Gemma 
Welcome to the sixth instalment of my Project Knitwear series, where I’m documenting my journey into the world of knitting my own clothes. So far, I’ve tackled two tops, two pair of socks and one pair of shorts (how rogue). You can find all of those posts here! With this knit, though, I ventured into the world of ✨jumpers✨.
Full disclosure: I actually finished this project a while ago (like, March– I think it should technically be Project Knitwear #4, if we’re going by the official timeline), but, much like with my Flutter Buttshorts, by the time I finished it, it was too warm to be posting about a wooly jumper. Hopefully, I’ll get into a better rhythm with making my knits so, you know, I can actually wear them (and post about them) as soon as they’re finished!
Table of Contents
The Pattern
I have a bit of an obsession with loungewear. I mean, it’s kind of an obvious side effect of all the time I spend at home, but I just love comfy clothes- especially ones that are stylish enough that you can open the door to the postman and keep at least some of your dignity intact.
Anyway, my obsession with loungewear quickly snowballed into an obsession with matching loungewear sets (see my Flutter Buttshirt and Shorts). I came across the Atlantis Set by Ullen Knitwear (specifically the test knit by @cousin.knit) one day when I was scrolling through Instagram and fell in love immediately. This two piece set features a pair of trousers and a cropped, oversized jumper with a high neck. The design is pretty minimal- both pieces have small bands of a contrast colour on each hem, but that’s it!
Anyway, soon after I found the pattern, I started researching yarn, I started swatching and I started getting excited. However, because the whole set uses SO. MUCH. YARN.(obviously, I mean, it’s a full, long-sleeved/legged outfit), I ended up deciding to just start with the sweater. I made it in the size S/M, which is the second smallest size. I usually wear a UK size 12 in tops, which usually works out to be a medium, so the sizing feels pretty accurate. The pattern does have a lot of positive ease though (approx. 40cm, apparently), so this is still very much an oversized jumper on me.
I fully intended to make the trousers at some point, but there have been a few stumbling blocks: Firstly, I do have some concerns about the pattern- I’m a high-waisted girl through and THROUGH, but I don’t think these particular trousers are high-waisted, which would definitely be a problem for me… Secondly, making trousers must take absolutely AGES right? I’m not sure I have the patience and/or knitting stamina… Thirdly (and most significantly, really) it’s been so long since I made this sweater that I’m 99% sure that the yarn I used for this sweater has been discontinued now! I kind of couldn’t believe it, but I guess that’s just the way the cookie crumbles (especially when you leave a project half-finished for months). Ah well, so long, matching set. You were a nice idea while you lasted.
If I ever do make some (inevitably mismatched) trousers to go with my Atlantis Sweater, though, I promise: you’ll be the first to know (that’s a lie- I’ll probably post about it a year later like with this project…).
The Yarn
The most-likely-discontinued yarn in question was Cascade Cantata. I really liked the effect of the blown yarn style (and the softness!), so I was desperate to use it for this project. However, because of the aforementioned discontinuation, I guess this whole mini-review section is kind of… moot now? There are quite a few other blown yarns on the market though, so I bet there’s a similar alternative somewhere!
Cantata is (was?) an aran weight, 30% wool/70% cotton blend yarn. It is a little on the pricey side, though (which was another big factor in my decision to make only the sweater at first!). I wanted to use a similar colour scheme to the test knit that inspired me to buy the pattern, so I opted to use the shade Sand (16) as the main colour and Cocoa (15) as the accent colour.
The yarn does come in a hank, which means you have to wind it before you can get to knitting (I know, I know- it’s a hard life). There were a couple of knots in my skeins, but I’m beginning to think that’s just normal for yarn these days? Bit of a swizz, if you ask me. Also, every now and then there was a hard little ball of darker fibres trapped in the blown tube of the yarn. It wasn’t too much of a problem- I just used my nails to carefully pull them out, but the ones I happened to leave in are noticeable up close, so it is something to bear in mind.
The Swatch
I made… a lot of swatches for this project, mainly because I was thinking of making both the jumper and the trousers while I was swatching, so I was desperately trying to get a gauge that was tight enough to be opaque for the trousers, but not so tight that the jumper was too stiff (I guess it never occurred to me that I could use different needles for the two different garments?). I tried all sorts of needle sizes before I finally decided to just make the jumper and ended up using… the exact needles called for by the pattern. Evidently, the swatching gods finally decided to smite me for all my swatch-related insults and moaning- I can’t really blame them, I’m always chuntering about swatching.
