It’s week 7 of making my Porcelain Sweater (pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe), using the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns as the contrast colour(s). 

Last week, I made the neckband of the jumper (you can find that post here). In today’s post, we’re talking all things sleeves!

Progress

In the seventh week of knitting this project, I…

• Made the whole left sleeve (!)
• Made about half of the right sleeve

I’m super happy with my progress this week! I was a little worried about making the sleeves, because there are two bands of colourwork on each one, as well as the section of 1×1 rib for the cuffs, so I thought they might take a little while to work up. Fortunately, I was wrong! The smaller circumference really makes them fly by (even with the colourwork/rib), which I’m very pleased about!

Mid-Knit Thoughts & Musings

Just like with the neckband, picking up the stitches for the sleeves around the armholes was… a little bit of an ordeal. You’re supposed to pick up approximately 3 sts for every 4 rows, but my row gauge is a bit off (something I’ve had to keep in mind throughout the whole project), so mine was a bit different. For the majority of the armhole, I picked up the stitches in the following pattern:

Pick up 1, skip 1, pick up 2, skip 1.

I did pick up all 3 of the stitches at the underarm, because I wanted to make sure the seam was nice and strong there, which can often be a weak point.

I also picked up 3 extra stitches, which I spaced out evenly (one at the shoulder and one at the halfway point between the underarm and the shoulder on each side), just to get to the right stitch count.

It’s a bit complicated, but it’s what worked for me! The aim was just to keep the picked up stitches as evenly distributed as possible.

On the bright side, unlike the neckband, there were no diagonal sections, so it was much easier to work out where to pick up the stitches from this time around.

Once the stitches were picked up, it was time for some plain stockinette— I worked 14 rows.

Then, it was colourwork time!

I have to say, when I saw the charts for the sleeves… my heart sank. They looked so intimidating!

Luckily, I got used to them pretty quickly— the motifs themselves are exactly the same as the body charts, they’re just laid out in their entirety (rather than as a repeating motif) to make it easier to work the different sizes. Once you figure out the pattern repeat on each round, it gets a lot easier (you just have to pay a bit more attention at the beginning and end of each round!).

The sleeves are shaped using centred double decreases. I enjoy working these decreases and they look very neat, but they are a little bulkier than a regular decrease (because they use 3 stitches instead of 2).

For my size (L), you’re supposed to work the decrease on the third round of Chart B, but, because you decrease right at the end of the row/start of the next row, I couldn’t quite figure out how that fit in with the colourwork in the chart. In the end, I worked that particular decrease at the end of round 2/start of round 3 instead, which I think fit better? Who knows!

All of the other decreases within the charts (there are two decrease rows in each one) fall in the blank sections of the colourwork, so I just worked the other three decrease rows as instructed.

One thing that I was super happy about was that, on the sleeves, you don’t have to alter the stitch count for the leaf motif— it just fits in! I was so pleased, because I found changing up the stitch count on the body a bit fiddly (it took me far longer than it should have to work out the logistics of) and I was kind of dreading having to do it again.

For the stockinette section in between the bands of colourwork, I worked 24 rounds, which is the same number of rounds that I worked between the bands on the body (this is more than the pattern calls for, because of my tighter row gauge).

After working Chart C, I worked 16 rounds of stockinette before beginning the cuff. I actually forgot to change to the smaller needles on the final round of stockinette, so I had to tink back…

There is an obvious jog in the colourwork at the BOR, but I do think that is exacerbated by the colour changes and loose ends. I’m hoping that when I weave in all of the ends it will even out the jog a little!

I worked the ribbed cuffs using the same technique I used for the hem and the neckband, knitting the knit stitches English-style (i.e. my usual technique) and purling the purl stitches continentally, to keep everything nice and neat.

I worked the same number of rounds as I had worked for the hem (30) to keep everything uniform, then bound off with HiyaHiya Grandma’s Super Stretchy Bind Off again.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, the sleeves are knitting up so much more quickly than I expected: I thought I’d probably have to write one weekly update on the first sleeve and another on the second, but I’m already halfway through the second sleeve! Ah, the joys of a smaller circumference (and not needing to manipulate stitch counts to accommodate colourwork charts)!

I still find picking up stitches a bit stressful— it’s definitely a task I find myself putting off. It took me a good few times to get right on the first sleeve, but at least then I knew exactly what to do for the second sleeve and could get right to it!

And that’s where I’m at! I’m hoping to finish the final sleeve pretty quickly so that I can sew in all the ends (…rip…) and block the jumper as soon as possible!

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

You can check out Castle View Yarns here.

Gemma

xxx

It’s week 6 of making my Porcelain Sweater (pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe), using the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns as the contrast colour(s). I finished the body last week (check out the post here), so today’s post is all about the neckband!

Progress

In the sixth week of knitting this project I…

• Made the neckband!

This was a small job, but a slightly complex one. The neckband is worked directly onto the jumper, folded and knitted down to create a really neat finish— it’s not super tricky, but it does require a bit of focus!

The pattern suggests working the sleeves after the body, but I opted to work the neckband first. I’m hoping this will make it easier to visualise the fit/length while I’m working on the sleeves.

Mid-Knit Thoughts & Musings

The neckband has definitely been the fiddliest part of this project so far, but I do think it’s worth it— it looks so neat and professional!

I definitely recommend watching the recommended video on www.leknit.com (you can find it here), because I found it incredibly helpful to see what was happening, rather than just trying to work it out from the pattern. The audio is in Danish, but you can turn on auto-translated subtitles that will give you the gist of it, plus you can still get a good idea of the technique just from watching the process.

I actually recommend watching both of the suggested videos in the pattern as you reach them: there is another video for picking up the stitches along the left shoulder that I also found very helpful (you can find that one here).

Honestly, the most difficult part of this neckline was picking up the stitches. It was fine when I was picking up stitches on the straight edges but, as soon as the diagonal edges crept in… chaos ensued.

Ultimately, it just took a lot of trial-and-error to decide how/where to pick the stitches up— I prioritised neatness (how seamless does the join look?) and strength (how loose/hole-y does the fabric look?), and tried to stay as consistent as possible with my approach throughout the whole neckline.

I did find it helpful to use lockable stitch markers to mark out where each section was: the pattern gives you the approximate stitch counts for the back, front and sides of the neck (so helpful!), which means you can break the process down into stages.

For the sides, I found it helpful to divide them up even further. I placed one lockable stitch marker halfway through each section, then another two to divide each side in half again, giving me four equal sections. I aimed to pick up an even (or as even as possible— the maths didn’t quite work out perfectly) number of stitches in each quarter, which helped keep to keep me on track

Honestly, the picking up stage took me a good while (I think two evenings!), because I had to keep going back, restarting and reattempting it. I was almost relieved to get back to the 1×1 rib when I finally finished!

Almost. I was almost relieved, because, yep, I still find 1×1 rib slow and vaguely soul-destroying. Sigh.

Just like with the ribbed hem at the bottom of the body, while I was knitting the rib, I worked the knit stitches in my usual method (English-style) and the purls continentally, which I find keeps my rib looking neater.

The ribbed section did take me a little while, but it was definitely nice to be working on a smaller circumference than the hem! I used a short circular needle for this to keep everything as neat and speedy(ish) as possible.

Once the ribbing was done, it was time to… pick up more stitches. I found this process a little easier (though still trickier on the sides!) this time around, because I already had a clear guideline: the seam I created during the first picking-up session.

The process of knitting the folded neckband down was a little fiddly, but it was actually quite a straightforward technique— that is, I understood what I was doing easily (after watching the video) but actually doing it made me feel a little like I was all fingers and thumbs! Nevertheless, it gave a really neat finish and I think the neckband looks super professional— I’m really happy with it!

I did switch back to purling with my usual method (English-style) when binding off the neckband, because I wanted to make sure it was as stretchy as possible (purling continentally tightens up the stitches, which makes for a neat finish but isn’t quite so conducive to a stretchy neckline!).

Final Thoughts

And that’s the neckband of my Porcelain Sweater officially finished! It was a little tricky, but I’m so happy with how it turned out— I think it looks really good and I love the way that the internal seam ends up entirely enclosed within it (what a genius design!).

I definitely feel like I’m getting closer to the finished product now! Just the sleeves to go!

Plus, you know, weaving in all those ends… but let’s not think about that just yet…

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

You can check out Castle View Yarns here.

Gemma

xxx

I didn’t share a WIP Wednesday post last week because I was busy with Wedding Cake Week: Season 2, so this post will be covering weeks 4 & 5 of making my Porcelain Sweater (pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe), using the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns as the contrast colour(s). 

Progress

I definitely feel like my progress has slowed down a bit— the more excited I get to finish this project, the slower I seem to knit!

In the fourth and fifth weeks of knitting, I have…

• Finished the 1×1 rib section on the body
• Cast off!

In my defence, I spent most of the first week making another wedding cake, so I only managed to knit about 6 rows that week— most of this progress took place in the second week (Week 5).

Also: now the ribbing is done, you can finally see the third colourwork band in all its glory! Wahoo!

