Table of Contents

• The Pattern
• The Yarn
  • Cascade Heritage: Mini Review
• The Knitting Process
  • Cuff + Picot Edge
  • Colourwork
  • Short Row Heel
  • Foot
  • Toe
  • Weaving in the Ends
• New Techniques
• Final Thoughts

The Pattern

The Itty Bitty Berry Socks are worked cuff-down and in the round. Stranded colourwork with three shades of yarn is used to create the super cute, repeating strawberry pattern. The folded cuff features a picot edging in a contrast colour and the socks are ankle-length, so they are perfect for spring and summer! The pattern also includes a Short Row Heel and a Wedge Toe (the latter of which is finished off by grafting the remaining stitches together).

The pattern is written with the Magic Loop method in mind, but I opted to use short circular needles instead. This was my first time using short circulars for socks and I found them so helpful for the colourwork: my colourwork often gets a little untidy at each side of the sock when using Magic Loop, but using the short circular needles really eliminated that problem (and made the whole process absolutely fly by, which is an added bonus!). I’d definitely use this method again.

The pattern also includes a section on ‘Knitting Colourwork Tips’, which basically talks about carrying the floats (specifically for sock-knitting), yarn dominance and weaving in the ends. This was really helpful and I would definitely recommend reading through it before you get started if you make these socks. However, I didn’t use the ‘Weavin Stephen’ method mentioned for weaving in the ends and opted to just weave them in with a needle later on, because I think this gives a more secure finish.

I’m a UK Size 6 and I have pretty narrow feet. I made a Size 2 in this pattern. I did add an extra 1-strawberry repeat (an additional set of rounds 1-10) to the foot of my socks (so, in total, I had 6 rows of strawberries on the feet), just to get the right length for my feet. The fit isn’t perfect: the socks themselves are actually quite thick (an unfortunate side effect of 3-colour colourwork!) and they just don’t fit my foot quite as snugly as I would have liked, especially for a short, summer pair of socks. I think the smaller size would be too small though, so I wonder if a different yarn (perhaps a slightly more hardwearing/stretchy, or even just a thinner one) might help?

The Yarn

I used Cascade Heritage yarn for these socks, in the following shades: Strawberry Cream (5648), Red (5607) and Sage (5635). I opted for a paler pink background shade than the one in the pattern, simply because I like the contrast of the colours.

Cascade Heritage is a 4-ply, 75% wool/25% nylon yarn that comes in 100g skeins. I used it with the recommended needle size from the pattern (2.25mm). For my socks, I used the following amount of each shade:

• Strawberry Cream: 43g
• Red: 13g
• Sage: 5g

Cascade Heritage: Mini Review

This was my first time using Cascade Heritage and I really loved knitting with it! It’s super soft and comes in a huge range of different colours, so I think it’s a really good option for colourwork projects. It doesn’t feel like it’s the most hardwearing sock yarn— it’s a little too soft (bordering on silky, in a fluffy kind of way) for that, and it doesn’t have quite the same level of stretchiness as other 75:25 wool/nylon blends, but it feels very comfortable against the skin and shows the colourwork pattern well.

After blocking, I did find that the yarn fluffed up quite significantly: it’s not a huge problem, but it definitely has a different feel post-blocking to when you’re knitting with it, which is a shame. I also found that blocking it didn’t even out my colourwork as much as I expected, which was also a shame (this could absolutely be because of the neatness of my colourwork, but I did feel my floats were pretty even?)!

The yarn comes in 100g skeins and is priced at £8.99 a ball, which feels like quite a reasonable price point.

Overall, I would absolutely use this yarn again, but the post-blocking fluff-up is definitely a drawback for me.

The Knitting Process

I really enjoyed the process of making these socks: I do like knitting stranded colourwork and this was such a simple, repetitive chart that I felt like I could really get to grips with the process and find a colourwork method that works well for me (which I did— more on that in a second!). I did make a few, slight changes to the pattern here/there, so I’ll be sure to highlight those here as I go through the process.

Cuff + Picot Edge

The cuff is folded over in the pattern (which is one of my favourite things to do with sock cuffs, because I find it really helps the socks to stay on my feet!) and features a picot edge worked in a contrast colour.

