Here is a look at some new yarn I recently purchased from a new (to me) shop.
Sometimes I cannot resist a yarn sale. I’ve become much better at controlling my urges when it comes to yarn. I have narrowed my choices down to buying beautiful wool.
The Sonder Yarn Co. is located in Canada. I’ve been watching their yarn and knitting projects slip by on Instagram (I’m usually looking in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep), and I’ll tell you.. they have lovely colors!
You must spend a lot to get free shipping, and I just never wanted to spend the money. And then, I saw that there would be a sale on their pretty yarn. A very good sale too, at 20% off!
I had just finished knitting the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater pattern and was seriously thinking of knitting another one. I needed fingering weight yarn for it.
My Wool Order
The Sonder Yarn company said there would be a bit of a delay getting all the sale orders out. I was in no hurry. Finally, I got an e-mail saying that my order had been sent to the wrong place. Instead of waiting for the order to come back to them, they were sending a replacement to me. So, altogether it took about three weeks to arrive.
The yarn did not come in the box you see in my photo – just stuffed into a bag. There was nothing extra, just a “thank you” on the order invoice. I am only mentioning this because some places add extras, like a free stitch marker, tissue wrapping, etc. – this place did not.
On the same day that the yarn arrived, another shipment of something arrived and came in this box, which fit the yarn very nicely. Perfect!
Yarn delivery – (did not come in this box)
The Fingering Weight Yarn
The Sunday Morning 4 Ply yarn is fingering weight. It is made up of two types of wool; 75% BFL, or yarn from the Blue Face Leicester sheep, and 25% Masham wool. I ordered the color “French Press” which is a rich brown. Each skein has 432 yards!
Color “French Press”
The DK Weight Yarn
The other yarn I ordered is Sunday Morning DK. It is made up of the same wool mentioned above for the 4ply. I choose color “Toast & Honey” colorway, and I love it! Each skein has 268 yards.
Already I have cast on and begun knitting a second Calliope pullover in this pretty golden color. My first Calliope came out too big, and the yarn was not right for it. I’ve been wanting to knit another for a while. I think this pretty wool will be just right.
Pretty Toast and Honey yarn color.
Happiness
All in all, I am very happy with my yarn purchase. It’s tough buying yarn online but the colors shown on the website match very closely to what I got. The brown really caught my eye, but I ended up loving the golden color even more once I had it in hand.
I spent more money than I usually do, but I have gorgeous yarn and plans to use it. Also I got free shipping because of the amount, so that’s a plus. The wonderful color options may keep me going back for more, or at least keeping an eye out for sales at the Sonder Yarn Co..
Cardigan knitting requires a little extra effort, but worth the effort for the Eva Cardigan by Petite Knit.
The Eva Cardigan is knit in a DK yarn and is a low v-neck with four buttons. It is a design by PetiteKnit (link to pattern below). I began to knit this – cast on – around the middle of September and finished the end of October. I found it to be a good pattern and love the sweater. Also, I learned some new things along the way.
I used a new yarn too. Sandnes Garn Peer Gynt, which is a DK, but really seems more like a worsted to me.
Although I have knit a few cardigans, none have had a shoulder construction like this one. I also had to watch a video to complete the buttonholes.
The designer lists this pattern as a 4 out of 5 difficulty.
The Pattern and Yarn
The yarn is nice and I was very happy knitting with it. I bought mine at Wool & Company. It is made of Norwegian wool and the Peer Gynt is DK weight, but seems heavier. Wool and Company offers many colors, including heathers and tweed.
I bought 12 skeins of Sandnes Garn Peer Gynt yarn in color “Eucalyptus” green – per my daughter’s color request. I ended up with nearly two skeins leftover. But, better too much than not enough!
Eva Cardigan leftover yarn
I knit a swatch with size 6US needles and it was a bit large. I don’t have many needles in size 5 (and then go down 2 sizes for the ribbing), so I chose to use the sixes (with size 4 for rib) and knit the extra-small size sweater. (Lots of various length needles are needed for this sweater in both the 4 and 6 sizes.)