Mid-Knit Thoughts & Musings

My goodness… I forgot how interminable 1×1 rib feels!

There’s a pretty hefty chunk of rib at the base of the body and, honestly, I didn’t love working it. The stitches were flying off my needles while I was doing the stockinette/colourwork sections, but I really had to dig deep to get the ribbed section finished.

In fairness to 1×1 rib, white it is usually slower than regular stockinette, there were a couple of extra things slowing me down this time around…

Firstly, for most of the ribbing, I was using a circular needle with ever-so-slightly too long a cable, so I was kind of yanking the work around the needles a lot. I knew this was happening, but I couldn’t believe it was enough to slow me down quite that significantly, so I stuck with it for about 3/4 of the ribbing… big mistake! Eventually, I made the swap to the shorter needles and… it was a lot quicker. I could have saved myself a lot of time if I’d done that earlier.

Secondly, I wanted my ribbing to be really neat, so I opted to use a technique I’ve been trying out recently where you knit the knit stitches normally (for me, that means English-style, or ‘throwing’) and purl the purls continentally (also known as ‘picking’). This can help tighten up the ribbing, which makes it look neater.

I actually really like this as a technique and have been doing it for most of my ribbing recently, but it does make the process take longer because you have to keep changing the direction of the yarn (and you have to remember to purl into the back of the purl stitches, because the continental method reverses their position on the needles!).

All-in-all, 1×1 rib is super slow, but I managed to make it even slower for myself. I’m just a glutton for punishment, I suppose.

After the ribbing, the pattern suggests using a tubular bind-off. I have done this technique before, with my Braidy Loop Sweater, but I didn’t love it: it felt like a lot of work, involved grafting with a very long piece of yarn and I think it has quite a tight, firm feel to it that isn’t my favourite.

Instead, I used HiyaHiya Grandma’s Stretchy Bind Off, where you purl the knit stitches and knit the purl stitches, always moving the working yarn behind the stitches as you work them, then pass the initial stitch over the second stitch. You can see the technique in action in this YouTube video by Carrie Ramirez (in the video, this technique is used for 2×2 rib, but it works for any ribbed pattern).

This bind off still has its own faffs (mainly the constant slipping of stitches back and forth to get the working yarn in the right position), but it doesn’t require any setup rows, it’s not a sewn cast off (so no trying to manage ridiculously long lengths of yarn!) and it has a soft, even feel and neat appearance, so I still think it’s preferable to a tubular bind-off!

Final Thoughts

Essentially, the ribbed section at the bottom of this sweater took me 2 whole weeks to finish (though, as I mentioned, there was a wedding cake-shaped distraction in that first week!). I didn’t really enjoy this stage of the process, because it just felt so endless and a little bit foreign to my fingers after all of that dreamy stockinette.

Nevertheless, it is done! Now I can move on to making this sweater body into an actual sweater: just the neck and sleeves to go!

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

You can check out Castle View Yarns here.

My current project is still my Porcelain Sweater (pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe), made using the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns as the contrast colour(s). 

Three weeks into the knitting process and progress has been made: I’ve officially finished all of the colourwork on the body and knitted with all 24 of the Advent yarns. It’s very exciting seeing the majority of the body made and I’m absolutely loving how this project is looking so far!

Progress

In the first two weeks of working on this project, I worked all the way up to the end of the second band of colourwork, which I think is pretty speedy)!

The third week involved very straightforward knitting: no shaping, just a big chunk of plain stockinette and another band of colourwork, using the remaining 9 shades of the Advent yarns.

In the third week of knitting then, I finished…

• The 2nd band of plain stockinette
• The 3rd and final colourwork band!

My progress has slowed a little bit, because I’ve had a super busy month or so (more on that in due course… stay tuned!), but I’m so pleased to have finished the colourwork bands on the body— it’s lovely to see all of the colours together and have something that actually (kind of) resembles a sweater on my needles!

Mid-Knit Thoughts & Musings

The rows of plain stockinette are deliciously repetitive and comforting in their boringness: just what I need after the intense colourwork of each patterned band!

My row gauge is a little off, so I ended up working 24 rows for each of the plain stockinette sections (6 more than the pattern calls for). Will I run out of the DROPS yarn? That remains to be seen…

The third colourwork band was much more straightforward than the second: no float-carrying, no increasing/decreasing for certain sections, just pure, simple colourwork. Much more enjoyable (and much neater on the wrong side!).

I worked 6 rows of plain stockinette after the third band, switching to 3mm needles for the 6th and final row to prepare for the big stretch of 1×1 rib that is to come…

I’ve now used each of the 24 yarns in the Bridgerton Advent collection, so I can really see the gradient— it’s looking just how I pictured it would, which makes me so happy.

I do have more colourwork to do, because the second and third bands are repeated on the sleeves, so I’m not done with my contrast yarns yet. First, though, a lot of rib…

Castle View Yarns 2025 Bridgerton Advent: Shades 8-1

In the first band, I used shades 24-17 of the 2025 Bridgerton Advent gradient from Castle View Yarns, while in the second band I used shades 17-9. In the previous two posts on this project, I went through those yarns shade-by-shade, showing off the colours and contemplating their individual inspirations from the show (you can find my musings on shades 24-17 here, and on 16-9 here).

Now, it’s time to talk about shades 8-1! The first row of this colourwork band was knitted with shade 9, just to help the gradient flow through the sweater, but, seeing as I already talked about shade 9 last week, I’ll skip that one here.

Just like before, here are the shades, their names and my ✨educated guesses✨ of their inspirations from the show!

8: ‘One Always Has Worth’

This teal shade is named after a quote by Penelope, from her big speech in the Season 3 finale. In the scene, she wears a dress in a very similar shade, so I’m pretty sure that that’s the inspiration behind this yarn!

7: ‘Wallflower’

This green shade is one of the strongest and most vibrant colours in the whole collection: so much so that, when I first used it in my colourwork swatch, I actually considered leaving it out of the sweater, because I was worried that it might overpower the other shades!

However, once I’d finished the swatch completely, I realised that, despite being a strong shade, it did fit nicely in with the other shades so I decided to stick to my original plan and leave it in. I did, however, adjust my distribution of the 3-row shades within the colourwork, so that this shade was only used for 2 rows in the pattern, just to make sure it wasn’t too overpowering. The name of this shade must be a reference to the iconic dark green dress that Bridgerton’s resident ‘wallflower’ Penelope Featherington wears to Lady Danbury’s Four Seasons Ball in the first episode of Season 3!

6: ‘But You’re My Mess’

This aqua shade is named after a quote said by Colin Bridgerton to Penelope Featherington in Season 3 (we’re pretty heavy on the Season 3 inspirations in this section!). Both Colin and Penelope are… unclothed… when the quote is spoken, and the set is mostly dark blues and golds, so I think this shade is supposed to represent their relationship as a whole, rather than that particular scene. The greeny-blue hue is frequently associated with this couple throughout the series, as it’s supposed to reflect the merging of the Bridgerton family (who are typically represented by the colour blue) and the Featherington family (who are typically represented by the colour yellow), so this shade feels very fitting.

5: ‘Aubrey Hall’

Aubrey Hall is the Bridgerton family’s country residence. It features most prominently in Season 2, when Anthony, the eldest Bridgerton son, invites the Sharma family to stay there with his family, ahead of a large ball they are hosting. I think this green shade pays homage to the huge, perfectly manicured lawn of the residence, where the Bridgerton family engage in their cutthroat games of Pall Mall.

4: ‘We Shall Promenade’

The name of this pale green shade does sound like it references a particular quote from the series, but I just can’t seem to place it! There are a lot of promenading scenes throughout the series though, so I do think it needed a reference! The yarn is such a pretty shade too: pale green with little flickers of turquoise and specks of golden yellow.

3: ‘My Purpose Shall Set Me Free’

Another Penelope quote! This one is from Season 2, when Penelope and Colin are talking about Colin’s existential crisis… I think this yellow-green shade perfectly encapsulates the green grass in the grounds around the palace, the yellow of Penelope’s dress and the golden sunlight that shines down on the two characters in the scene.

2: ‘Flawless, My Dear’

This shade is named after a quote said by Queen Charlotte in the first episode of the first season, during Daphne’s debut (how far we’ve come!). This pale gold, champagne-y shade pays tribute to Daphne’s white-and-gold debutante attire, as well as the pearls (and other assorted finery) worn by the Queen.

1: ‘Lustre & Glitter & Gold’

This golden shade is named after a quote by Portia Featherington, said while informing her housekeeper, Varley, on her desired theme for the extravagant ball she plans to throw to celebrate the family’s new (sketchily-acquired) wealth. This yarn is, undoubtedly, aptly named!

Final Thoughts

And that is how Week 3 of working on my Porcelain Sweater x Bridgerton Advent project went! Even though I had a little less time to knit this week, I’m still loving working on this project and it was particularly exciting to see all of the finished colourwork bands together, with the whole gradient of colours running through them!

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

You can check out Castle View Yarns here.