I opted to use a crochet provisional cast-on for the cuff and knit the folded cuff edges together (as opposed to whip-stitching them together, as suggested by the pattern). I prefer to knit my folded cuffs together because a) I find it less labour-intensive and b) I think it gives a stretchier finish, which is particularly helpful for a sock!

This was my first time working a picot edge and I really enjoyed it! I think it’s quite magical how such a simple method turns into such a fancy looking edge. I also love how a contrast colour is used for the picot— I think it really adds an extra something-something to the socks.

Colourwork

As I mentioned, the colourwork chart for these socks is really great: there are artfully placed seed stitches that mean you don’t have to worry too much about your floats and the strawberries themselves are so simple that the pattern becomes quite easy to memorise.

Because of the relative straightforwardness of the chart, I decided to test my colourwork limits a little and see if I could find a more efficient method for knitting stranded colourwork. In the past, I’ve always worked colourwork very slowly, dropping each yarn strand and picking up the new one as needed throughout, but I saw this video on Instagram recently and decided to give the two-handed method a go! I loved this method: it made the process go so quickly and made it super easy for me to keep an even tension and keep the floats the right length (not too long, not too short!). Overall, I will definitely be using this method for 2-colour colourwork in the future! I did, however, find that I couldn’t use it so easily on the rounds where there were three colours in play, so, for those rounds, I just reverted back to my tried-and-true, drop-and-switch method. Not the most efficient, but it worked!

Typically, for colourwork in the round, it’s recommended that you knit the project ‘inside out’, so that the floats have a slightly longer path to travel around the edge of the work, rather than along the inside. I usually do do this, but I just couldn’t make it work for this project: the small diameter and short length just meant it kept turning back right side out! Luckily though, my new colourwork method seemed to work perfectly for getting the right length floats on its own, so, in the end, I just gave up with the knitting inside out and the socks are perfect, so I’m happy!

Short Row Heel

If you’ve been here before, you’ll know that I’m a die-hard fan of the Shadow Wrap Heel, but I decided to follow the pattern this time around and give the Short Row Heel a go.

Honestly, it was… fine? I do think the heel is neat (bar some slight gaps at each corner, but I often get that (and a potential solution to this is highlighted at the beginning of the pattern!), but I’m not sure that it has overtaken the Shadow Wrap Heel for me. I just found the process a little more involved (and the instructions a little more overwhelming!), plus I don’t find it ‘hugs’ my actual heel quite as well, so I’m still very much a Shadow Wrap Heel girl.

Foot

The foot is knitted in exactly the same way as the leg: in the round, following the colourwork chart. As I mentioned, I did add an extra row of strawberries, just to get the right length for my feet (so I ended up with 6 rows of strawberries total on the foot: one more than the pattern calls for, while I did the same, 3 rows called for by the pattern on the leg). This was a super easy adjustment to make: the pattern gives clear instructions for how to adapt the length of both the foot and the leg, so you can easily customise these socks to fit your feet.

Toe

The toe is worked (I believe) as a Wedge Toe: one of the most common toes in the world of sock-knitting. I like it and it was very straightforward, but I think do still prefer the Rounded Toe that I tend to use (full details in this post), which features a slightly different distribution of decreases, in terms of look and fit.

This project also gave me another opportunity to practise my grafting: I’m definitely getting better!

Weaving in the Ends

As I mentioned, I opted to weave in all my ends with a sewing needle at the end of the knitting process, instead of using the ‘Weavin Stephen’ method suggested in the pattern. This is because I’m not entirely convinced by the structural intergrity of that method (surely the ends will just come out? No?).

Look, there were quite a few ends to weave in: 4 for each row of strawberries (2 red, 2 green), but it’s just one of those things. I’m really happy with how neat my finished socks look (and it is super easy to hide the ends in amongst all of the floats!), so I can’t complain!

New Techniques

There were some new techniques to me in this pattern, as well as some opportunities to practise techniques I’ve previously met (as always, previously encountered techniques are marked with an *):

• Provisional cast-on*
• Picot edge
• Folded cuff*
• Stranded colourwork* (but new, two-handed method used for this!).
• Short row heel
• Wedge toe
• Grafting*

Final Thoughts

Overall, even though the fit isn’t perfect, I am in love with these socks: I think they’re SO cute, so fun & summer-y, and I really enjoyed the process of knitting them. I know colourwork isn’t for everyone, but it’s definitely for me: I really love a colourwork project, and this particular one just flew off my needles.

