Tag: sweater pattern

Surprisingly Sweet Blueberry Vodka Lemonade Sweater Pattern

My experience and notes about knitting the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater pattern by Thea Colman, aka Baby Cocktails.

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.

  • Knitting eyelets with yarn overs
  • Knitting sweater yoke

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.

  • Sandnes Garn Tynn Peer Gynt fingering wool yarn
    Norwegian wool
  • skeins of wool yarn
    New yarn
  • Knitting swatches drying
    Swatches
  • Harrisville Designs shetland wool
    “Peacock” Shetland wool color

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.

Blueberry vodka lemonade raglan sweater knitting pattern
Hem split done, time to try it on

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.

knitting sleeve cuff
Sleeve cuff
knitting sweater sleeve
Sleeve 1 done

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.

Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater
Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater

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.

  • Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater
    Drying
  • Washed & hanging
  • Side texture
  • Back view

Please keep reading the blog…

If at First You Don’t Succeed

Beginning to knit a new sweater pattern called Blueberry Vodka Lemonade, but I messed up and must begin again. It happens.

The motto, “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again” is one I have in mind after casting on for a new sweater, knitting a bunch, and then goofing up badly. I was so looking forward to knitting this new sweater, but I’m not as good a knitter as I had hoped! After knitting all the way through the entire neck ribbing of a new sweater pattern…. I ripped the whole thing out.

It was totally my fault and not the pattern. In fact, this pattern is written better than any I think I have ever knit. Everything is explained in detail, with stitch counts, measurements, etc. to help the knitter. I’ve never knit a pattern by this designer (info below) but wow, I’m impressed…!

sweater neckband
Starting over

I will be starting again, but it is disappointing to get so far and then mess up. I had no hopes of going back and picking up the rib stitches because the yarn is black and difficult for me to see. It’s part of knitting life to make mistakes… it’s how we learn to fix them, or learn to deal with inevitable re-starts.

The Pattern

This new sweater pattern is named Blueberry Vodka Lemonade and is a design by Thea Colman, who is also known as Baby Cocktails in the knitting world. I love the look of this pullover knit in raglan style, with split hem, and 3/4 sleeves. My last project (the Lakeland Tee) also had a split hem, and I really like the look.

The Yarns I Chose

I searched for a while before I settled on two yarn types I wanted to try. I’ve never used either before.

First, a beautiful black, fingering yarn by Sandnes Garn: Tynn Peer Gynt, which comes from Norway. It is really lovely.

The gorgeous turquoise blue yarn is color “Peacock” and is Shetland wool from Harrisville Designs. Another beautiful yarn, which is spun in New Hampshire. I have visited Harrisville Designs, as I lived in NH for many years.

The Shetland seems a bit heavier for a fingering weight. On the other hand the Peer Gynt seems pretty thin.

skeins of wool yarn Shetland by Harrisville Designs, color Peacock and black Sandnes Garn Peer Gynt.
New yarn order

The Swatches

Because the pattern calls for a size 5 needle for the main part of the knitting, I did two different swatches with that size. Both were too large. So, I knit up a shorter swatch with the black yarn using a size 4 needle. It was perfect. Usually I knit a larger swatch but I didn’t want to use up the yarn.

(I had to wind the Shetland, by hand over my knees, and it was very easy to do so.). The black yarn does not need winding. I pulled from the outside.

Knitting swatches drying
Swatches

Messing Up and Making Changes

I want to follow this pattern as it is written, so I used a needle one size larger for the neckband. I knit all the way through the set up row – for the raglan and then my issues began.

When I re-knit this, and I will soon, I plan to switch to the smaller (main) needle on that “knit around one row”. I found it difficult to switch needles while knitting short rows and making the lacy parts at the raglan. I kept getting confused as to which needle I should be using. This is probably just me and my inexperience.. AND the fact that I did something really stupid. When I made the short row turn, I began following the wrong part of the directions (mark your place !!!! – I’m yelling at myself here).

Once I did it incorrectly – with the yarn overs and such, I totally could not go back without making a mess. AND that dark yarn didn’t help … so difficult to see.

Before I gave myself some kind of stroke, I just pulled the needles out and said, “Oh well, I guess I’ll start over”. Keep calm and carry on… and all that. I’ll cast on again later today.

If you plan to knit this sweater, you will need to be good at yarn overs (YO) as that is how the open holes along the sleeves will be made. Purl Soho has a nice, short, to-the-point video to help with that. See it here if you need help: https://youtu.be/n6Bpde5wihE

cat and yarn image

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Casting On and Beginning The “Arco Iris” Sweater Pattern

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 green
Kunlun yarn in “Moss”
Swatch drying
Swatch blocked and drying
gauge swatch and cast on yarn for knitting
Swatch

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.