Gemma

xxx

I’m still working on my Porcelain Sweater (pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe), with the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns as the contrast colour(s).

I’m not a super speedy knitter (your girl has cakes to bake), but I felt like I got quite a lot of knitting done in the first week of making this project! The second week involved less shaping than the first, but just as much colourwork (in the round, this time, thank goodness) and I think I got a pretty good chunk of knitting done!

Progress

After the first week of knitting, I had worked the top of the back section (including the first band of colourwork), as well as both shoulders. I’d also knitted the first handful of rows after joining the right and left shoulders across the front.

In the second week of knitting, I finished…

• The top part of the front section (including the other half of the first colourwork band)
• Lots of plain stockinette rows in the DROPS yarn
• Joining the front and back together to start working the body in the round
• The second band of colourwork

So, a lot of colourwork this week, paired with a big stretch of stockinette!

Mid-Knit Thoughts & Musings

I am so relieved to be working in the round now— I’m a super slow purl-er and… knitting colourwork flat? It’s not for the weak. I’ve continued my gradient of the 2025 Bridgerton Advent colours into the second band of the sweater, so I’ve gone through the purples and dipped into the blues towards the end.

The second band of colourwork is definitely more complex than the first: not only is the repeat larger (and a little less intuitive to follow), you also need to increase and decrease the stitch count around the middle leaf design to make it work.

On some of the rows of the leaf design, I did need to carry the floats by twisting the yarns at the back of the fabric, which was a bummer, because I thought I had moved past all that float-carrying business once I switched to working in the round, but alas, the distance between the contrast stitches on some rows was just too great.

I think the aforementioned float-carrying and relative complexity of this band definitely meant that my work isn’t quite as neat as the first band, but I’m hoping that it will kind of… smooth itself out once I block it? Fingers crossed!

I did make one slight adaptation when it came to increasing the stitch count for the leaf motif. For my size, I needed to increase my stitch count by 6 stitches, so I placed 6 stitch markers around my work, evenly spaced, so I would know where to work them. I was supposed to increase on Row 8, but I ended up working my increase row on Row 9, instead.

I wanted my increases to be as invisible as possible, so I tried a few different types of increase (k2tog, M1L, LLI etc.) and I found that the k2tog made a visible ‘purl’ bump, so I opted to use a lifted increase. However that meant that if the stitch being lifted was a different colour (i.e. if I was lifting a stitch from the contrast colour row), the increase not only stood out more, but it also threw off the seamlessness of the colourwork. Shifting the increases to the Row 9 meant I could work M1Ls pretty seamlessly, knitting cream stitches on top of cream stitches, without distorting any of the colourwork (LLI lifts the stitch from two rows below, so I couldn’t use that one!). I suppose I could have done M1R, but I do not particularly enjoy working M1Rs so… M1L it is!

I worked my increases and decreases as close to my original 6 stitch markers as possible, but I prioritised making sure that they were well within the chunks of cream stitches (i.e. not too close to any of the contrast colour stitches), to minimise any distortion of the colourwork. I know this all sounds a bit… over the top, but I think it makes a big difference and I’m really pleased I took the extra time to think about it— it made me feel very professional!

Castle View Yarns 2025 Bridgerton Advent: Shades 16-9

I’m working through the 2025 Bridgerton Advent gradient from Castle View Yarns (in reverse) as my contrast colour(s), within the colourwork bands of this sweater. In the first band, I used the Shades 24-17 (which I talked about in detail in last week’s post!).

In this second band of colourwork, I used the shades 17-9. I mentioned last week that I only worked one row at the end of the first band in shade 17, so I continued on with it at the start of the second band to help the gradient flow through the sweater. However, because I did my deep-dive into that shade last week, I’ve skipped it in this post!

Just like last time, here are the shades, their names and my ✨educated guesses✨ of their inspirations from the show!

16: ‘The Modiste’s Thread’

This pinky-purple shade is obviously inspired by Madame Delacroix, the ton’s modiste in the show. In general, Madame Delacroix wears darker colours than this (think navys, blacks and dark purples!), so I don’t think it is directly inspired by her character, but, as the name suggests, by the fabrics and materials that she uses in her dress-making business! In fact, there’s a scene in Season 3 where she’s suggesting fabrics to Penelope Featherington and holds up a lilac material that does remind me a little of this yarn!

15: ‘Den Of Iniquity‘

This grape shade is named after Lady Danbury’s exclusive soirée for the married women of the ton, which Daphne Bridgerton is invited to in Season 1. Daphne wears purple to attend the event, a colour she shifts into wearing after her marriage. However, the Danbury colours are typically deeper, more jewel-toned shades, which I think is where the darker tone of this yarn comes into play.

14: ‘Bane Of My Existence’

This purple shade is named after one of the most iconic quotes from Season 2, said by Anthony Bridgerton to Kate Sharma. Kate is often shown wearing deeper shades (lots of teal and purple!) than her debutante sister, Edwina, and this moody purple feels very evocative of her relationship with the Viscount.

13: ‘Mallet Of Death’

The so-called ‘Mallet of Death’ in the Bridgerton family’s Pall Mall kit may be black, but Kate Sharma wields it twice throughout Season 2 and both times she is wearing a purple dress, so this deep, aubergine shade feels like a perfect fit!

12: ‘Love Is Not Finite

This shade is very similar to ‘Bane of My Existence’: a ‘true’ purple, albeit slightly deeper and more blue-toned. The name ‘Love Is Not Finite’ comes from the scene in Season 3, where Benedict offers his sister, Eloise, advice. If I’m being honest, I was sure that Violet Bridgerton said this line to Anthony in Season 2 (hence the purple), but I was completely wrong! While neither Benedict nor Eloise wear purple in the Season 3 scene, Benedict’s love interest Sophie does wear this colour when she works as a maid at Bridgerton House in Season 4 and, while I know these colours were designed long before the release of Season 4, I still think it’s a fun twist of fate!

11: ‘We Chose To Love

This lavender shade is named after a quote that is definitely said by Violet Bridgerton! She says this while imparting some advice to her daughter, Daphne, towards the end of Season 1. This colour ties in so nicely with Violet’s character, both with the purple reference in her name and the little specks of ‘Bridgerton Blue’.

10: ‘The Queen’s Sparkler’

This shade must be a reference to Francesca Bridgerton in Season 3, who makes her debut and eventually becomes the Queen’s so-called ‘Sparkler‘. This is a delicate, soft blue shade, shot through with hints of purple, pink and gold.

9: ‘What If I Want To Fly?’

This shade marks a clear shift into the blues of the gradient, and is named after a quote spoken by Eloise Bridgerton. Within the blue, this yarn contains hints of the green of Eloise’s dress in this scene, as well as a stronger, more vibrant blue shade that I think reflects the character’s bold attitude (and general recalcitrance) well.

Final Thoughts

And that is how Week 2 of working on my Porcelain Sweater x Bridgerton Advent project went! I’m still really enjoying this process, even though I found that leaf section in the second colourwork band… a little less enjoyable than the other sections! It’s been so satisfying watching the gradient form alongside the varying patterns and it has been very nice to fall back into the swing of knitting in the round again!

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

You can check out Castle View Yarns here.

Gemma

xxx

Last week, I talked you through all of my plans for my current project: a Porcelain Sweater made with the 2025 Bridgerton Advent mini skeins from Castle View Yarns. This week, the knitting begins!

I actually have to confess something: I’m already a couple of weeks into knitting this sweater! By the time I got around to sharing my first WIP Wednesday last week, I had already been sitting on the post for a little while and got myself all in a pickle with the timeline… I figured the best thing to do was just to let you know, continue writing these weekly updates as I go and share them every Wednesday, so you’ll still see my weekly progress, just a couple of weeks after the actual knitting has taken place! Hopefully, after this project, I can bring my WIP Wednesday posts a little closer to real-time, so I feel less fraudulent…

Anyway, let’s roll back a couple of weeks and talk about the first 7 days of knitting my Porcelain Sweater!

Progress

Here’s what I knitted in my first week:

• Top of the back
• Left shoulder
• Right shoulder
• First few rows of the front, with the shoulders joined together

Not too bad, right?! So far there’s been a bit of shaping, a bit of colourwork-ing and a bit of good old fashioned stockinette stitch. Something for everyone!

Mid-Knit Thoughts & Musings

I have been really enjoying knitting this project— it feels like perfect balance of simple and challenging to keep me interested, but not overwhelmed.

From a technical side, so far, I’ve been able to practise the backwards loop cast on and German short rows, as well as my colourwork technique. Everything so far has been knit flat, so the colourwork has been a little bit of a learning curve— I feel like I’ve really nailed down my colourwork technique when knitting, but not quite so much when purling, so I’ve had to adjust to that.

I have found that I need to knit a few extra rows here and there in the cream stockinette sections, just because my row gauge is slightly tighter than the pattern calls for. I’m making a Size L and purchased 12 balls of DROPS Merino Extra Fine as my main colour, but I think there’s a relatively strong chance that I’ll run out (mainly because of those extra rows)… I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that I have enough!

