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 (see above), 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