I really like the contrast picot edge: a picot edge is definitely something I can see myself incorporating into more of my knitted ankle socks in the future (it’s just so fancy and pretty!), but I think that the use of a contrast colour for it here really adds to the effect and makes it pop, particularly when paired with the colourwork elements throughout the rest of the sock!

If I made these socks again, I’d be tempted to use my beloved Shadow Wrap Heel instead of the Short Row Heel, and a Rounded Toe instead of the Wedge Toe, just because I prefer knitting/wearing both of those and I think it might help with the general fit. I’d also be tempted to use a different yarn, to see if that would help too.

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Itty Bitty Berry Socks pattern by Stone Knits on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Itty Bitty Berry Socks here.

Gemma

xxx

Growing up, I was never a huge fan of cartoons. I tended to split my TV time between the Food Network and Disney Channel (your girl was (read: is) a hardcore High School Musical fan) instead. Nevertheless, despite my usual lack of interest in cartoons, I did give Phineas & Ferb a go when it first came out and… I loved it. It’s a very nostalgic show for me: it’s… kind of ridiculous, but hugely comforting, funny and also the songs are outrageously catchy, even now.

When the pandemic hit, everyone was in lockdown and my health was at an all-time low, Disney+ launched. I remember being so excited to have all of my favourite films and shows at my fingertips, but, surprisingly, I was most excited to be able to rewatch Phineas & Ferb and relive the comforting, low-pressure entertainment of my childhood. I watched the whole series from start to end, getting in an episode or two every day while I ate breakfast.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. Phineas & Ferb saw such a huge resurgence over the past 5 years that Disney actually revived the show for a further 2 seasons: the first of which was released on Disney+ today (which, obviously, I have already watched: I’ll share my spoiler-free thoughts at the end of the post!).

I was so excited by the news of the revival that I made these Perry the Platypus-inspired socks. Perry is my absolute favourite character from the show (I mean, he’s everyone’s, right?) and I had this random idea for a pair of socks that were subtly, but also not-so-subtly, Perry. So I made them and I love them.

A little note here: Today’s instalment is… slightly different to the usual Project Knitwear posts, because this project was (semi) self-drafted. I’m not confident enough at writing clothing knitting patterns/grading sizes yet, so I’m not sharing this project as a pattern per se, but you will find a detailed tutorial in this post (with plenty of info on how to convert your favourite sock pattern into these Perry Socks), so you can make your own if you fancy!

Table of Contents

• The Yarn
  • Fyberspates CoopKnits Socks Yeah!: Mini Review
  • Yarnsmiths Merino Sock: Mini Review
• Tutorial: Making a Perry Sock
  • Folded Stockinette Cuff
  • Stockinette Leg
  • Ruffle
  • Heel
• Stockinette Foot
  • Toe
    • Rounded Toe: Tutorial
• Final Thoughts

The Yarn

When I was choosing the yarn for this project, the most important consideration for me was the colour. Perry the Platypus has such an iconic colour palette and I really wanted these socks to be immediately recognisable as Perry-inspired socks, so the colours were really important.

In the end, I used a combination of Fyberspates CoopKnits Socks Yeah! and Yarnsmiths Merino Sock for this project. In the Fyberspates yarn, I used the shades Topaz (113) and Citrine (118). In the Yarnsmiths yarn, I used the shade Rich Brown (2K079). I would have used the Fyberspates for the ‘hat’ part of the socks too, but the range just didn’t include a brown shade similar enough to Perry’s fedora, so I opted to use the Yarnsmiths instead. I used less than one skein of each shade.

If you remember, about 8 months ago, when I was preparing to make my Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater, I shared my final colour choices at the end of this post and mentioned that I’d realised I could use the Yarnsmiths shade, that I just happened to have left over from a super secret special project, for the main body of the jumper. 8 months later, I can finally share that this was that project! Finding the perfect shade for Perry‘s little hat led to me finding the perfect shade of brown yarn for my magnum opus from last year: isn’t that such a fun, full-circle moment?

Fyberspates CoopKnits Socks Yeah!: Mini Review

Ohhhhh, I love this yarn. I’d never used it before this project and while I did, 100% choose it because it had the perfect, Perry-esque shades, I’m so glad that I did! It was a dream to knit with, the colours were perfect (a really nice mix of flat colour/a slight mottle, for depth!) and it worked super well for the (very minimal) colourwork in this pattern. It’s soft, but not too soft: it still feels pretty hard-wearing, which is important for a sock yarn!