After making my colourwork swatch, I decided to reverse the order of the contrast colours on the sweater, so that the warmer, pink shades are closest to my face. I’m very pale (sometimes bordering on a slightly… ghostly grey, depending on how unwell I’m feeling) but I do have brown eyes, so I think these will be the most flattering shades for me, hence the decision to position them closer to my face. I didn’t think of the placement at all until I made the swatch, at which point I realised I preferred the gradient upside down (as pictured) than right way up!

As a result, for my colourwork sections, I’m working from the Day 24 shade through to Day 1, not from Day 1 to Day 24. I spent a while deciding how best to split up the rows between the colours, and with a little counting and (light maths), I worked out that I could do 2 rows of each shade, plus an extra row of 7 of them, because I have 24 shades and there are 55 rows worked with the contrast colour. I tried to stagger the 3-row bands of colour pretty evenly throughout the jumper, so that the difference wasn’t too noticeable. I think it’s working really well so far!

I opted to recreate the colourwork chart from the pattern on Numbers (Apple’s slightly less heavy-duty answer to Microsoft’s Excel). I did this mainly so that I could use my own colours within the chart, because I realised things might get pretty confusing pretty quickly with so many colour changes. This also allowed me to get an idea of how the patterned band would look, which was very helpful.

I was a little confused by the chart for this band at first, because the middle section of stitches is labelled separately as the ‘repeat’. However, I followed my general policy of knitting-exactly-what-you-see (it has stood me in good stead so far!) and soon realised that, because this section is knit flat, the chart does not need to be (and is not) cyclical in its entirety, so it all made sense in the end.

In this colourwork band, there are four plain rows where you need to either carry the non-working yarn across the back of the work or cut the yarn and reattach it at the end of the row, so that you can work the pattern in the following row. I totally forgot that this would be the case, because I’m so used to knitting colourwork in the round, but it is often a necessary evil when working colourwork flat, like this. I managed to avoid one of these instances, because my contrast colour change fell in exactly the right place (which was unplanned, but absolutely delicious)! Towards the bottom of the band, I did have a scenario where I should have carried the contrast yarn behind the main colour, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to use more of my special, Advent yarns than necessary, so I cut that yarn and reattached it at the end of the row. I was a little reluctant to do that, because I’m already a bit worried about finding places for all of these yarn ends without bulking up the sweater too much, so for the other two instances, where it was the cream shade that needed to be carried, I did, just to reduce the number of ends (though I know this will not help my potentially-running-out-of-yarn problem…).

As it turns out, carrying yarns all the way across a piece of work is not one of my fortes: ironically, because patterns always warn you not to make your floats too tight, I always leave mine too loose! My current way of dealing with this is to knit the whole row, then go back afterwards and adjust the floats to make them the perfect tension, which isn’t the most efficient method, but has been working for me so far.

Also, before I forget, I’ve been very diligent about keeping my yarn dominance the same throughout this project, because I want to make sure everything looks really even. I’m keeping my contrast colour(s) as the dominant yarn, so, whenever I work the colourwork sections, I’m always double-checking that the main colour floats are going over the contrast colour floats (i.e. the contrast colour is sitting closer to the back of the fabric).

Castle View Yarns 2025 Bridgerton Advent: Shades 24-17

For the first band of colourwork, I used shades 24-17 of the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns. There’s only one row of Shade 17 at the end of this band, but I’ll be using it again at the start of the second band too, to help the gradient flow through the design. I thought it would be fun to share the yarn shades that I’ve used so far here, along with their names and (my best guesses at) their inspirations from Bridgerton!

24: ‘Souls That Dance’

This golden orange shade is named after a quote from Season 2, said by Kate Sharma during her sister Edwina’s Haldi Ceremony. I’ve always loved the colours in this scene, so I was very excited to see it represented in this Advent!

23: ‘You Occupy My Every Thought’

This coppery-pink shade is named after a quote from Season 3, said by Penelope Featherington during Colin Bridgerton’s dream sequence. The scene takes place at night and is very romantic and misty, with firelight flickering across the stone walls and the actors’ skin, infusing everything with a subtle, pink glow. I think that rosy glow must have inspired this yarn!

22: ‘I Would Not Need Flowers’

This pink shade, flecked through with orange, is named after a quote from Season 1, said by the Duke of Hastings to Daphne Bridgerton. I think this shade really suits its name, but, try as I might, I can’t quite figure out the inspiration behind it! The pink shade does show up, albeit very subtly, in the scene, on the cravat of a passerby and (perhaps?) on the pattern of the Duke’s waistcoat, though I’m most inclined to take it as a reference to blushing, because the Duke was being… a little bit risqué here. Daphne’s hair also has quite a gingery undertone in this scene, so perhaps that’s where the orange flecks come in? Either way, I really love the combination of pink and orange, particularly in flowers, so I really, really love this shade.

21: ‘My Wit & My Wardrobe’

This berry shade is named after a quote from Season 1, said by the iconic Lady Danbury. This colour so perfectly encapsulates the character, who typically wears darker, more dramatic jewel tones— I love it!

20: ‘Scandal’

This blackberry shade has more of a general, thematic name, rather than taking inspiration from a direct quote in the series (scandal is, after all, a recurring element in the show, throughout all of the seasons!). This colourway has a similar intensity to ‘My Wit & My Wardrobe’, but is slightly more cool-toned, marking a shift towards the lighter pinks and lilacs in the gradient.

19: ‘Cressida’s Corsage’

This pink shade is (I believe!) another more general name: throughout all of the seasons of the show, Cressida Cowper’s dedication to the colour pink is unwavering, so this feels like a fitting tribute.

18: ‘Love Match’

This pale pink shade is shot through with hints of orange, blue and lilac. The concept of a ‘love match’ is a recurring theme in the show and I think this shade encapsulates it perfectly: to me, the pink creates a backdrop of love and affection, while the orange flecks infuse it with a little bit of fiery passion, the blue the more painful parts of real, human love and the lilac the peace that comes with finding a true connection. I think this one is particularly clever, even if I’m more drawn to some of the deeper shades.

17. ‘First Spark Of Affection’

We’re shifting into the purples now with this lilac shade. At first, I thought that this shade was inspired by Francesca Bridgerton, because I knew the title was from a quote in the scene in Season 3 where she is being introduced to the Queen’s suitor for her. However, upon further research, I actually think it’s inspired more directly by Violet Bridgerton (the speaker of the quote itself) and the outfit she’s wearing in the scene: a lavender jacket and a dusky, pinky-plum dress. I think this is a lovely tribute, especially given that Season 3 is when Violet finds her own ‘first spark of affection’ since her husband’s passing.

And those are the yarns from the 2025 Bridgerton Advent that I used for the first band of colourwork on my Porcelain Sweater! I worked 2 rows with each shade, except for ‘You Occupy My Every Thought’ and ‘Scandal’, which I worked 3 rows each of, and ‘First Spark of Affection’, which I worked 1 row of (and will continue on with at the start of the next colourwork band, to help the gradient flow).

Final Thoughts

And that is how the first week of making my Porcelain Sweater x Bridgerton Advent project went! I really am loving this process— I feel like I lost my spark a little with knitting, but it’s definitely back now. I think the fact that I’m just following the pattern, so it feels fairly simple, but doing something a little creative with the colours, so it also feels exciting and special, is working really well for me and I’m absolutely loving watching the pattern and the gradient appear as I knit.

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

You can check out Castle View Yarns here.

Gemma

xxx

Back in May, I set up a Knitting Scrapbook as a way of creating a physical record of some of my more ambitious and creative projects. Today’s post features the first of those projects: a Porcelain Sweater, made using the yarn from the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns! I figured this would be a great project to try out this new, weekly update approach because it’s a little more complicated than most of my other makes!

In this post, I’ll take you through my planning process for this sweater and chat a little bit about the yarn I’m using, how I set up the corresponding pages in my Knitting Scrapbook and, of course, the swatching stage!

Castle View Yarns: 2025 Bridgerton Advent

This project was definitely one that started from the yarn— I bought the yarn and chose the pattern for the yarn, not the other way around!

Because this yarn was an Advent collection, it is no longer available (which is a huge shame, because it is so, so beautiful!). However, Castle View Yarns has a large range of other beautiful yarns to choose from, so I’d definitely recommend checking out the shop anyway!

The Backstory

I was so thrilled that I managed to snatch up one of the leftover Merino DK versions of the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns last year, after I missed the cut off date for preorders. I had been intending to purchase the 4ply version, but it sold out immediately! Instead, I settled for the DK version and I’m actually really pleased now, because it led to this project.

The first time I heard about the Advent was through an Instagram post that was suggested to me the day after preorders closed (literally! The day after!), which was such bad luck. I was truly heartbroken because I felt like this product was just made for me: I mean, I love Bridgerton, I love yarn and I love Advent calendars! Even more so, I loved the concept colour palette for the collection: this gorgeous, muted rainbow gradient. Unable to admit defeat, I waited (kind of patiently, kind of obsessively) until Castle View Yarns announced when the leftover stock would be on sale, set multiple alarms and started refreshing the webpage from about 5 minutes before the release time. Honestly, I have not taken anything quite this seriously since I got my tickets for the Eras Tour!

