After some summer top knitting, I needed to have wool in my hands again. I chose a new pattern and some new-to-me yarn and got knitting on the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater (pattern link below).
I made a stupid mistake when beginning the first rows after the neck ribbing, and had to rip it all out and begin again. Believing I would be able to do those yarn-overs just fine, I began to screw things up again – because, no I did not do yarnovers correctly. This time I kept knitting and took a refresher in doing yarn-overs.
Once I had all that down, the knitting went smoothly and the yoke became fun to knit.
The Yarn
I am knitting with Sandnes Garn Tynn Line Peer Gynt wool yarn (link goes to Wool & Co.). I’ve never knit with it before, but it’s soft and beautiful. There are some thick to thin areas, but I don’t mind that and I think it’s typical.
Although I bought two types and colors of yarn as possible choices for this project, the Tynn Peer Gynt worked out better for the needle size. I’ve ended up knitting with the black yarn.
Let’s Try This Thing On!
Using fingering weight yarn to knit a sweater means lots of little stitches and many rounds of knitting. Surprisingly, to me, I was done knitting on this fun project in just a little over a months time.
Finally I have split the body at the hem which means I can get this thing tried on! Yay…!
I am very pleased. That neckline seems perfect. A bit wide, but not too wide, just as the designer promised. I did knit for one more inch on the body, stopping at around ten inches and not nine. Two more inches of hem will be added, but first I plan to knit the sleeves.
We cannot run out of yarn on the sleeves, so I want to knit them without worry. IF I run low on yarn for the body ribbing, I can order another skein and not worry if it’s not a perfect match. *No problem here. I ended up with plenty of yarn even with adding a couple of extra inches to the body length.
I began knitting this sweater on July 20th and today is August 15th, so it has taken almost a month to get this much done on the BVL sweater. *Then I finished on August 29th.
A few days later, I had one sleeve knit. They are 3/4 sleeves which stay wide until just before the short cuff. I ended up liking them a lot.
Decreasing for the Cuff
The knitting round where the many decreases are made, just before the cuff, gave me pause. Then I realized that the first set of knit stitches – in the parenthesis () – is done ONE TIME ONLY to begin the round. The next set of stitches – in the brackets [] is the number of stiches to knit along with the k2tog – and this is repeated in the round. The last set of stitches is what is left at the end of the round, and they will be knit – unless there are no stitches left and you knit zero.
For example: For my size, on this decrease round, I had to knit 2, then knit 4 + k2tog for the repeat, until I had only 2 stitches left at the end of the round, which were simply knit.
Buy the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade Pattern
Finished and Happy
It took me about a month to finish knitting the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater. I enjoyed knitting it because there was always something going on while knitting. The yarn-overs at the raglan sleeves, the texture down each side, and the bottom split rib, all added to the enjoyment.
The sweater was dry after a day and I did a quick photo shoot. We were getting the outer bands from Hurricane Idalia, with wind and rain, so I couldn’t go outside.
I also love this yarn. It is wool, but very soft. I would compare it to Rauma, but it may actually be softer. The finished project is absolutely fabulous! I’m always amazed at much more lovely a hand-knit becomes when washed. I’m very happy with my new sweater!
I don’t often say this, because once I knit a pattern, I move on to something new, but this is a pattern I would absolutely use again.
New England's Narrow Road 