Find the Arco Iris pattern at Ravelry

knitting raglan sweater

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.

Happy knitting!

Fontana’s face

More From the Blog

Yarn Selections and Casting On For the “Easy V”

Planning to knit the Easy V pullover pattern by Caitlin Hunter.

Having grown up in the 60’s there is some bohemian / hippy blood in my veins. I love a unique boho pattern and the “Easy V” sweater caught my eye.

The designer is Caitlin Hunter of Boyland Knitworks. I’ve knit a huge shawl of hers, which was a lot of fun (see it at the end of this page). Also my very first sweater knitting project was one of hers called “Umpqua”. It was a fail for me because I used the wrong kind of yarn (superwash) and it grew huge! I didn’t know any better at the time.

The Easy V has a colorwork yoke and colorwork on the sleeves. I believe it is meant to be a loose pullover. The pattern link is down the page if you’d like to see examples of the pattern and buy it.

Time to Cast On – Twice

I hope this is not a bad omen, but I had so much trouble beginning the cast-on. First I used the wrong needle size (I’m blaming that on the wine.) Before I realized my needle size mistake, I had decided to add some green mohair with the Plotulopi to give it strength.

I cut the yarn and didn’t bother to frog it. I began again with the correct size needle (size 4). This time I ran out of yarn in the tail of my Old Norwegian cast on! I finished it with a regular cast on.

Holding the two yarns together will be fiddly, but that Lopi yarn by itself breaks very easily.

I don’t know what is up with the cakes of Plotulopi as they are all attached together in the center. I have plenty of the yarn, so loosing a bit to that weirdness is okay. Getting a good color shot of that wool will be tough it seems!

Plotulopi unspun yarn in green “Frost Grass” color.
Casting on for Easy V sweater.
Hand-spun yarn skeins from Spincycle and Primrose Yarn Company.
Spincycle & Primrose Yarn Co.

Two Necklines Begun

After I had worked a bit on the green neckline, it began to look pretty large. I decided to begin again with a size 3 needle using some white Lettlopi yarn. It’s hard to tell a size on this sweater because the neckline is very unqiue. I did not do a gauge swatch mainly because I didn’t want to use up my hand spun yarn on a swatch. BUT… once some knitting had been done I did check my gauge and it’s very close. Of course the item has not been washed and blocked either.

I kept the green collar / neck and will end up making two of these sweaters!

I began the colorwork using the size 6 needle, but ended up going up to a size 7. This yoke gets large around with over 300 stitches on the needle. I’m knitting sweater size 3.

Two necklines cast on and knit. One in Plotulopi and mohair and one in white Lettlopi.
Colorwork yoke knitting with hand-spun yarn
Easy V neck and yoke

Working with this type of colorful hand-spun yarn can be tricky. I love the colors, but they can end up looking very different once knit into a project.

The yarn I chose for this colorwork yoke are: Primrose Yarn Company’s “Undergrowth” shown in the middle of the three skeins below. Also used the blue “Magic Hat” (below in skein and ball) and the speckled “Starling” (ball).

Looking at the skeins, I thought that “Undergrowth” would be more pink, but actually it is more tan / brown. Unfortunately you don’t really know until the item is knit. This yarn is too expensive to waste on a swatch, IMO.

The colors are good together, but not really what I had expected. The white color area used up nearly one skein of my leftover Lettlopi, so the main color for the body and sleeves will be brown Lettlopi.

Spincycle and Primrose hand-spun yarn
Easy V neck and yoke

Easy V in Green

My second Easy V is knit with Plotulopi and mohair held together. The colorwork yoke contains some variegated lime green-blue, dark blue plotulopi and other yarns I am using up.

Easy V sweater in green

Buy this pattern: Easy V Pattern Page at Ravelry

I will be writing another page about the completed knit of this pattern, but at least it seems I have finally decided on size and colors.

It turns out that this yoke had a line on the colorwork chart that used three yarn colors at once. I changed it to two for my yoke, but the designer has updated the pattern so they are all two colors.

More by this Designer – Moon Sisters – Shawl by Caitlin Hunter

The Moon Sisters shawl is a great way to use up yarn. It is done in mostly knits and purls with a fun bit of colorwork in the center.

Moon sisters shawl finished knitting with tassels attached.

Here’s what else I’ve been doing

My Turn to Knit the Sophie Scarf

I splurged and bought two skeins of Cashmere yarn to knit the large size Sophie Scarf. But first, I knit it using some yarn from my stash.…