As a bonus, I didn’t get any colour rubbing off on my fingers when I knitted with this yarn (even with the teal shade, which has been a colour I’ve had problems with before, in other yarns (see my Gnomewarming post)), which is a huge win!

I do wish that there was a slightly bigger range of shades: particularly in the brown department, because I would have loved to use this yarn for every part of this sock design!

Price-wise, I’d consider this a mid-range yarn: it’s not as cheap as the Yarnsmiths or, for example, DROPS, but it’s not crazy expensive either: I definitely think it’s worth the price, anyway!

Yarnsmiths Merino Sock: Mini Review

At the time, this was my first time using Yarnsmiths Merino Sock (even if, now, I’ve actually made a whole colourwork jumper in it!). I really enjoyed knitting with this yarn— it’s very smooth and soft, and the colour is super even and rich (plus, Rich Brown was the perfect shade for Perry‘s hat!).

The shade range of this yarn is super comprehensive: I can definitely see myself coming back to this yarn for a multitude of projects, particularly when I have a specific colour in mind.

My only qualm with this yarn was that it fluffed up a lot when, for lack of better words, I messed around with it? If you knit it plainly (as I did for the ruffle on this sock and for the whole of my Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater), it’s absolutely fine: smooth and even with defined stitches. However, when I used it to make the folded cuff at the top of these socks, there was something about the folding and knitting-together process that it just didn’t like and it did fluff up quite significantly at that point. I can’t explain it and, honestly, it doesn’t even look that bad now, but it was something I definitely noticed as I was making these socks, so it is something to keep in mind!

Price-wise, this yarn is slightly more expensive per ball than the Fyberspates yarn, BUT the ball is twice as large (100g vs 50g), so it does actually work out cheaper (and I think it’s very reasonably priced!). I also purchased this yarn while it was on sale to celebrate its release, so I actually got it an even more reasonable price, which was an extra bonus!

Tutorial: Making a Perry Sock

As I mentioned, this post is not a set pattern for these Perry Socks, because, to be honest, the world of pattern-grading still seems like a completely foreign concept to me at the moment! Maybe, one day, as I learn more and gain confidence in my pattern-writing abilities, this could be something that I can share with you, but, for now, I thought I’d just give you the basic details on how I made my socks and share some tips on how to convert your favourite sock pattern into these Perry Socks.

Overall, the Perry Socks are made up of the following features:

• Folded stockinette cuff
• Stockinette short leg
• Ruffle
• Shadow-wrap heel (or heel of your choice)
• Stockinette foot
• Rounded toe (or toe of your choice)

The folded cuff + ruffle are worked in brown yarn, to mimic Perry‘s secret agent hat. The main body of the sock (leg and foot) is worked in teal yarn, to mimic Perry‘s, well, body. The heel and the toe are worked in orange yarn, to mimic Perry’s tail and bill, respectively.

For reference, I made these socks for myself and I’m a UK size 6. I have quite narrow (and very flat) feet, so I tend to make socks on a slightly smaller needle than patterns suggest, to help them ‘hug’ my feet and stay on. For this project, I used a 2.25mm needle and cast on 64 sts. I used the Magic Loop method throughout, but you could also use short circulars (just be aware that the stitch count will increase significantly when you add the ruffle, so you might want to use longer needles for that stage).

Folded Stockinette Cuff

I’ve made this type of cuff on socks before (see my 1989 (Taylor’s Version) Socks) and I really love how it looks (and how well it stays up on my feet!). It’s super easy to do, you just follow these steps:

• Start with a provisional cast-on.

I use a crochet provisional cast-on, but you can use whatever provisional cast-on you’re comfortable with. As I mentioned, for my narrow, UK size 6 feet, I used a 2.25mm needle (and a 2.5mm crochet hook, because it was what I had to hand) and cast on 64 sts. You can adjust this as needed for your size.

• Join to work in the round.

I used the magic loop method for these socks, but you can use small circulars instead, if you prefer.

• Knit 28 rounds.

You can increase/decrease the number of rounds to increase/decrease the length of the cuff (i.e., the depth of Perry‘s fedora). It’s a very flexible method: just remember that the finished cuff will be half the height of this knitted section (because you’ll be folding it in half)!

