Toast and Honey – New England's Narrow Road

After I had knit my first Calliope sweater, I wanted to knit another one. The style is basic raglan, but it has some rib at the yoke. The sleeves also have an extra long rib. I ended up changing that on my project. (The pattern was free at one time, but no longer is.)

I have not altered the color on any of these photos, but lighting makes things look different. The yarn is a beautiful, rustic gold color.

The yarn is something new for me, and came from the Sonder Yarn Company. It is a pretty, golden color called “Toast & Honey”. I’m really enjoying knitting with it. Some skeins had more than one knot though. Thumbs down on all the knots, which I cut out and “spit spliced“.

sonder yarn skein — Pretty Toast and Honey yarn color.

pullover hand knit sweater — Pretty Toast and Honey yarn color.

The sweater had some weird looking stitches as I knit, but after washing all things magically smoothed out and it looks wonderful!

An Easy Sweater Knitting Project

This sweater pattern is quite easy to knit and might be perfect as a first sweater project for beginners. It helps to know the basic construction of a raglan. Increases widen the front, back and sleeves as the yoke expands. The pattern says exactly where and when to make the increases. Stitch markers help to keep track of it all. I used removable stitch markers to mark the two sleeve sections, for my own preference.

The sweater designer used two yarns held together: a fingering weight with lace to make a DK. I did that for my first Calliope and used Superwash yarn. The sweater stretched and ended up very big and droopy – that’s why I now avoid this type of yarn for sweaters. This time I am knitting a smaller size overall, and using a single strand of DK wool.

Buy the Calliope Pattern at Ravelry

Knitting the Sleeves

My one concern is the sleeves of this sweater. I’m using a completely different yarn this time, but as I knit the long ribbing, it seems big around.

I considered doing the sleeves differently. I do like the unique long rib, but I’m not sure this yarn is right for it. Yarn can change a great deal once it’s washed and blocked which usually makes a sweater look much better. *Yes, this happened! I think the original ribbing in the pattern would have worked out fine.

Calliope sleeve — Long ribbing on sleeve

knitting magic loop — Long ribbing on sleeve

Sleeve changes: I ripped back to the beginning of all that ribbing on the sleeve. I did a few more decrease rounds to end up with 60 stitches on the needle. Knit to about 16 inches and made a 2 inch rib cuff. I’m not happy with the bind-off and may go back and do an Invisible rib BO. *Update: I am now knitting the second sleeve with a 1×1 twisted rib cuff that is about 4 inches long. Will go back to the first sleeve and re-knit to match! I’m happy with my ending choice on the cuff. See below.

twisted rib cuff — Ribbing on cuff after washing

I used magic loop on the cuff but it was leaving ladders, so I changed to DPNs. The ladders are now gone and the cuff looks perfect – through the magic of washing! (Soaked entire project in Eucalan -Amazon paid link- for 20 minutes and put on boards to dry.)

Calliope sweater hand knit — A perfect fit

Making it a Split Hem

I decided to split the hem and do a twisted rib. I’ve never done this on my own, without following a pattern, but it’s simple enough. Divide front and back stitches in half. Make a nice edge at each side of the rows. I did have to learn how to knit the wrong side of a twisted rib because it’s different than going round and round.

twisted rib knitting — RS – knit through the back loop

wrong side twisted rib knitting — RS – knit through the back loop

Doing a Flat (Back and Forth) Twisted Rib

For the hem ribbing I did this once the stitches were divided between front and back of sweater: Right side: begin row with K1tbl, sl1wyib – then *knit through the back loop and purl one across to last two stitches and end row with sl1wyib, k1tbl. Wrong side: begin row with Sl1wyif, P1 – then *knit one and purl through the back loop, to last two stitches and end with P1, Sl1wyif.

Lost at Yarn Chicken (Knew I Would)

When it came time to bind off the back hem, I had only a small bit of yarn remaining. I did not make it, so had to wind up my last skein. I encountered two knots in that one skein and it was my one complaint with this yarn. Too many knots to cut out. I have nearly one entire skein of yarn leftover.

yarn left for bind off — Yikes, just this much yarn left.

Binding off — Yikes, just this much yarn left.

Washed and Photographed

As is so often true, this yarn became soft and lovely after a wash. My sweater is plenty loose, long and comfy – just like I’d hoped it would be. I would have no trouble wearing this without a shirt underneath. But layering would also work. I am very happy with the finished project. On to the next…

End measurements: Total length from top of back to bottom is 26 inches. Sleeves are 18.5 inches, Body knit for 12 inches and then did a 3 inch twisted rib in the front, and a 4 inch rib in the back. I knit the size 3 Calliope using a size 6 US needle as my main needle. I used 4 skeins of Sunday Morning DK = 1072 yards (plus about a foot!) See notes on my Ravelry page.