F.O. Old Romance by Joji Locatelli

Pattern:  Old Romance

Old Romance

Designer:  Joji Locatelli

Yarn:  Sweet Fiber Yarns Cashmerino 20 (70% merino, 20% cashmere 10% nylon)

Colourway:  Verve

Sweet Fiber Yarns Cashmerino 20

Yarn:  Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light  (100% merino)

Colourway:  Cathedral

Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light

Needles:  3.5mm and 3.0mm

Ravelry:  my notes

Added Notes:

1. I enjoyed the unique construction of knitting Japan Sleeves by Joji Locatelli three years ago, and I decided I wanted to repeat the fun, and knit the cardigan version of the pattern.  I finally got around to it, and started the lace inserts on January 1, 2018.  I don't usually take four months to complete a sweater, but this is one of those patterns that I would pick up and add a few rows now and again, while I worked on other projects.  The first step for this pattern is to knit the lace for the sleeves and this took me quite a bit of time.  After construction of the lace strips Joji has you cleverly join both to create the sleeves. 

Construction of the sleeves

However, that's where the fun ended for me.  After the sleeves were constructed the remainder of the sweater is knit in stockinette and I felt that it went on forever.  My only modification was to knit the body two inches shorter than suggested in the pattern.  With blocking the cardigan grew a couple inches so the length ended up perfect for me.

2.  I was lucky to get Sweet Fiber's Verve colourway during one of the shop updates.  I first spotted this colourway on a trip to Victoria to the Beehive Wool Shop and saw a shop sample of Viajante by Martina Behm knit in this gorgeous shade of purple.  Unfortunately, it is no longer listed as one of the colourways that Sweet Fiber dyes.

3.  I usually stay away from variegated yarn when knitting lace but I am pleased with the result.  However, I find that the Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light pills quite a bit and my lace inserts are no exception.  I have knit a few sweaters with this yarn and they all pill. And for that reason, I have learned that I prefer to knit sweaters with plied yarn, not single ply.

4.  The boredom I experienced while knitting the body was forgotten when I tried on the sweater.  This is an open cardigan that will be perfect to slip on top of whatever I am wearing.  The cashmere content in the Sweet Fiber Yarns makes a super soft fabric and since it is a fingering weight it will be worn year round. My conclusion is that it was definitely worth it!

F.O. Hamble by Isabell Kraemer

Pattern:  Hamble

Hamble 

Designer:  Isabell Kraemer

Yarn:  
Rosy Green Wool Cheeky Merino Joy (100% Merino)
Colourway:  Edelweiss (1 skein)

O-Wool O-Wash Sport  (100% Merino)
Colourway: Cuckoo Flower (2.5 skeins)

 Pigeonroof Studios Silky High Twist Sock (80% Merino, 20% Silk)
 Colourway: Railroad Stake (held double)

Needles: 3.5mm

Ravelry:  my notes

Added Notes:

1.  Designer Isabell Kramer is popular for a reason.  Her patterns are well written, fun to knit, and produce a garment that fits well.  When Hamble was published I happily cast on, knowing that this sweater would get a lot of wear.  I have to admit that I am delighted with the finished result.  The hardest part about this pattern was knitting the neckline.  There are increases on both the purl and knit sides, and the increases I made on the purl side were creating holes in the fabric.  I found a great tutorial that demonstrated how to do this properly.  Once the neckline was created the pattern was straight forward. 

2.  I played around with different colours for the contrasting coloured stripe before I picked the Pigeonroof Yarn.  For example, I loved how these two skeins looked together, until I started to knit the stripe and realized that there was not enough contrast between the two. 

Old Rusted Chair Sock Yarn: Colourway Spring Forward

I tried several yarn combinations until I found the fingering skein of Pigeonroof High Twist Sock.  I have been holding onto this skein for sometime as the yarn is gorgeous, much too beautiful to knit into socks.  As this is a fingering weight skein I doubled it, and it worked perfectly with the sport weight yarn.

Much better!

3. The Yarn:  This was my first time using Rosy Green Wool and the experience made me want to knit a whole sweater's worth. It is the softest merino I have ever felt. It's one of those yarns that you want to keep squishing as you knit with it.   O-Wool, a yarn I bought at Rhinebeck a couple years ago, is a lovely yarn too, and was a good match with the Rosy Green Wool.  Look at the variety of colours that are available.

O-Wool Sport

O-Wool is certified organic by the Global Organic Textile Standard.  You can read more about what that means on the O-Wool website.  If you are lucky enough to go the Maryland (this coming weekend) or Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool festival you can see O-Wool in person.  If you want to try either yarn the owner of O-Wool sells both yarns online.  Trust me when I say both yarns are worth buying.

4.  I was halfway through my second sleeve when disaster happened.  I spilled the remains of a Tim Horton's coffee on my sweater and the coffee seemed to hit every inch of my sweater, especially the cream upper body.  Luckily I was just entering my house when it happened and I was able to submerge it immediately in water, so thankfully no lasting damage was done!

I love the feeling of getting a sweater off the needles.  Since this is a sport weight sweater I still will get a lot of wear out of it before summer.  Instead of focusing on the two remaining sweateres I have on the needles I promptly cast on another one.  I have so many projects on the needles at the moment.  But I am enjoying every one of them.  More on that later....

As a side note I have been quiet on my blog recently as life has been extremely busy.  I hope to get back to a regular schedule soon, so thanks for sticking with me.  

Happy knitting!