FO: Bloomsbury Sweater

 Hey ho! My Bloomsbury Sweater is finished!

I started this pattern back in September of 2019, took it with me to England the next month (with the hopes of knitting it in Bloomsbury) and have been working on and off for another year! 

The V-shaped neckline with the lace sleeves is so flattering. I would totally create another pattern that has a similar look. 

The beginning of the lace yoke section was quite tricky to get going with the increases due to how the designer wrote up the instructions with the lace charts. I ended up creating a chart photo in my Ravelry notes to keep track of everything. 

I tried out Caron's Pantone Bamboo yarn in the color "Indigo" when they first released it. I have have mixed feelings because although it is soft, it splits and I am sure it will pill quite a bit. 

This project took me about 4.5 skeins of yarn for a size large in US 6 needles.

I can't resist a heathered yarn though.

I used a tubular cast-on method for the neckline, and the sleeves and hem were cast off using "Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Cast Off" method. It doesn't look as clean, but I was driven to knit a garment that stretches!

The first set of sleeves took me the longest. For some reason it took AGES! The second sleeve really only took less than a week, so I don't know what my deal was. I was dealing more with chronic neck and shoulder pain this past year that has stopped me from knitting more than 20 minutes at a time, so that was probably it.

 

I'm convinced that every time you take a picture of this shade of blue, it will never come out the same.

I was so excited when I tried it on for the first time and it fit perfectly. 

This is literally fresh off the needles, so I haven't even blocked it out yet. I expect the sleeves and sweater length to grow a bit. 

It's quite snowy! Stay safe!

A Knitter Skill Unlocked: the Tubular Cast-On (with 1x1 ribbing)

Happy fall! I'm am literally a couple of inches away from finishing one of my twin's Flax Light sweater, but couldn't resist the charm that pumpkin spice yarn had to offer, so I've decided to have a "screw it!" type of attitude with project monogamy and just cast on for my adult Flax Light sweater.

I've heard on podcasts that tubular cast-ons are the way to go for ribbing. Not only is it stretchy, but the folded edge makes it look clean and professional looking. I watched Eunny Jang's video and have followed the instructions to a "T," even though it started my ribbing off with a purl stitch (I later moved the last knit stitch to the beginning of the round because I'm OCD'ing about keeping my ribbing 'k1,p1'). Side note- Eunny Jang's blog (she's stopped blogging on her personal site ever since she was offered a job at Knitting Daily) inspired me to create this blog in 2006...

In a nutshell: the process involved knitting stockinette st from waste yarn for several rows, knitting from your main yarn for several rows, and after picking up the first st bumps from your main yarn (see the video for this)...you CUT away the waste yarn. Eek!!

So, for your entertainment, I have documented my first time casting out Tubular Method:

4 waste yarn stockinette rows and 5 main yarn rows before tubular effect. You cast on half the amount needed.

You purl a live st, then pick up the first main color "bump," until you have double the cast-on amount.

So far, so good!

The whole needle completed! Time to grab the scissors! Eek!

You cut away the waste yarn underneath.

It acutally looks more like this mess.

You join the round, which will leave you with this nice little gap. I just sewed the waste yarn into it and it closed it right up. Next time, I will try to join the waste yarn in the round right off the bat.

And that's all folks! It was pretty painless and nothing unraveled. Just double check before you make the first snip that you have knit into ALL of the bumps from that main color's first row.

I'm onto the yoke now. Have yourself a great weekend!