However, this cardigan is being knit for my daughter, who is tall and thin, and likes longish sleeves. I’ll be adding length to the body (end measurement is 23 inches) and especially the sleeves (18.5 inches).
Wool and Company notified me that only 10 skeins were matching dye lot numbers, so two would be off, but very similar. I took them anyway, and have used one of the odd dye lots to knit the body ribbed hem. I was saving the other for the button band – but never had to use it.
After the initial neck knitting, stitches have to be picked up at each of the shoulders. I really didn’t know how to do this, so I used another needle to pick them up and then added those stitches to the main needle.
I think this may be called a “saddle shoulder”, but I’m not sure. The design idea is to keep the sweater from sliding off the shoulders – I think.
Sleeve 1 done!
Shoulder construction
Picking Up Stitches for Button Band
Picking up stitches for the button band is not at all my favorite thing to do when knitting! This always takes me hours. I love cardigans, but it’s one of the things I dislike about knitting them.
For this wide button band, which goes up one side, around the neck, and down the other, the total number of stitches picked up needed to be divisible by four in order to make the 2×2 ribbing. Also, while you’re at it, make sure both front sides have the same number of stitches.
At least the designer said to pick up 3 for every 4 stitches. I guess most knitters know this, but I appreciate the instructions. (This is something another designer didn’t bother to mention and my Carbeth cardigan is totally messed up because of it.)
I watched a helpful video by Cocoknits which advised to only do the picking up of stitches, and not “pick up and knit”. YES! Do this! Then, when your counts are off (be prepared to count and count and count), it is easy to remove the picked up stitches and fix the count, which I did… over and over. FINALLY.. I got everything worked out correctly.
How to Make the Buttonholes
The buttonhole directions in the pattern are a little confusing when it comes to doing the “double backward loop”. Many thanks to another knitter, who referenced the video below which shows how it’s done. I am not sure my purl 2 together through the back loop was done right, as it looked a little too loopy.
This YouTube video by Kimmie Mulkholm shows the buttonhole construction for the Eva Cardigan. It is not in English, but can be understood easily using CC or not.
In the End
I have a pretty nice sweater now, which is a gift for my daughter. Since she lives in New England, it will get used a lot. It is currently being dried, on mats in a room with the dehumidifier running (necessary here in Florida), and then the buttons will be added.
This sweater seems quite big. Then again, my gauge was off. The shoulders and sleeves fit me just fine and I knit the XS size. I would like a wider body for myself so I’m not sure which size I’d choose to knit for myself.
Read to wear
Eva is finished!
Back of Eva Cardigan
As is usually true of hand knits, especially wool knits, the fabric smooths out and ends up looking incredibly good. I’m so pleased with the end product. I would knit it again – next time it will be for me!
Knitting the Arco Iris sweater pattern by Joji Locatelli using Miss Babs Kunlun yarn in color Moss green.
I couldn’t pass up the Miss Babs yarn sale and grabbed some of my favorite “Kunlun” yarn. My intention was to knit the new Joji Locatelli pattern called “Arco Iris”.
The sweater is a v-neck with 3/4 sleeves and pretty, textured ribbing (pattern link below). It calls for a DK yarn so this merino, cashmere and silk blend should work nicely.
I purchased four skeins of color “Moss”. This was not my first color choice but the Miss Babs sale is popular, so I took what I could find that offered enough skeins (4) for my project. Green is good. It is one of my favorite colors to wear.
Kunlun yarn in “Moss”Swatch blocked and dryingSwatch
My swatch has been knit, washed, blocked and dried. My row count is off slightly as I have about 31 rows in 4 inches and it should be 29. But stitch count is exact, so I’m sticking with the size 6 needle. I will just watch the length. Some articles about swatching say that row problems can sometimes be fixed by changing needle types. I’m waiting for some new wooden Lykke needles to arrive.
Casting on January 12th with two skeins wound and ready to alternate. This is my first Joji pattern.
