Project Info
Pattern: Adult Miss Ella by Lara Simonson
Yarn:
- Uptown Worsted in Chocolate Heather (5 skeins)
This was a gorgeous acrylic yarn that felt so soft that I decided to go ahead and make the sweater out of it even though I try to avoid using acrylic for clothing since it doesn’t always hold its blocking very well.
Time to Completion: December 24, 2020 – February 22, 2021
An unfortunate yarn shortage meant that this project got about five weeks added to it as I returned to Minnesota before the yarn arrived so there were some added days of transport and halted progress as. Finished up other projects before returning to this one.
Project Notes: I decided that this sweater would be a great way. to practice something other than stockinette stitch, mistakenly interpreting the cabled front and sleeves as a moss stitch or star stitch pattern so was somewhat surprised when I opened the pattern and found myself with an extensive cable pattern. I decided that some extra cabling practice never hurts and continued forth. This is a great, easily memorized pattern that works well for some mindless knitting when keeping my hands busy during class or knitting while watching TV or on long car rides. The best part of this pattern was that, with so much cabling it was inevitable that I would make mistakes and not notice, but because the pattern was so simple, I had a great opportunity to learn how to pull out stitches and re-construct my cables without having to frog entire rows. What a relief!
I made it all the way to the hem before I ran out of yarn and switched to other projects as I waited for my order of yarn to make its way first to my local yarn store, and then to me in Minnesota. Once the yarn came in, I eagerly jumped back on this project, taking advantage of evenings and Zoom classes to keep my hands busy during lectures (I figured hands busy knitting was better than hands busy scrolling through Facebook).
Getting the sweater the rest of the way finished was an exciting effort as the sleeves went much quicker than the body. I spent an exciting morning wearing my sweater around campus as I figured out where it would need to be stretched while I blocked it. The sweater fits loosely and is quite blocky in itself. My only comments on the fit are the the arms are a little loose and not quite long enough, and the hem on my hips was a little bit tight. Perhaps sizing up a needle for the bottom hem of the sweater and down a needle for the arms would have made for a more perfect fit. As it was, my only adjustment during blocking was to lengthen each sleeve by about two inches. I prefer to have unreasonably long sleeves or three quarter length sleeves, these sleeves hit just at/slightly below the wrist which is the ideal length for many, but my least favorite length. I also pinned down the collar edges in the hope that it might encourage the collar corners to stay flat.
The final steps are to add buttons at the collar and my nametape in the back, chores which may have to wait until I make it back up to the fabric depot which has a fantastic button collection that I’ve been wanting to dig through. In the meantime, we’ll declare it finished!
#adventuresabroad 