At 6pm on the dot, on a dark evening in November, I was there, ready to go and get the yarn that I had been dreaming about ever since May. Unfortunately, I got lost on the webpage (no, seriously, I couldn’t figure out which listing was which and nearly purchased one of the Weekly Advents, which I’m sure was lovely, but wasn’t quite what I wanted!). Eventually, I found the right place, put the 4ply Daily Advent in my basket, went to check out and… it had been sold! Disaster!

In a haze, I went back to the listing and found that there were still a couple of the DK versions available. In that moment, I made a split second decision to go for it, despite having no idea what I’d use it for. I had come this far, though and was not about to be defeated!

My last-minute Advent arrived on the 1st December, which was super fast and meant I could open one yarn package each day, as intended. If you’ve been here for a while, you might remember that I was absolutely plagued by colds and illnesses last December, which was not fun at all, but opening up this Advent every day bought me so much joy— it was so special! I loved seeing all the colours in person, seeing the Bridgerton inspiration in their names and shades and watching the gradient form during the course of the month.

The Yarn

The 2025 Bridgerton Advent that I purchased included 24 x 20g mini skeins of Soft Merino DK (a 100% superwash merino, 225m/100g yarn). The shades form a soft, muted rainbow gradient, beginning and ending in the golden-orange shades. All of the shades had specific inspirations from the Bridgerton Series (up to Season 3, because Season 4 had not yet been released at that point!).

The yarns came individually wrapped and numbered in a velvety grey sack (like, a fancy sack, not a sack sack). A wax-sealed (!) envelope was enclosed, which contained a list of all of the yarn names, day-by-day. Also, there was a little glass bee stitch marker wrapped into the Day 1 package, along with the yarn, which was a fun surprise! My only problem was that, inside of the packages, the yarn itself was not labelled, so I used some card and safety pins to label it myself, in case I got all of the shades mixed up (which, honestly, might still have happened at some point— I wouldn’t be able to tell!).

I paid £145 for the Advent, along with £3.95 in shipping, bringing my total to £148.95. I know that this is a lot of money, though it is actually pretty reasonable for hand-dyed yarn from a one-woman business, I think! Nevertheless, I specifically saved for this product, knowing how much joy it would bring me and considering it a super special, Christmas present to myself.

Deciding What to Make with the Yarn

I spent a long time deciding what to make with this yarn. There are lots of patterns designed for 4ply Advent yarns, but not quite so many for DK Advent yarns. I spent a lot of time scrolling through Ravelry, looking for inspiration, obsessively checking the meterage of each project and just being generally indecisive and unsure.

Time ticked by (which is why I’m only just working with my 2025 Advent yarn now, in August 2026!), until I suddenly stumbled upon the perfect project. It was a pattern that was already in my favourites, that I knew I wanted to make at some point but hadn’t yet contemplated super seriously. It was, of course, the ever-popular Porcelain Sweater by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe!

Porcelain Sweater

The Porcelain Sweater is an incredibly popular, knitted jumper pattern. It’s typically made with just two colours: a main colour, which forms the bulk of the sweater, and a contrast colour, which is used to work three horizontal bands of colourwork. My idea was to use a classic, cream shade for the main colour, but to use the Advent yarns as the contrast colour, working my way through the gradient as I worked my way down through the colourwork

bands. To help myself visualise this, I sketched (read: I traced, your girl is not an artist) out what I had in mind on my iPad and, in doing so, convinced myself to go for it!

The suggested yarn for the Porcelain Sweater is a fingering weight yarn, held together with a mohair to give a DK-ish weight. I’m not a huge fan of mohair anyway, so I was happy to replace those two yarns with a single strand of DK. The next challenge was finding a cream yarn that was similar to the Advent yarn base that I could use as the main colour, which meant that, ideally, I wanted the yarn to fit the following conditions:

• Superwash
• Merino
• 225m/100g
• Not too pricey (because I’d already spent so much on the Advent itself!)

Eventually, I settled on DROPS Merino Extra Fine. This is a superwash, merino yarn that I have used before and isn’t too expensive (£3.50 per ball). It’s ever so slightly thicker than the Advent yarn (105m/50g, compared to 225m/100g), which isn’t ideal, but it worked out fine when I swatched it. You can feel the difference in the two yarns slightly when you’re knitting, but you can’t tell just by looking at the knitted fabric.

Knitting Scrapbook

Once I’d made all of those big decisions, it was time to get out my Knitting Scrapbook and christen it with its first project! I was so excited for this part— I really wanted the pages to reflect my vision for the finished project and add an extra level of fun and creativity to the whole process!

This project will have 3 x double-page spreads: a Mood Board, a Notes/Progress Tracker and, finally, a spread dedicated to Photos of the final product!

Mood Board

I wanted my mood board to have lots of colour, to reflect all of the colours in the finished jumper! I really leaned into the scrapbooking style and layered up patterned papers, printed photos, stickers and stamped designs to encapsulate everything that had been swirling around in my mind since I dreamed this project up.

I included my mockup of the finished jumper, as well as the original pattern photo from LE KNIT and a still from the show of Violet Bridgerton drinking from a porcelain cup (because it felt very fitting).

I also included images of the yarns I would be using: photos of the Advent yarns that I had taken, as well as images of the DROPS yarn that I found online and the original graphic for the Advent too.

Notes/Progress Tracker

This spread is a little less busy, because its main purpose is to provide a space for me to jot down any important information about the project as I knit it up.

On the left-hand page, I have labelled the space ‘Notes’: this will be where I can write down any significant changes I’ve made, or any otherwise important information that I need to remember (needle size, yarn amounts etc.).

On the right-hand page, there’s a space for keeping track of my progress. This isn’t as useful as the notes section but, seeing as this scrapbook is supposed to be part-useful journal, part-memento, I think it will be a nice page to come back to in the future and see how long the project took me and what order I did everything in.

Gauge Swatching

The Porcelain Jumper is knit both flat and in the round at different points throughout the process. In both sections, some of the work is plain, using only one colour, and some of the work is worked with two strands of yarn to form the colourwork. Because of this, it was hard to know which way to work the gauge swatch: I usually swatch in the round, because the majority of a jumper is usually knitted that way, but it is one of my absolute least favourite things to do.

In the end, I began the swatching journey with a flat swatch of just the DROPS yarn on 4.0mm needles. I then worked a swatch in the round using the same yarn and needles, so that I could compare my tensions. My tension in the round was a little looser, so I tried making the flat swatch again using a 4.5mm needle. I blocked my swatches, checked my tensions and decided that the yarn would work for the pattern and the suggested 4mm needle was best, both flat and in the round (either the flat swatch loosened out a little or the round swatch tightened up— who knows, but they were pretty similar in the end!).

The next stage was to swatch the colourwork. I decided to swatch the colourwork flat, because I knew it was going to be a complicated enough process without introducing the whole working-in-the-fake-round thing. I opted to knit a single row of each of the 24 colours of yarn in the swatch so that, when I blocked it, I could see whether any of the colours would run, which was one of my biggest concerns with this project. The charts in the pattern each contain 17-19 rows of colourwork, so I had to extend one of them a little to fit all 24 colours in (which was no matter— it’s just a swatch after all!).

Amazingly, none of the colours ran, despite the fact that there are some quite deep-toned reds and purples, along with some quite strong greens. I was thrilled! I was also absolutely in love with the swatch: just like my mockup of the finished Porcelain Sweater, the colourwork swatch definitely gave me that “I’m on the right track!” feeling.

Final Thoughts

And with that, I was ready to begin! I planned this Porcelain Sweater x Bridgerton Advent pretty thoroughly, because I knew it was a little out of the ordinary for me. At the end of the day though, I did just want to get going so, once the DROPS yarn arrived, I got started! I haven’t made a whole lot of sweaters, so I was slightly daunted, but I was also so excited to see how the project worked up.

As I mentioned, I’m going to be trying something a little new with this project by posting weekly updates. I’ll be showing you how far I’ve got, chatting about any changes/choices I’ve made and sharing my mid-knit thoughts with you as we go. I hope I’ll see you back here next week, for another WIP Wednesday!

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

Gemma

xxx

It’s been a while since my latest instalment of this series (since my last post of any sort, truthfully!). It’s the age-old story: life got slightly busier, I got significantly more tired as a result, which made life feel even busier, which made me even more tired and, alas, I’ve been going round in that loop for most of 2026! I’ve really missed sharing all of my crafty endeavours with you though, so I’ve been working hard to come back to this space and here I am! I have some super exciting projects that I’ve been working on that I cannot wait to show you all.

First up, we’re going back into my personal archives with a knitting project that I made a while ago (read: like… nearly 2 years ago), then promptly forgot to share with you: the Mist Sleeves by Helene Beba (Garnogslikt). I’ve been following Garnogslikt on Instagram for a while now and, when I first saw these sleeves, I fell in LOVE with them: they’re not like anything I’ve ever seen before, but they’re just so pretty! I remember waiting so impatiently for the release of the pattern (which was literally in September 2024… that’s how long ago we’re talking!), so it feels very full circle to have them as a wearable garment now.