Once the 24 inch Lykke needles arrived I switched from the 16 inch metal, which was getting very crowded. The following day the 32 inch arrived and I’m now using that. View Lykke needles on Amazon – this is an affiliate link to the needles I purchased.
I need to say how beautiful this yarn is to work with. Look at those wonderful stitches, all lined up and perfect looking. I don’t know if I’ve ever knit with yarn that is so defined. I’m knitting two rows at a time from alternating skeins to keep the shading good.
So far the pattern is very easy to follow, with lots of stitch counts noted to keep me on track. The increases are easy to remember. There is a lot of purling – every other row – which I personally don’t mind.
Pattern Problem at End of Increases
Now that I have reached Section 3 the body and sleeves are divided and that all went well – until I decided to Tink back to add stitches – see Mods section below. This was not a pattern problem, just my choice.
The first confusion arose in Section 3 in the Note. We are told to continue neck increases “every 4th following row”. Apparently that “following” means the rows to come – from here on out. I would word that differently to be clearer. That means we knit the divider row as Row 1, Purl row is 2 and so on. That has us increasing on a purl row which is not what we have been doing.
The designer lists how to make those purl row increases, but it seems the directions for them are wrong. A fellow knitter left a comment on the pattern page that the the m1pl and m1pr definitions in the “abbreviations” section were incorrect. I checked that out by watching this Purl Soho video about how to do both increases. I have to agree that the designers directions for these increases are incorrect.
It also took me a bit to figure this all out. A couple of simple sentences could have made all this much clearer for me. Then again, maybe I am the only one who didn’t get it. It’s possible.
Mods
One test knitter (Toriyu) mentioned casting on extra stitches for the body when dividing the sleeves – even though her size did not include this. My size 4 directions also say to cast on Zero. So I tinked back to the separation row and cast on six stitches under each arm for a total of 12 extra stitches. I did this because I don’t want the body to be tight. The test knitter then decreased those extra stitches as she knit down the body.
To Be Continued
My next Arco Iris post is about knitting the v-neck ribbing with the cables. I decided to knit the neckline before I finished up the body. You can read that here.
Hidden Gems was a popular free shawl knitting pattern. Since it is no longer available, I have found some similar patterns for knitters. Check out the list and let…
My yarn order of The Fibre Co.’s Acadia DK arrived the other day. I’ve been planning to knit the Skiff hat pattern in Watch Cap form (already did the Beanie version) and I just needed the right yarn to get started. I began writing this as I began knitting, so be sure to read my final thoughts at the end.
Just beginning the second half of the brim
After beginning the pattern with some gray yarn from Quince & Co., but not liking the color (for this pattern), I used that yarn to knit my Curly Snowflake Hat. The Q&C yarn is nice, but the color was not right for gifting a “Skiff” to my daughter.
My new choice of yarn is from The Fibre Company. The Acadia yarn I ordered is off-white (Egret) and dark green-blue (Blueleaf Birch). They are great colors, but I still thought the white cap needed a bit of variation.
I got the notion to add some mohair to the lower portion of this long (over six inches) rolled brim. All I had was this pale pink mohair, and I can’t even remember why or where I bought it. Once I hit the “turning point”, where the brim would roll up, I dropped the mohair. I plan to add some mohair to the pompom as well, but the remainder of the hat will be solid off-white.
As a side note about this pattern, the brim takes three different needle sizes, according to the directions (which are not at all clear about this). Personally, I’ve made many roll brim hats and knit the brim in ONE size. So, I don’t see why I couldn’t do that with this hat. And… cast on about 10 fewer stitches so the cuff is tighter. The stitches will have to be added back on before the cables, but that is doable.
First part of the brim has mohair with Acadia “Egret” yarn.
My First Time Knitting With Acadia Yarn
So, I cast on for the watch cap version of the Skiff pattern, using a size 6 needle, and holding mohair and Acadia DK together. The Fibre Company made this “Acadia” yarn which is “A rustic blend of silk noil (20%), baby alpaca (20%), and merino wool (60%).” It is made in Peru and comes in 145 yard skeins. I’ll tell you, it is very soft.