• Pick up the stitches from the provisional cast-on on a separate needle.

You should use the same size needle as you’ve been working with for this, so for me, that’s a 2.25mm needle. Make sure to count the stitches after you’ve picked them up: you should have the same number as your cast-on/the stitches you’ve been working with (so, in my case, 64).

• Fold the cuff in half.

You might need to perform a little needle gymnastics for this, but you just need to fold the cuff wrong sides together, so that the two sets of needles are sat alongside each other.

• Knit the stitches from both needles together.

One-by-one, knit the working stitches and the stitches from the cast-on together.

To do this, hold the needles with the stitches on parallel to each other, then insert your working needle knitwise into the first stitch on the front needle, then knitwise again into the first stitch on the back needle and knitting the two stitches together. Repeat this all the way around, until you have a folded cuff.

Stockinette Leg

After you’ve worked the folded hem, you can work the leg. These are short socks, so there’s not too much knitting in the leg, but I did make mine longer than I usually would for short socks, because the ruffle takes up a little bit of space (and you don’t want the ruffle getting in the way of your shoes, either!).

To work the leg:

• Knit 1 round in the same brown shade as the cuff.

This extra round helps to make sure that the transition between the ruffle and the cuff is super seamless, without any of the teal shade poking through into the hat.

• Change to the teal yarn.

We’re into the body of the sock now, so it’s time to use the body colour.

• Knit 24 rounds with the teal yarn.

As I mentioned, this is more rounds than I would usually work for a short sock, but it’s important to allow space for the ruffle.

Ruffle

The ruffle is added to the sock just below the cuff, once the leg has been knitted (though you could also add it later, once you’ve finished the whole sock, if you prefer). The ruffle is formed with a series of simple, frequent increases.

To make the ruffle:

• Pick up and knit every stitch from the joining row of the cuff.

That is, the row where you knitted the working stitches together with the stitches from the provisional cast-on. Pick up one stitch in every stitch, so that you have the same number of stitches as your cast-on (so, in my case, 64).

• Work increases to create the ruffle.

The ruffle is made through an alternating sequence of increase rows and plain knit rows. I used a left leaning increase (LLI), because I find it the easiest/neatest increase for this project, but you can use M1L/M1R if you prefer (just make sure to use the same increase each time, and don’t use an increase that ‘uses up’ a working stitch (e.g. kfb), as this will throw off the stitch count).

The distribution of these increases will change based on your stitch count, but this was mine:

Round 1: k all.

Round 2: *k4, LLI* to end.

Round 3: k all.

Round 4: *k5, LLI* to end.

Round 5: k all.

Round 6: *k6, LLI* to end.

Round 7: k all.

Round 8: *k7, LLI* to end.

Round 9-10: k all.

Round 11: *k1, LLI* around.

Essentially, you’ll want to have doubled your starting stitch count by the end of Round 8, and then doubled that new figure by the end of Round 11.

So, for my 64 stitch socks, I worked 16 increases every increase round (so I had 128 stitches after Round 8 and 256 stitches after Round 11), but if you start with a different stitch count, you will need to adjust this.

• Cast off

I used this crochet cast off for the ruffle, because I wanted a super neat edge, but you can use your favourite, bind-off: just make sure to pick one that looks pretty!

Heel

I love a Shadow Wrap Heel: I find them super easy to knit, super neat in appearance and, as seems to be my main criteria with socks, they seem to stay on my feet very well. However, you can use whatever heel pattern you prefer/are used to for this: just make sure to work the heel in orange yarn, as the heel is supposed to mimic Perry‘s orange tail.

If you do want to try the Shadow Wrap Heel, I like to follow this tutorial by EarthtonesGirl on YouTube, which is incredibly clear and easy to follow along with (plus, the tutorial contains clear instructions on how to adapt the method to your specific stitch count!).

Stockinette Foot

After you’ve worked the heel, it’s time to knit the foot. Just like the leg, this part of the sock represents Perry‘s body, so you should switch back to the Teal yarn at this stage and use it for the whole foot, right up until you reach the toe.

The foot is super simple: it’s just worked in rounds in plain, one-colour stockinette, until you reach your desired length. For me and my size 6 feet, this was 71 rounds, but this will obviously change based on the length of your foot. I find a sock ruler very helpful for measuring this: just knit until you’re about 5 cm/2 inches away from your foot length (to leave room for the toe!).