I decided to make myself a pair of these sleeves to bring to my brother’s wedding (last year…), just in case I got chilly in the evening. Naturally, I never actually wore these at the wedding because, by the time I needed them, I was simply too tired to walk to the car and get them, but it was nice knowing they were there all the same. Since then, I have worn them over camisoles (like in the photos) a good few times and every single time I’ve worn them I’ve received such lovely compliments— it’s really made me love them even more!

The Pattern

This is a really simple design. I won’t lie, both my brother and my dad told me on separate occasions that they were waiting for me to knit the body, so I don’t think they quite understood the ✨vision✨, but I fell in love with the concept immediately, so I just ignored their bewilderment. I made a size 1, which is the smallest size provided (this is a bit unusual for me— I’m typically in the middle-ish size section, so definitely pay close attention to the Size Guide in the pattern if you plan to make these yourself).

The design is worked sideways, so you start at one shoulder, work all the way across the chest and down the opposite sleeve, then come back to the cast on and knit the second sleeve. The pattern switches between being worked flat (the shoulders/front & back twist sections) and in the round (the sleeves). The ends of the sleeves are finished with an i-cord edge.

I have to say, I absolutely LOVED making this pattern! It was so simple, easy and quick to make, but I think it makes for such a stunning, classic, yet unusual piece. Also, even with such a simple design, there were still some techniques used that were new to me, so I was still learning as I went!

The Yarn

The pattern lists two options for yarn: you can either use a standard mohair yarn, holding 3 strands together, or you can use a chunky mohair yarn with one strand. I originally planned to use 3 strands of mohair together, but I ran into a few problems with that…

Firstly, I struggled to find a mohair that I liked that wasn’t crazy expensive (especially given that I would need so much of it as a result of the whole 3-strands-together business). I was super excited to try out the (relatively new, at the time) Yarnsmiths Kid Mohair Silk, but… I really didn’t like it?! It was very scratchy and the mohair fibres were in these tufty patches along the central thread, which I didn’t love.

The second problem was the look of the knitted fabric: I think because these sleeves are knit at such a loose gauge to keep them nice and drape-y (and, well, misty), I just felt that a lot of the fine mohair options gave quite a messy finish? I tried DROPS Kid Silk too (another slightly more affordable option for a mohair), but again, I just didn’t like how it looked!

My mum had some leftover Filcolana Tilia from another project, so I gave that a go too. I held it doubled to get gauge, and it looked lovely and felt really soft, but the yarn was just too expensive for a project like this, especially when I wasn’t sure if I’d get a huge amount of wear out of it.

In the end, I went back to the drawing board and started looking at chunky mohairs instead. I got a few balls of DROPS Melody to check out the colours, knitted a swatch and decided that was definitely the way to go: knitting with the chunkier yarn is a much more affordable option (and easier, too, because you don’t have to worry about getting all 3 strands of the yarn each time you knit a stitch!). I did use a slightly larger needle size to get gauge though: a 6.5mm instead of a 6.0mm.

Also, the Melody was surprisingly soft, which was a happy bonus! It’s a chunky weight yarn (140m/50g) made up of 71% alpaca, 25% wool and 4% polyamide. I do find that the sleeves shed a little when I’m wearing them, but I think that’s pretty unavoidable with a yarn as fluffy as this. The other downside of this yarn is that it doesn’t have the biggest shade range: it’s great for the neutrals and there are a few brighter colours, but there are very few of the more autumnal shades that I’m typically drawn to. Overall though, I think this yarn was the perfect choice for this particular project!

The Colour

As I said, I bought a few balls of DROPS Melody to check out the colours before I committed myself to one shade. My dress for the wedding was an ever-so-slightly-dusky green colour, so I wanted something that would go with that. I was desperately trying to get away from whites/creams, because I was worried it might be inappropriate for the wedding, but cream really was the only colour that worked (plus, my dress was green as green anyway, so I don’t think anyone would be mistaking me for a bride (especially given that the groom was my brother!)— but I obviously ran it past my now sister-in-law anyway ahead of time)!

The three colours that I tried were: Off White (01), a cream shade; Rosewater (23) a very pale, dusky pink shade; and Marzipan (24), a neutral shade. In the end, I decided to go with Off White: Rosewater was just a bit too much with the green and the Marzipan shade was weirdly grey-toned (as a marzipan/almond paste lover, I must ask: what horrifying kind of marzipan is grey?).

One big plus side to using the Off White shade was that it made the sleeves very neutral, so they can be worn with lots of different colour tops/dresses, which I feel makes me more likely to reach for the sleeves, despite the fact that they’re a slightly unusual garment.

The Knitting Process

Honestly, this was one of the simplest, fastest knits I’ve made (it took me less than two weeks, and I was super busy with other, wedding/cake-related stuff during that time!), but (naturally…) that does not mean that it was a completely hassle-free experience!

Judy’s Magic Cast On

I’d never heard of Judy’s Magic Cast On before making these sleeves, so I did have to watch the video linked in the pattern to get to grips with it. This cast on essentially a ‘two-sided’ cast on, where you can knit off both sides of the cast on from the get-go. It’s often used when making toe-up socks.

I did find this cast-on a bit fiddly and it definitely wouldn’t be my favourite cast on, but I also think it’s very necessary to get the seamless look of the design right, so I don’t think it’s avoidable? Then again, I have since made a project using the Turkish Cast On, which (I think?) gives a very similar effect. I found the Turkish Cast On much easier and more intuitive than Judy’s Magic Cast On, so I wonder if I could use it for this pattern in the future?

A Lesson in Reading the Pattern

In hindsight, the instructions after the cast on very clearly state to start on the right side with a knit row. I think I must still have been swirling in the whole new-cast-on experience, though, because I started on the wrong side, with a purl row, which meant I had to do a little bit of extra thinking and fudging later on to make sure that the sleeves were an equal length.

The Twists

The twisted detail on both the front and the back is the main design feature of these sleeves and I think they make the garment look so pretty and elegant. I was a little worried about the twisting process at first, just because I had never done something like that before, but it was so much more straightforward than I expected! It’s just a case of repositioning the fabric a little, then knitting straight across it. That’s all! It was much less scary than I had anticipated.

Barber Cords Everywhere

I’ve mentioned The Knitting Barber Silicone Cords before here on the blog, so you know about my love for them, but this was definitely a pattern that really benefitted from using them: there’s a lot of leaving live stitches hanging around, so it’s handy to have somewhere to put them where you don’t have to worry about them sliding off!

Sleeve Length

The sleeves in the pattern are designed to be long, ‘hitting the middle of the palm’. I didn’t want mine quite that long, so I decided from the start to make them a little shorter. However, my arms are quite long, so the suggested 50cm length actually worked out pretty perfect for me (also it worked out as exactly 100 rows by my count, which was a very delicious round number that I very much appreciated).

I-cord Edge

An i-cord edge is added to the end of both sleeves, where they hit your wrist (or the middle of the palm, if you’re following the pattern!). It takes a little while (lots of slipping back and forth), but there aren’t that many stitches and it makes a nice, clean edge, so it’s definitely worth it.

The cuffs are actually the only places where the knitted fabric is ‘finished’— all of the other edges (i.e. the neckline, the twists and the opening across the chest/under the arms) are all left ‘unfinished’, with the raw edges of the knitting visible. This isn’t something I’ve come across a lot in patterns, but I think here it really helps to preserve the visual flow and softness of the garment (plus, the yarn’s super fluffy, so you can barely tell!).

New Techniques

Despite the simplicity of the pattern, there were still a few techniques used that were new to me, as well as some opportunities to practise a couple of techniques that I’ve tried before (as always, previously encountered techniques are marked with an *):

• Judy’s Magic Cast-On
• Dividing stitches to make a twist
• I-cord edging*
• Grafting stitches*

Final Thoughts

I’m SO happy with how these sleeves turned out and I really loved the process of making them— after the pretty complex and labour intensive Braidy Loop Sweater that I made before them, this felt like a super relaxing and peaceful knit!

Admittedly, the sleeves are a little unusual as knitted garments go, but I think that’s what makes them so special. Plus, I think they’re actually a really great staple piece: I live in the UK and (despite the insane heatwaves we’ve been having this summer), the temperature is usually pretty mild, so it’s nice to have something you can throw on over all the summer dresses and strappy tops, so that you can wear them for a slightly longer period each year!

I’d definitely make these sleeves again, but I think I’d have to plan the colour carefully so that I could be sure that I had multiple tops/outfits to wear with them. One of the samples made by Helene Beba is made in this gorgeous burgundy colour and is slightly more opaque than the other ones. In the notes, it says that this sample was knitted with one strand of Knitting for Olive Merino in the shade Bordeaux (the same yarn I used for the Braidy Loop Sweater) and two strands of Knitting for Olive Soft Silk Mohair (also in Bordeaux). It would be a pricier project, but the sample is very beautiful… maybe one day?