The Knitting Process
Okay… I have to be honest: knitting this sweater was a bit of an ordeal. I feel like this pattern and I just weren’t really vibing– I felt like I was getting confused over things that weren’t confusing and bemused over things that weren’t bemusing. It’s kind of crazy because, honestly, even I (and my limited clothes-knitting knowledge) know that this pattern is fairly simple and straightforward- but some of the wording/explanations just really didn’t compute for me?
Yardage Woes
I purchased the Atlantis Set pattern (which includes both the jumper and the trousers), because a) I initially wanted to make both garments and b) it was significantly cheaper to buy them as a set than individually. However, the pattern you receive doesn’t give the yardage for the two garments separately, which was a real problem for me, given that I ended up just making the jumper. I did eventually end up finding the broken down yardage on the Ullen Knitwear website, but I would have loved to have seen that information in the pdf pattern too!
German Short Rows
The pattern also describes a different method for constructing German short rows than the one I’m used to, which threw me and my simple, newly short-rowing brain for a bit of a loop (this is, obviously, very much a me problem). Luckily, I went to my knitting guru (thank you, mum) who explained that I could work the rows using my regular technique. Honestly, I’m still not sure how this other method works, but I’m choosing to leave that particular stone firmly unturned (completely unrelated side note: I had to google that saying because I was convinced it was ‘leave no shell unturned’ and it turns out that was just a pun from Disney’s The Little Mermaid that my childhood self heard once and took as gospel… love that for me…).
Decreases
On the sleeves, you work decreases to taper the shape down from the shoulder to the cuff. I wasn’t huge fan of how the suggested decrease techniques looked, so I opted to use different methods for the d1l and d1r instructions:
- For d1l: slip 1 knitwise, slip 1 purlwise, then k2tog through back loops.
- For d1r: k2tog.
I just found that these alternatives gave a slightly less visible appearance to the decreases, which I preferred. I also think that, if I made this pattern again (which, honestly, is kind of unlikely), I would leave a couple stitches between the two decreases (the pattern instructs you to work the decreases one after the other, so they sit right next to each other, and I just think it looks a little… pleat-y? Either way, I feel like separating out the decreases ever so slightly might help to make the finished jumper even nicer.
Maths (ew)
Okay, I may have an A Level in Maths, but that was a very questionable decision that past Gemma made and, in general, I would not consider the mathematical arts to be a particular strong suit of mine. So, when I confidently picked up 90 stitches for the polo neck, as instructed by the pattern, and then worked in 2×2 rib all the way around, only to reach the end and discover my 4-stitch repeat did not fit properly in my stitch count, I was miffed with both the pattern, for conning me into a) thinking I had made a mistake somewhere in the space of a single row AND b) having to redo the picking-up-of-the-polo-stitches, and myself, for being inherently un-mathsy and not pausing to consider whether 90 was, in fact, divisible by 4.
In fact, none of the stitch counts listed at this point (for all of the sizes) are multiples of 4, so I think you’d have the same problem, no matter what size you were making. Long story short, I ripped back and picked up 88 stitches instead (not a big deal, really- just a couple of stitches fewer!). From then on, the neck was super easy to work up!
New Techniques
There weren’t too many new-to-me techniques in this pattern (especially after I (metaphorically, I promise) ran screaming at the prospect of learning a different German short row technique), but I did get a chance to practise some of the techniques I’ve already met (as always, previously encountered techniques are marked with an *):
- German short rows*
- Constructing a jumper with a yoke
- Long-tail cast on*
- Picking up stitches for neck/sleeves*
- Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off*
Final Thoughts
As I’m sure you can tell from this post, I did struggle a little bit making this jumper. It’s a gorgeous pattern, and I’m so pleased with the finished result, but I found the process a little frustrating in places (though, I must admit, I am quick to get frustrated with patterns- I don’t think I have a natural knitting pattern brain).
Nevertheless, I do think this jumper is gorgeous- it’s a super classic design and I think it will be really wearable for the upcoming autumn/winter seasons. I love the minimal vibe of it, with the little touches of colour on the hems, and I’m really happy with my yarn/colour choices- my jumper is essentially a carbon copy of that initial test knit that I was inspired by, but that’s exactly what I wanted. As daunted as I was by the prospect of making a matching pair of trousers (and slightly suspicious of the idea of wearing knitted trousers) I am pretty disappointed that it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to finish off this set now, given that the yarn has (I’m pretty sure) been discontinued. It’s a real shame, because I actually really enjoyed working with the Cantata and absolutely loved the finished effect of it all knitted up. Luckily, I think this jumper will look beautiful worn with all manner of other trousers, so I will still be getting plenty of use out of it!
If you're interested...
You can purchase the Atlantis Set pattern by Ullen Knitwear on their website or on Ravelry.
You can find my Ravelry project page for this Atlantis Sweater here.
Gemma
xxx
