Tag: Jennifer Steingass

My Solvi Sweater is Finished and This is My Review

I have finished knitting Jennifer Steingass’s Solvi sweater pattern and here is my review.

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.

Solvi sweater finished

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.

The Solvi sweater knitting pattern shown on me.
Wearing the Solvi colorwork sweater

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.

Solvi cuff bind off

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.

Solvi sweater in peacock blue wool

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.

Meadow Moon sweater Jennifer Steingass pattern
Meadow Moon
Goldenfern sweater pattern
Goldenfern

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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Solvi, Another New Sweater in the Works

While I don’t really need another project on my knitting needles, I began a new sweater pattern anyway.

This pretty Shetland yarn, by Harrisville Designs, has been calling to me. The color is Peacock, and is so pretty. The contrast colorwork design will be done with a variety of wool colors I already have.

Here, I am using Tukuwool, J&S and Rauma. My plan is to have a low contrast between the main color and contrast color.

Solvi, knitting pattern sweater
Cast on Solvi
knitting Solvi sweater
Color changes
Solvi sweater colorwork yoke
Solvi

About the Solvi Pattern

The Solvi sweater pattern is from designer Jennifer Steingass. You can see the pattern page at Ravelry here.

Solvi means “sun strength” in Norwegian (info from Jenn’s Ravelry page). The pullover has a colorwork yoke and long sleeves. After the cast-on, choose either a rolled neckline or 1×1 rib. The designer says it is a good pattern for beginners. I assume she means beginner colorwork knitters. If you can follow the chart, you can knit the yoke. Only two colors are used at any one time. One small section of the chart can be omitted to shorten the yoke.

As a beginner knitter, this pattern would have been tough for me. The reason being that I was not a good chart reader at the beginning of my knitting journey. I also had no idea what short rows did for a sweater.

Now, I would only knit sweaters that do include short rows. In the Solvi pattern, short rows are incorporated after the colorwork section. This happens way down by the armpit area, which is odd. Short rows are usually made near the upper back area to lift the back of the neck.

Why I Chose This Pattern

I was hoping to find a pattern that inspired me, and the Fallow sweater was at the top of my list … for a while. Then I discovered Solvi in my knitting folder (an actual folder, not online) which I had purchased a while ago.

The Peacock blue yarn amounts to a little less than 1300 yards, which is not enough for my size. But we’ll see. I’m now knitting the body ribbing and have two full skeins of yarn left. I’m thinking that one for each sleeve should be plenty.

Solvi pullover sweater pattern
Knitting body ribbing

Fall is a hard time of year for me. While everyone is winding down from summer, and viewing the foliage, and breathing fresh autumn air, I am still sweltering in the Florida heat. Sweater season has arrived, and new patterns are showing up all over the place. Everyone (it seems) is digging out their hand knits and wearing them.

For me, it’s the time of year to keep an eye on the tropical storms and hurricanes (Milton hit my area as a Category 1 in October).

I’ve lost interest in knitting over the past few months, and I’m not sure why. Even so, I have not stopped knitting. My projects are many, because when one begins to bore me, I take up another. You may say, “me too” or “that is normal, we all do that!” but the passion is not there. It is just a life slump. They come, and go, so I’ll wait and it will pass.

I am a bit excited to try some new yarn, which will arrive any day now. I may use it to knit Fallow. We’ll see.

More knitting stories

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Knitting the Goldenfern Sweater Pattern

Knitting the Goldenfern pullover, a Jenn Steingass pattern, in Rauma yarn with pink yarn colorwork at the bottom and on sleeves.

The Goldenfern pullover is a Jenn Steingass knitting pattern design. It is knit using fingering weight yarn and has colorwork at the bottom of the body and end of sleeves.

The yarns I chose were Rauma Garn, in light gray, combined with a gradient pink handspun. The darker, coral pink color is Jamieson & Smith, which I used for the very bottom of sleeves and all bottom ribbing. I chose to add one row of pink at the neck.

Casting On and Needle Sizes

My gauge was off, but in the end the sweater turned out fine. For me: The cast-on at the neck (this is a top-down sweater) was done on a size 3, 16 inch circular. The main body and sleeve knitting was done on a size 4 needle. All colorwork was done using a size 5, although a size 6 is recommended for the body colorwork, and I’m thinking maybe I should have done that. Size 3 needles were used again for the ribbing at the bottom of the body and sleeves.

Goldenfern
Goldenfern yarn used
Goldenfern

Knitting The Sleeves

I picked up the stitches to begin knitting sleeves downward, using a 16 inch circular needle. As the circumference became smaller with decreases, I switched to a 9-inch size needle.

Then I used a size 5 circular and did the pink colorwork down to Row 37. Using the J&S coral pink when the chart said to use a new CC color.

This is when I changed to size 3 DPN needles and did a plain color 1×1 rib for about 7 rows. The bind-off is a normal bind off and not the i-cord suggested in the pattern.

Total sleeve length is 18.5 inches. Pattern suggestion is 18, so I’m close.

Goldenfern sweater knitting
Goldenfern colorwork sleeve
Pretty colorwork on the sleeve
9-inch circular needle knitting
Using a 9-inch circular for the cuff

The Fall of 2022 was not a good one, with two disastrous hurricanes hitting the area. The knitting on the Goldenfern pullover began in September, and alternated with some other knitting I wanted to do. It has been a relaxing escape for me with other stresses, like the hurricane mess, that piled up. The pattern is easy to follow with lots of helpful notes by the designer.

Buy the Goldenfern Pattern

The link above goes to Ravelry, where you will find so many beautiful finished knits that use some truly gorgeous yarn color combinations. Go there to get inspired and knit your own Goldenfern. The designer has an offer to buy 2, get one free. Her patterns are so well written, and she has many beautiful patterns.

