Seven Day Knit

I haven’t really felt like sewing this week. I think its partly because I’d just like a bit of space from my sewing machine after my Cascade marathon sewing session, and partly because its just so cold in Wellington at the moment! All I want to do is curl up under the heater and knit cosy things to keep me warm when I need to venture outside. 

 
I cast on the Lesley Sweater from the Home and Away: Knits for Everday Adventures pattern book the Sunday before last, and finished binding it off last Sunday evening. It was such a fast knit, I can’t believe it only took me a week! It helps that its just plain knit, and knit in the round. It also helps that it uses Aran weight yarn! I used Ashford Tekapo wool, which is milled in the South Island. I feel like I should really try to use NZ wool when I can, and this was lovely to knit with. It isn’t as soft as the Cascade 220 I used for my Wickerwork, but it seems to be wearing better. It isn’t scratchy or anything, I can wear it against my skin without any irritation.

 
I really like the patterns in Home and Away, they’re all pretty basic, useful patterns. Lesley is probably the most basic pattern in the book, but I really liked the neckline and the shaping in it.  

  

I really debated which size to knit this in, the pattern recommends sizing down if you’re between sizes, but that would have given me 3″ of negative ease. I thought that was a bit much, given how much smaller my Miette Cardigan came up. So I knitted a size 36, which should have given me an inch of positive ease, and its ended up being only just 35″ around. I’m pleased with the fit though, I think it looks good with a bit of negative ease.

 
The neckline is shaped with short rows, which scared me a bit until I tried them out and realised they were actually pretty easy! I’m not sure I knitted the wraps together right though, becase they’re a bit visible still. I did something really stupid when I was splicing the ends of my wool together though…I rolled the damp felted-together ends up and down my denim clad thigh to smooth them out, and they turned slightly blue! I didn’t notice immediately, but you can kind of see it in the finished jumper. Hopefully it’ll wash out…

 
My mum picked me up an 80’s knitting book at a book fair last weekend (such huge batwing jumpers, such weird colour blocking!) and it has a really good section at the front on different stitch patterns and a general how-to-knit guide. It suggested blocking knits by wetting a threadbare tea towel, laying it over your pinned out garmebt, and then applying a hot iron to said tea towel, so thats what I did. It worked much better than just using the steam function on my iron, and was much quicker than wet blocking, which made me happy. I left it laid out over night, just to let it dry and settle, and I think its turned out well. 

 
I’ve alternated it all week with my Wickerwork, and it’d been lovely and warm. It also looks good over my Archer shirts, so thats a plus! I’ve been thinking I should make up another one in stripes… I just need to figure out how to knit stripes in the round without them ending up staggered at the end of the row…