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Mist Sleeves pattern by Helene Beba (Garnogslikt) on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Mist Sleeves here.

Gemma

xxx

My December gnome was another mystery gnome. The Advent mystery gnomes work a little differently, though: instead of pattern updates every few days, you get an update every day (in this case, from 1st-21st December). Not all of the updates are knitting clues, though— there are also festive recipes, miscellaneous patterns and periodical instalments of the festive story behind the gnome, so the knitting itself isn’t too overwhelming.

I wanted to wait to post my Gnandad until the mystery knitalong was finished to avoid any spoilers for people participating in/following along with it. I meant to post this in January but time just got away from me… No matter, we’re here now, excitingly (albeit belatedly) bringing the curtain down on my Year of Gnomes 2025 experience!

So, finally, I can introduce… Gnandad!

Gnandad is a rather impish gnome: when he’s not having a nap in his chair by the hearth, he can often be found in the local store, pottering around the fruit and veg aisle and plotting to ambush his grandchildren at the next family dinner with the most obscure produce he can find. He’s a morning gnome— he wakes up bright-eyed and bushy-stached before the sun has even risen, but, the minute the sun starts to go down in the evening, you’ll catch his eyes (and moustache) beginning to droop.

Choosing December’s Gnome

While you didn’t have to participate in the Gnandad MKAL (mystery knitalong) as part of the Year of Gnomes (you can make any gnome you want!), I thought it would be a nice way to finish off the experience, so I decided to go for it, despite not loving the mystery format in my previous two attempts (I’m a girl who likes to plan ahead, what can I say?). Plus, Gnandad felt like he was going to be very festive, which is an easy way to convince me to give something a go (I, like Mariah Carey, defrost for Christmas), so I was sold!

Updated MKAL Thoughts

This was my third time participating in a Mystery Knitalong (MKAL), so I thought I’d give you my updated thoughts on the general experience of knitting with absolutely no idea where you’re heading.

Overall… I’m still not obsessed with MKAL gnomes. I think I just prefer knowing what I’m getting myself into, so that I can be really intentional about the colours I pick. I also like seeing the gnome as it gradually comes together, which I feel you miss out on a little bit with an MKAL?

I was actually super late to the party this time around: I fully intended to start my gnome on 1st December butttttt…. I ended up starting it on 19th December instead. Because I was so late, I actually spoiled the surprise for myself on purpose and looked at other people’s progress photos. Honestly, I just didn’t feel like I had the energy to enjoy the mystery of it all and trust the process, which I know isn’t really in the MKAL spirit, but it definitely helped me this time around (so, I guess this was really just a KAL for me, then?).

However, I do think MKALs can be fun: it’s kind of exciting to see everyone else’s gnomes evolving in real time and you do feel like you’re part of a gnome-y community!

The Yarn

As with most of my other Year of Gnomes projects, I picked my yarns for Gnandad from my mum’s fingering-weight stash, which mainly comprises of little balls of yarn leftover from making socks. For her sample gnome, Schira used a teal shade for the contrast colour that I really loved, but I couldn’t find anything remotely similar in the stash, so I picked a paler, mint green shade.

Reader, this was a mistake. I started knitting Gnandad‘s hat, then quickly realised that there wasn’t enough contrast between the green and grey shades, which was rendering the colourwork that I was so painstakingly working… absolutely useless. I lived in denial for a few more rows, then realised I needed to go back and start again, so I did, substituting the green with this rich, magenta-y purple. I figured it was a good shade because (most importantly) the contrast was much better, but also because it’s kind of festive, but in a classic, casual, not red-and-green kind of way, if you get what I mean?

I was a little bit worried when I was knitting with the darker grey shade, because it felt a little thinner than the other yarns and I was concerned that the stuffing would show through (which would be especially noticeable, given the contrast between the dark yarn and the white stuffing!). Luckily, this turned out to be a case of worrying over nothing (my modus operandi) because you truly can’t see any stuffing at all through the fabric! A win for Gnandad!

In the end then, I used the following colours for my Gnandad:

• C1: Purple
• C2: Light Grey
• C3: White
• C4: Dark Grey

Thoughts on the Pattern

As mystery gnomes go, I actually thought Gnandad was pretty simple— often, I find that Schira’s mystery gnomes are much more complex and fancy than her other gnomes, but Gnandad was pretty understated. I think the fun of him is in the unusual techniques used to make him, rather than his overall look at the end. Because of this, there were definitely some new techniques for me in this project: a new type of colourwork (which I believe is called mosaic knitting?), Estonian braids and moustache-making!

One thing I did notice about this pattern is that the needle size you need to use changes around quite a bit (particularly when you’re making the hat!), so I would recommend paying extra attention to that throughout.

Things I Loved!

There are so many cute details on Gnandad that I absolutely love!

• Gnandad’s Moustache

It always amazes me how Schira seems to be able to come up with new & innovative designs every time: the moustache took me by surprise (I’m used to lonely beards), but it’s so cute!

• The Estonian Braid Element

This was my first time working an Estonian Braid and (once I’d actually watched the recommended video, so that I knew what I was doing) it was really simple to do. I really enjoyed learning a new technique and I think it’s a really fitting feature on Gnandad: it looks super cute and it helps to balance out the colours nicely.

• Gnandad‘s Suspenders

I wasn’t entirely convinced by the idea of the suspenders at first— not for any particular reason, I just didn’t know how they’d work? But I love them. My favourite thing about them is that I can tuck Gnandad’s little arms into them like he’s about to settle in for a jolly ‘back in my day…’ kind of story. I think they really make him!

• Gnandad‘s Feet

The return to gnome feet! I can’t tell you how excited I was when I realised Gnandad had feet: I love making them (the three-needle bind off is SO satisfying) and I love how cute they make the gnomes look.

• I-cord Toppers

I’ve made (or attempted to make) these i-cord toppers before on Gnectar, back in August, but… they didn’t end up right. Luckily, with Gnandad, I must have conquered my i-cord demons because they turned out perfectly! I’m so much happier with them.

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

As always though, there are a couple of things that I am not so fond of…

• Gnandad‘s Beard

I have a couple of issues with Gnandad‘s beard: firstly, I’m not super happy with the cast-off edge— I think I made it a little too tight because the beard has a slightly odd curve to it. Secondly, and this is entirely a me-problem, the beard is kind of… weirdly long and it just… well, it reminds me of a giraffe tongue and makes me uncomfortable. I guess not all beards are made equal?

• Gnandad‘s Moustache

I know what you’re thinking: ‘But Gemma! You said you loved his moustache!’. I did! And I do! But I think I could execute the ‘stache better: it’s a little smaller than I think it’s meant to be and pretty… diamond-y? Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing when I read the instructions, so I just snipped and hoped for the best? It looks good, but I think it could look great.

• Mosaic Colourwork

I can see the appeal of this technique and yes, it looks great, but honestly, it wasn’t my favourite to work up. I kept feeling frustrated at having to work double the number of rows (I actually missed stranded colourwork!) and it felt like it took forever because of it. I do like the effect, but the process was endless.

• The Shape of Gnandad‘s Hat

The shape of Gnandad‘s hat feels a little less smooth than some of the other gnomes I’ve made from Schira’s patterns that have similar, conical hats. This could be to do with my tension/stuffing skills (or lack thereof), but it just irks me a little.

Final Thoughts

If I’m being completely honest, I was a little underwhelmed by Gnandad at first. I think a big reason for this is that I had made Gnoel just before and he was my absolute favourite gnome I’ve ever made. Really, poor Gnandad, how was he supposed to top that?

However, over time, I’ve grown quite fond of him! His little moustache and suspenders (and, most importantly, the fact that I can tuck his hands into said suspenders) give him such personality! He’s like a slow-burn gnome: he doesn’t immediately draw the eye but, once you’ve spotted him, there are all these little features to admire.

On the whole, he was a pretty quick knit, except for his hat, which felt like it took forever (this is me, formally picking a fight with mosaic knitting). The new, more complex techniques are used sparingly, so there are large sections of just basic knitting, which helped speed things up too.

And that is Gnandad, my December gnome and the final gnome in my Year of Gnomes 2025. 12 months, 12 gnomes, a plethora of new techniques and a whole host of whimsical fun and cosy knitting. While I’m not necessarily in a rush to embark on another year-long knitting challenge any time soon, I did enjoy participating in this extended knitalong: I loved seeing all of the gnomes everybody made and I love my own little 2025 gnome collection.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series as much as I have! Year of Gnomes 2025: over and out.

If you're interested...

You can find the pattern for Gnandad on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnandad here.

Gemma

xxx

The Ovis Socks by saskie&co are a super popular design in the knitting sphere: they feature a simple, sheep-inspired colourwork pattern that runs across both socks, despite the colours being inverted to make a ‘mismatched’ pair. I’ve wanted to make them for a while, but they’re knitted with a fingering weight yarn held together with a mohair yarn and I don’t love the feel of mohair (in general, really, but particularly on my feet!). Luckily, my mum loves a cosy, fluffy sock (and a sheep motif, she is a knitter after all), so I figured she would be the perfect person to make these socks for!

