Jennifer Steingass is the designer of the Solvi sweater which is a pullover. I began knitting this pattern on October first. Now it is mid-April and I have finished the project.
The delay in finishing was due to many things, but mostly because I doubted a good outcome. Do you ever start knitting a pattern with much excitement only to loose that excitement somewhere along the way? If you have done enough knitting, I suspect you will say “yes”.
I love the yarn. I chose “Peacock” blue in Harrisville Design’s Shetland. What a beautiful fingering weight yarn, and in a great color. For the long colorwork yoke, I dug into my stash of fingering weight wool. I tried to keep a more muted color scheme going with colors that flowed into each other. I’m happy with the colors.
What caused me to pause this knitting project (many times) was the large look of the yoke. It seemed very wide, and the depth was an inch over the schematic size. I considered ripping it all out, but what a pain in the neck! So I put it aside and worked on other things.
Finally, I picked it up and got to knitting. I would finish and see how it was.
I was right. It ended up large.
I like an oversized sweater, but this one is too much. I could easily have knit one size smaller and been happy with the fit! (I knit size D – or the 4th size.)
The sweater has a very wide neckline that flows into a wide, colorwork yoke. I like the pattern of feathers that comes down the front, but the whole thing is just too wide. This is my fault for choosing the larger size. There is nothing wrong with the pattern. Just be aware of the width of this sweater. My gauge was good, but I was between sizes and chose larger. It was my mistake.
I used the same size main needle for all the colorwork as well. I was considering going up a needle size because colorwork tends to be a little tighter. I’m so glad I did not do that!
Mods I Made
Because the yoke was getting too long I had to leave out a bit of the feathers pattern. This project has been put aside quite a bit, so I can’t remember exactly what I changed.
If I knit a larger size sweater, I often go down a size for the sleeves. I did that for this one. I followed size 3 (C) stitch counts so the sleeves would be more narrow. I also knit them longer. For the cuffs, I did not do the last row of tightening up, and instead did a tubular bind-off with a sewing needle.
For this pattern, I finished the body first. I used a new skein of yarn for each sleeve. I had three little balls of yarn leftover, which you can see in my first photo above.
I will absolutely be wearing this sweater next winter. It will work best as a layer over a turtleneck on the coldest days.
I usually have good luck knitting Jennifer Steingass patterns. Her Ravelry pattern page is Knit.Love.Wool. and the link goes there. The previous sweaters of hers, that I have knit, have fit me pretty well. Her patterns are well-written and easy to follow. Most are colorwork patterns with stranded work done on yokes and sometimes sleeves.
Now, I am moving away from colorwork yokes. Stranded knitting is my favorite thing, but an all-over Fair Isle is a lot more fun.
I’ve moved on to knitting fun little scarves and just finished up the biggest hat I’ve ever knit!
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New England's Narrow Road 