I'm so excited about this...it's my first jumper that I can wear in public! My first jumper was appalling, embarrassing even - the style of jumper I made was separate front and back panels and sleeves to be sewn together. Some how I managed to knit the back panel SO loosely, but the tension for the other 3 pieces was fine. When it came to sewing it all together it was so uneven that I gave up!
Undeterred, I set about knitting a second jumper. This time I decided to do the raglan style, so completely seamless and no sewing together, hence less room for error! I also found the straight stockinette in one colour of the first jumper soooo boring. Instead of incorporating colour to jazz it up I decided to add detail in.
Now, I already had in mind what I wanted to do. I'd seen a pattern yonks ago on Ravelry that has been saved in my favourites forever. The pattern was called "Not Your Boyfriend's Sweater" and can also be found on the Cascade Yarns site. It has the usual ribbed neckline and cuffs, but it has gorgeous lace details on the front and the back. I had never tried knitting a lace pattern before so I thought I'd give it a go - it couldn't have turned out any worse than my first jumper attempt!
The yarn I decided to use was Calmer by Rowan. It's a sumptuous cotton and acrylic mix yarn which I had bought from John Lewis as it was on sale (can someone say 'yarn addict'?!). Then I found out it was on sale because it had been discontinued, such a shame as it's such a lovely yarn to work with. It was also the same weight as the required yarn in the pattern which was extremely handy :)
The incorporation of the lace pattern made knitting this so fun, so much better than the monotony of a plain stockinette. I did a practice swatch of the lace repeats before I got to that part in the pattern and I have to say it was definitely not as scary as I thought; in fact it made me happy making something quite pretty :)
Overall the jumper took a little over two months to make. "But that's AGES!" you're probably thinking, and yes, you'd be correct. However, this was done in the little spare time that in between working, flat hunting. packing, moving, extreme knitting a rug and my boy coming to visit for 2 weeks...I think if I didn't have that much on it wouldn't have taken that long at all. Using worsted weight with 5mm needles meant that it knitted up fairly quickly.
I did also make an annoying mistake which I've left in there to remind me to be extra careful knitting whilst under the influence! Fruity flavoured Swedish cider is so deceiving :(
I am so pleased with how this jumper came out! I highly recommend this pattern to anyone new to knitting jumpers and wants something a bit fancier. I would say you do need to have practiced or have experience with circular needles and DPN's (double pointed needles) - and if you do, great, you'll love making this!