Full disclosure: these socks took me a while to finish, not because the knitting itself requires a lot of time/effort (they’re actually pretty quick to work up!), but because I ran into so many problems with gauge/fit/trying to knit them without my mum knowing. I started them in early summer and I finished them… in the New Year. Poor Mum had to open a single sock on Christmas Day (and the ends weren’t even sewn in…)!

In this post, as always with my 'Making a...' series, I'll be chatting about my experience making this pattern, as well as detailing any changes/adaptations I made. If you want to make your own Ovis Socks, you can purchase the pattern from saskie&co on Ravelry here!

The Pattern

The pattern for the Ovis Socks is super clear & concise, without being too brief (I’ve talked before about how I like to be spoon-fed when it comes to knitting patterns!). Each section has a little subheading (e.g. ‘TOE’ or ‘AFTERTHOUGHT HEEL’), which makes it super easy to navigate your way through the instructions— it’s a small thing, but it made a big difference for me!

My favourite thing about this pattern is the design: I think the colourwork pattern is simple, but so effective and I really like the whole mismatched vibe. Not only does switching the colours balance out your yarn usage of each colour (yay for saving money!), but I also just think it’s a really fun, unusual feature. I think saskie&co does this for all of their sock patterns, which I love!

In terms of the construction itself, the socks are knitted cuff-down with an afterthought heel. This was my first time knitting an afterthought heel and I actually quite enjoyed it! The socks are pretty short on the leg: if I made them again, I’d be tempted to make them slightly longer so that they can be worn comfortably with hiking boots (I just feel like they’re hiking socks?!). Luckily, that would be super easy to do with this pattern: you’d just knit more repeats of the colourwork chart!

My only real issue with the pattern was the recommended needle size. The pattern instructs you to use 2.25mm needles, which seems pretty small for what is essentially a DK weight sock (especially one with colourwork!). For the first sock I made, I used the suggested needles for the ribbed cuff, toe and heel, then used a 2.5mm needle for the colourwork (because I just couldn’t bring myself to use a 2.25mm needle for that too). I made the whole sock (at great cost to my fingers, which, let me tell you, were SORE from fighting the yarn) and… it didn’t fit on my mum’s foot. Admittedly, this may have been my fault (the main problem area was the stripe of 3-colour stranded colourwork, so maybe my floats were too tight?), but the fabric was so stiff that it was a) no fun at all to make and b) just didn’t give me the right vibe for a sock (socks are supposed to be soft and cosy, right?!).

Ultimately, I decided to switch to using 3.00mm needles for the whole of the next sock (cuff, heel, toe, leg AND foot) and it was much better: the socks fit perfectly and my fingers were (slightly) less sore. I don’t have a particularly tight tension typically, so I don’t think that was the problem here, but no matter, it worked out! Naturally, because mohair is a menace to frog, I opted to just make a third sock instead of trying to rip back the first one, so, if anyone can think of a use for a lone, almost unwearable, but very beautiful Ovis Sock, let me know!

The Yarn

I decided to make things a little easier for myself by using the same main yarn as the one used in the pattern: Istex Einband (in the shades Almond Heather (9076) and Light Ash Heather (1026)). I get most of my wool from Wool Warehouse, but they don’t stock this particular brand, so I bought it from LindeHobby instead.

This was my first time using Icelandic wool and I have to say, it was a pretty different experience! Usually, I knit socks in wool/nylon blend yarns, so they’re soft and stretchy, but still hardwearing. This yarn is not at all stretchy and not overly soft (I did find it a little hard on my hands!), but it made a really great pair of socks that I know will last for a long time (plus, the mohair softens up the fabric, so it works out). I do like how natural this yarn feels though and I really love the two neutral shades used in the pattern.

The mohair yarn suggested by the pattern (Ritual Dyes Fae) was a bit out of my price range, so I opted to use a cheaper mohair that I knew pretty well already: DROPS Kid Silk. My mum had actually used this particular yarn for mohair socks before and really liked it, so I figured it was a safe bet. It’s very soft and it has a pretty extensive shade range, so I was easily able to find shades that matched the Einband ones (Off White (01) and Toffee (51)). It does tangle pretty easily, but I think that’s a bit of a classic feature of mohair yarns, so I won’t hold it against it.

I made the 5th size and bought two balls of each colour in each yarn (which, in hindsight, was a ridiculous amount of yarn? If only I could explain the actions of past Gemma but, alas, I have no idea what was going through my head…). After making 3 socks (2 with the brown shade as the main colour, 1 with the grey shade as the main colour), I had approximately 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 balls of each leftover. Yes, I know, I know: mistakes were made. The required yardage listed for both shades/yarns in the pattern was 251m and the Istex yarn comes in 50g/250m balls, while the DROPS yarn comes in 25g/210m balls. I guess I must have been very worried about running out? Whatever the case, I am writing this realising I have all of this leftover yarn and will, inevitably, have to make another pair of hard-on-the-fingers socks. Sigh. Maybe I’ll try one of saskie&co’s other sock patterns? Or maybe even… the Ovis Mitts?! I do have some dreams of an Ovis Gnome too… urgh, someone restrain me!

The Knitting Process

This pair of socks posed a lot of new challenges for me: it was my first time making socks with no-stretch yarn, making mohair socks, working an afterthought heel, making a DK weight sock AND making mismatched socks! When I think about that, it’s no surprise that I encountered a few issues throughout the process: that’s a lot of first times for one pair of socks!

Cast-On

The pattern calls for using ‘your choice of stretchy cast-on method’, so I opted to use the German Twisted Cast On, because I’d been using it a lot for my various gnomes at this point. However, I have been finding that it hasn’t been working up super neatly for me recently (can you see the slightly uneven edge on the grey sock?), so I wonder if Alternating Cable might have been a slightly better fit here?

Colourwork

I’ve been working on my colourwork technique over the past year (previously, my technique was, quite literally, dropping and picking up the yarns as needed, which wreaked havoc on my tension!) and have started using a two-handed approach, which I first saw on this Instagram video, by @engineeringloops. I’ve been loving this method! It works so well for two colours, but I haven’t found a way to make it work with three colours, so, whenever there are three-colour sections (like the sheep in this design), I revert back to my drop-and-pick-up method of old.

The main colourwork pattern that repeats throughout the leg and foot of the sock is super simple and easy to remember, which makes the knitting process that bit quicker. I love the subtle, rustic effect the design gives the socks.

The sheep that sit along the top of the sock are a little more complicated, because they contain a third colour. I was so careful with my floats, making sure they weren’t too tight, but I think just having that extra yarn in there really tightens up this section, which definitely affects the fit of the socks. I can see why some knitters opted to duplicate stitch on the heads/legs of the sheep, but it just felt like too much of an extra step at the time! Luckily, on the larger needle size the socks actually go over my mum’s heel, so all’s well that ends well!

Afterthought Heel

As I mentioned, this was my first time working an afterthought heel and it was so much simpler than I expected! I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m a convert (I am loyal to my beloved Shadow Wrap Heel!), but I can see that there is a time and a place for an afterthought one (that time and place being a sock featuring intense colourwork!).

It’s a little bit of a drag to have to go back and work the heel after finishing the toe, and it does feel pretty odd essentially knitting a… second toe? I did also have to look up a separate tutorial for picking up the stitches for the heel (apparently, the rule is you always go into the right leg of the stitch, in case you’re wondering too!), but, once I knew that, I was absolutely fine!

Toe

The toe shaping in the pattern is really easy to work, but the finished result is ever so slightly too pointy for my taste: it’s not bad by any means, but I am a big fan of a more rounded toe, so I think I’ll stick to my usual method with future socks.

Blocking

Once I’d made both of the (correctly sized) socks, I wet-blocked them and left them to dry on sock forms (which make the process so much simpler!) to really even out the colourwork and make the knitting (and, by extension, the socks) look super neat! I definitely felt this was necessary, especially with my slightly looser gauge on the 3.00mm needles, which looked a little less neat than the smaller gauge had (but also, you know, actually fit and felt like a sock!). Once blocked though, both sock sizes looked just as neat as each other, so I’m happy.

Final Thoughts

I’m so happy with these Ovis Socks: I’d definitely make them again… for the finished product, not necessarily for the process. If I’m being honest, the yarn hurt my fingers (rip) and the 3-colour section was a bit of a sticking point for me, but I love the design and I really enjoyed learning the new heel technique.

My biggest problem that I ran into with this project was definitely the gauge (and it’s subsequent effect on the fit of the socks). If I did make them again, I do think I would use the 3.00mm needles again: it does make the finished socks ever so slightly less neat, but the fabric is much better (and more sock-suitable!) and it didn’t destroy my fingers in the same way that using the 2.50mm needles did!).

Also, most importantly, my mum (who now finally has her finished Christmas socks!) loves them, which is all that really matters in the end!

If you're interested...

You can buy the Ovis Socks pattern on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ovis Socks project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx