugbear of mine: I always underestimate how long they will take, and I find them very tedious. Especially when they're the one thing standing between me and a finished sweater. So, by knitting the sleeves in the middle of the project, it prevented a good deal of frustration and made the project go much more quickly.

The sleeves are the only part of the sweater where I alternated skeins - I knit them in 3-round stripes. This is because I wanted the width of the stripes to roughly match the body, and if I had just knit from one skein the small circumference of the sleeves would have caused much wider stripes. The effect is subtle but I'm very happy with how it turned out.

All in all, I am really happy with this cardigan! I took it out for a test drive yesterday and it was perfectly cosy. I can tell I'll get a lot of wear out of this one.

So, to summarise, I went from this disparate pile of fibre:

To a huge plying ball:

To this yarn:

To this sweater:

Project page on Ravelry

~Joyuna