The one issue I have with this yarn is that every so often I get a lump of thicker yarn in the strand. I know this is due to the creation of a heathered look by combining the various yarns. But some of these “lumps” seem to be loose, almost like they are coming apart.
It may just be this skein, because I’ve begun using the Blueleaf Birch color and don’t seem to have the same issue.
Not crazy about the weird lumps in this yarn
Continuing to The Cables
I am now knitting with the Acadia only for the rest of the hat, which includes some pretty cable patterns. See (and buy) theSkiff Pattern here. The directions for the long brim of the watchcap are complicated – only because you must figure out needle sizes (there are 5 possible needle sizes used depending on which cast-on and hat version chosen), and find ribbing directions on two different pages – READ THROUGH THE ENTIRE SET OF DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY.
The most complicated part of the pattern is this long brim, which changes needle size three times – if I am doing it correctly. As I mentioned above, for another Watch cap I would cast on fewer stitches, and use one needle size – probably a 5 or 6US.
The part I love about this hat is the cables (chart only, but each is explained well). They are fun and a challenge at the same time. Yes, the hat gets tall, but that is to give it the slouch, which is especially needed for the Watch cap version.
Making progress!
Because the cast-on needle size changes part way through the brim knitting (for the watch cap only), I began a second Watch Cap with the Blueleaf Birch yarn. My photo below shows the dark blue-green color pretty well, and it is slightly variegated and super soft.
UPDATE: Since I was not happy with the white hat, I am ripping out the progress I made in Blueleaf Birch.
True color of Blueleaf Birch – A beauty!
Buying The Yarn
The yarn is not hard to find, but Webs / Yarn.com offers a discount and I saved over $20 on my seven skeins (3 white, 4 blue-green) of yarn! For the Skiff Watch Cap you will need 2-3 skeins (I ended up using 2 complete skeins), especially if you will add a pompom. If you knit loosely, you might need more. I don’t know why I bought four skeins of the Blueleaf Birch, but I will use it someplace because it’s gorgeous.
Just a note on the Webs photos: they don’t show yarn colors very well. What I did was search for the Acadia yarn to see better images of the colors on other sites, but Webs had the best price (that I could find).
Amount of white yarn leftover from knitting the Skiff hat, and used up for the pompom.
Other yarn to use for this pattern would be Madeline Tosh DK or worsted, which I used for my son’s Skiff Beanie. The variation in colors looks very nice and the yarn is a bit heavier. The Skiff pattern calls for Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, a worsted weight yarn.
I wouldn’t choose a yarn with a lot of colors as that will take away from the lovely cabling on top, but slight variations can make this hat very beautiful. The Beanie version has no pompom, but the watchcap needs one. I used my largest pompom maker and wrapped it in both the Egret and mohair. I had just enough of the white yarn to make it work.
UPDATE: I love the pompom, but it is pretty heavy for this hat. If I had used sturdier yarn for the cables, it would have worked.
Finished the Skiff Watch Cap
Final Results and Remarks
I wrote this post as I was knitting. Now that the hat has been hand-washed and dried, I think this yarn was too thin and silky for this pattern. The overall look is pretty, but the pompom weighs the hat down the the cabling is too airy to be warm.
The Acadia yarn would be nice for a baby blanket, shawl or cowl. I will definitely use the one skein of Egret and four skeins of Blueleaf Birch somewhere.
Overall, the brim of this hat is still too loose! I will cast on fewer stitches whenever I make it again. The pattern could definitely have been written easier to understand, but I do love the look of the cables. I just need to find the right yarn – still. Perhaps the suggested Brooklyn tweed Shelter is what it needs.
Wearing the Skiff
This hat was meant to be a gift to my daughter, but it is way too large for her head. I live in Florida, so I will never wear it. At this point it will go into storage.
New England's Narrow Road 