Goldenfern pullover sweater hand knit with Rauma in light gray, and pink hand-spun variegated yarn.
Goldenfern
Hand knit sweater “Goldenfern” hanging outside near the tomato plants in February.
February photo

Finished Knitting

January 7th and the sweater is finished! I took some photos before all ends were woven in. Now, for the wash and blocking. But before all that I would say the pullover is a great success.

I’m very bad at keeping track of the amount of yarn I used, so I can’t list it here. I had one ball of the hand-spun and it was plenty for all the colorwork with some left over. I have a small bit of the Rauma left as well, so my calculations worked. I probably used around 1,100 yards of Rauma.

This pattern shows the sweater as being more cropped, which does not work for me. I added a few more inches. Thevlength is perfect at 14 inches from underarm to bottom.

See my other Jenn Steingass sweater “Meadow Moon” here.

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Alternatives to the Hidden Gems Shawl Pattern

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 me know if you choose one.

New Knitting Project: Color-work Pullover Pattern

My next big knitting project for 2021 will be a colorwork, or Fair Isle, pullover sweater. I’ve been searching the internet and Ravelry for some ideas and now it’s time to narrow down the selections. It’s taken me months to write this post, and it’s already September, so I’ve already begun two sweaters (see below), and plan to make a third.

Hooked on Colorwork, Fair Isle Knitting

After knitting for a few years, I have decided that I really like colorwork knitting. Now that I have a couple of hats (Katie’s Kep), mittens, and fingerless mitts (Stellar Parallax) under my belt, I feel that a sweater is what I need to knit next. Once a year I need to make myself a sweater. This will really be sweater number two, after the Cobblestone, but the Cobblestone was not colorwork.

A Word About Steeking

A colorwork, or Fair Isle, sweater must be a pullover because a cardigan requires steeking. Once the sweater is knit, it is cut up the front to create the cardigan. Yikes, I am not ready for that yet.

Three Patterns For the Price of Two – Jennifer Steingass

Jennifer Steingass is a knitwear designer who offers lots of colorwork pullover patterns to knit. Also, she is currently (at the time I wrote this) selling her patterns at three for the price of two, or buy 2 get 1 free.

Because I have some Istex Lettlopi yarn on the way to my house from Iceland (that is so cool – LOL), I chose the following patterns to purchase. I’ve decided to knit with aran, or worsted, weight yarn for my next sweater. The links below go to Ravelry.

But beware… or be aware… not all of her color-work patterns are Fair Isle (using only 2 colors at one time), as some of them require three colors to be carried along one row of knitting. Of course, I can stay with two colors if I want and ignore adding a third. I find that trying to work with more than two colors can be annoying. I ran into that while knitting a few of the rows for the “Marshland” sweater.

Knitting Sweaters: On the Needles

Right now I am knitting two sweaters while I wait for my Lettlopi yarn to arrive. Below is my green Calliope and colorwork Meadow Moon.

  • Calliope sleeve knitting
    Calliope – Free pattern
  • knitting colorwork yoke of Meadow Moon pullover
    Meadow Moon

Marie Wallin’s Fair Isle Patterns

One of the first sweater patterns I saw at Ravelry was Marie Wallin’s Lovage. It is part of her Windswept Collection but the pattern can be purchased separately at Ravelry for approximately $8.87 US (at current writing). I’ve looked through the comments from knitters of this sweater and some people have had trouble. There is a lot of stranded knitting at the entire top and part of the sleeves. Then there is some braided work down the rest of the sleeve. It’s very pretty, but might be too difficult for me.

She also has a Meadow Collection and I love the Nigella Fair Isle pullover pattern, but wow, what a big project. It’s worth checking out her Free Patterns section too.

Sweaters Knit by Me

At the beginning of the year (2021)I knit the Cobblestone Cardigan and took it up to New Hampshire with me. I wore that sweater nearly every day! It’s big and soft and cozy. I won’t get the chance to wear it, or any sweater, until I can travel north.

Each time I knit a sweater, I learn a bit more. From the type of yarn, style, pattern writing, fit and mistakes to how much I like, or dislike, the end product. I’ve only knit five sweaters, one is a child’s size, two are pullovers and three are cardigans. I like cardigans best for wearing, although living in Florida means I seldom get to wear any type of sweater.

Each time I knit a sweater, or other item, I find more yarn I love. I keep it in mind for any upcoming projects. Each image below has a link at the bottom.

I’ve learned that I like knitting with wool and don’t like washable yarn. I’ve discovered what “pooling” is – see the Umpqua sweater, which I really dislike for many reasons, but it was my very first sweater! I knew literally nothing about sweater knitting. I will probably frog it at some point to re-use the yarn.

Sock yarn should be used for socks, IMO because when I want a sweater, I want it to be warm and cozy. Wool and natural fibers, tend to be cheaper also. I like that I know where the sheep / animals lived who provided it!

I Want to Travel to Cooler Locations!

I’d love to leave the state of Florida more often. I dislike living here, and there is so much of the US I have not seen.

After being unable to travel due to the Covid restrictions, which seem to drag on and on, I have decided I will not count on airplane travel any longer. Wearing a mask through the airport, on the plane and through a second airport, was very uncomfortable. I understand the concern, but the restrictions kept me from seeing two of my kids for over two years. This is unacceptable.

We will be buying an RV of some kind to make travel easier. I have cats and they will need to come along. But the most exciting thing is that we will be able to visit cooler locations. Then, I can wear my sweaters, hats, cowls, and mitts! I long for this.