fo: Rolling Rock Henley

This photo is a bit dark, but it's the closest to the true colour of this sweater, which is a dark grey/charcoal shade. The rest of the photos wound up too bright, but shows the details a bit better.  Ugh photography - you are not my thing.

Anyways, here's some photos (at last) of my Rolling Rock that I knit during the Briggs and Little Spring KAL earlier this year.  I love this sweater and I wear it regularly, but there's some major issues with it.  More on that in a second.

Pattern: Rolling Rock, by Thea Colman
Yarn: Briggs & Little Sport in Dark Grey
Mods: Not much on the upper body, all the waist shaping on the lower body.  Shortened sleeves to 3/4 length.

Things I love about this sweater:

Henley neckline.  Very cleverly done and well instructed.  It makes for such a lovely neckline and one of my favourites that I've ever knit.  The buttons were some old ones I've had in my button stash for yonks, which I found for about 30 cents at a thrift shop in Manitoba.

Oh wow, nice butt photo there Heather.  If I weren't too damn lazy and wanting to go to bed, I'd go back and crop it.  OH WELL BUTTS FOR YOU.

Lace pattern on the back piece only.  It's a lovely lace, is easy to remember, and I adore that it's just in the back.  Granted, it didn't show up well in this rustic wool, but the texture is there and I love that the lace pops when I wear a bright tank top underneath!

Body shaping.  I added a ton of shaping to the body below the bust to make this sweater fit me better.  I think it turned out really well, and skims my body nicely.  Not too tight, not too loose, but just right = Goldilocks shaping!

THIS YARN.  Dear me do I ever love Briggs & Little yarn.  It's rustic for sure, rough and a bit scratchy.  But it's warm as all get out, and so long as I'm wearing a tank top to protect my lower back and tummy, I can easily wear this against the skin.  It does soften up with washing, and I'm itching to knit another sweater from it.

Things I don't like about this sweater:

The too-big upper body.  So, I wasn't thinking when I cast this sweater on.  I did choose a size that corresponded with my upper bust as I always do, but unfortunately this pattern has both that size and the one above it start with the same cast on amount, and you just add more stitches later on for the larger size (which happened to be my full bust size).  By the time I started to realize that the sweater was coming out too big, I was nearly at the sleeve divide.

MOAR BUTTS.  But (hehe) you can also see how bad the upper torso fit is at the underarm.  It's too wide across the upper back.  You know, I could probably knit this whole sweater again and simply eliminate a few lace repeats form the back.  Hmmm.

Now, I don't mind ripping out a sweater if something is going wrong with it.  Better to get it over with and redo it than to wind up with a sweater you won't wear.  But I was in that KAL and I was determined to finish on time.  I wouldn't be able to do that if I ripped it.  I convinced myself that it would be alright.  Dividing for the sleeves and knitting an inch proved me wrong.  So instead of starting over, I started to do some aggressive waist shaping to get a good fit below the bust.  Not sure what my reasoning was - probably the thought that I'd get the sleeves and lower body fitted well and maybe no one would notice the poor fit above the bust.

And you know what?  It worked!  Sort of.  I point this problem out to EVERYONE, and they all say that the sweater looks great and they don't see anything wrong.  I do, of course I do.  Between the large size and the slight bias this single ply yarn creates, the neckline is actually skewed a bit, and the henley doesn't hold itself open unless I keep the sweater tugged down.

But you know what?  I DON'T CARE.  Love love love this sweater and I'm going to keep wearing it with pride.  I'd like to reknit this pattern in another colour, and I'll try to get a better fit that time.  But there's so many more sweaters I want to knit in the mean time that there's no sense in resenting the problems in this one.  It's comfy to wear and looks great on me - what else could a knitter want?

sskal Projects

Oh jeez guys, it's been a while.  Sorry, it's been a busy summer!  As usual, I've been crafting a lot, I just haven't found time to take photos and, more importantly, write up some posts.

I've joined the Very Shannon Summer Sweater KAL again this year in an effort to finish up a few sweaters.  My buddy Margaret has outright forbidden me from starting any new sweaters until I finished up some of the...more than I'd like to count...sweaters I already have on needles.  And since I'm biting at the bit to start my Skogafjall, I'm focusing on some of my old wips.

I'll be knitting it out of some gorgeously rustic wool from Custom Woolen Mills in Alberta (Canadian raised sheep wool, Canadian milled, Canadian bought.  Oh yeah, go Canada!), in two undyed natural shades (grey and dark brown) and some naturally dyed wool from a woman in Atlin, BC (green).  SO EXCITED.

But first, I have to finish the second sleeve and then button band of my Amiga, shown at the top of the post.  It's probably going to be the most wearable sweater I'll ever make, but dear pete is it ever a boring knit.  Stockinette stockinette stockinette in solid black.  UGH just magically be done already.

I've had a couple of other successes in this KAL though.  I'd accidentally cast on a baby sweater right before the KAL started, and finished it within the first week of it.  It's a store sample in Diamond Luxury Fine Merino Superwash Aran and A Simple Baby Sweater.  Quick knit, though I found the instructions for joining in the round after the henley lacking.  I added some notes on my Rav project page to explain it if you're interested.  I love this little green sweater so much, and I'm tempted to swipe it and send it to my buddy who's about to have a baby!

I also tackled a really old wip.  I pulled out my old Reverb sweater to reassess the sweater.  It's so pretty, with this gorgeous yarn and lovely cables, and I was well past the arm divide when I put it down.  But I put it down literally years ago, back in 2013, and my tension has loosened up considerably since then.  There's no way I can finish this without it looking wonky, and the fabric was knit much tighter than I prefer now-a-days.

So I frogged it.  Sad in a way, but I didn't realize how much it was weighing on my mind until it was just a huge ball of yarn again, so I'm glad I did it.  SUCCESS!

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One of the reasons I've been so busy this summer is that I'm spending a lot of time with both friends and myself.  I feel better every day, though I'm still struggling with some parts of our breakup last winter.  I can't even believe it's been nearly 7 months, but I'm relearning myself and I like the person I'm finding.  I feel like I'm finally lifting my head up after being weighed down for the last few years, so obviously this is a good change in my life.  It's taken a while to admit that, but admitting it sure helped.

So did buying myself a new toy.  Friends, meet the Little Guy.  We've gone on a few adventures already, and I can't wait to hitch him up to my little car and go camping again this weekend!

Take care of yourselves, folks.  Hopefully it won't take so long for another update!  <3