Toe

All that’s left to do now is work the toe! You can use your favourite toe method for this, but I am a big fan of a rounded toe (instructions below). Just make sure to use the orange yarn again, as the toe represents Perry‘s bill!

Rounded Toe: Tutorial

Before you start, make sure your stitches are distributed evenly across your two needles.

Rounds 1-4: K all.

Round 5: *K1, SSK, knit to last 3 stitches on needle, K2tog, K1* twice.

Rounds 6-8: K all.

Round 9: *K1, SSK, knit to last 3 stitches on needle, K2tog, K1* twice.

Rounds 10-11: K all.

Round 12: *K1, SSK, knit to last 3 stitches on needle, K2tog, K1* twice.

Round 13: K all.

Round 14: *K1, SSK, knit to last 3 stitches on needle, K2tog, K1* twice.

Repeat Round 14 until you have roughly 1/3 of your starting stitch count remaining, spread over the two needles (for example, my starting stitch count was 64. On each needle, therefore, I had 32 stitches. 32 doesn’t divide super evenly by 3, so I split it into 10, 12 and 10. The 10 stitches on either side will be decreased, the 12 stitches in the centre will remain as the centre of the heel. To get to that stage, I’ll work Round 14 a total of 7 times, which will leave me with 12 stitches on each needle, in the centre of the heel, and 24 stitches total).

Once you’ve done that, you just need to graft the remaining stitches together to finish off the toe. I find this tutorial from Tin Can Knits super helpful for this.

After that, you can weave in all the ends and give the socks a gentle block (I’d recommend using a colour catcher when doing this, just to make sure the bright colours don’t bleed into each other and ruin all of your hard work!).

Final Thoughts

This was a super long post (I swear, I’ve been desperately trying to waffle less on here recently, but, alas, I’m a waffle-er at heart!), but I hope it’s been helpful if you’re planning to make your own Perry Socks, interesting if you’re a fellow knitter, or even just entertaining if you’re neither of the above!

Phineas & Ferb means a lot to me, in the way that only fond memories from your childhood can, so these socks feel like a little piece of nostalgia that pair my inner child’s joy with my adult self’s knitting ability, which feels weirdly magical and very wholesome.

I’m super happy with how these socks turned out: this was definitely a project where I had a flash of inspiration, in the form of a hazy, sock-y image, and just committed to making that image a reality (and it is always one of my favourite experiences when that goes to plan!). They’re exactly how I imagined them and I love that, in shoes, they seem fairly casual and unobtrusive, but, then you take off your shoes and it’s like: Bam! Perry! I guess that’s like the opposite of that meme-able gag from the show, where Doofenshmirtz only recognises Perry when he’s in his hat: here, there’s only the hat to recognise at first.

ALSOOOOO, I promised I’d share my (spoiler-free) thoughts on the new series!

As nostalgic as it was to return to the show, I was a little underwhelmed by the new episodes: they just felt a little bit chaotic (and, dare I say, too over the top/vaguely unhinged?) for me. Some of the changes in voice actors really threw me: I know it’s unavoidable when there’s such a large a gap between seasons, but it was still a bit jarring. Also, I was a little disappointed that none of the songs stuck with me that much: maybe they’ll grow on me over time?

However, there were two specific episodes that I really enjoyed: Agent T (for Teen) and No Slumber Party. Agent T (for Teen) felt like a really good, new addition to the show and overall plot: it felt exciting and different to the other episodes, but in a really good way that still felt true to the essence of the show. No Slumber Party felt like a real return to the best of the previous seasons: nothing too crazy or out there, but very iconically Phineas & Ferb: I really enjoyed it.

Gemma

xxx

Table of Contents

• The Pattern
• The Yarn
• The Knitting Process
  • Saddle Shoulder Construction
  • Yoke
  • Body
  • Neckband
  • Sleeves
  • Tubular Bind-Off
  • Weaving in the Ends
• New Techniques
• Final Thoughts

The Pattern

The Braidy Loop Sweater is worked with a saddle shoulder construction, which was a completely new technique for me. The jumper has a wide, ribbed pattern, with two cabled sections that run along the back/top of the sweater and down the sleeves. The hem and cuffs are worked in a finer rib and finished with a tubular bind off (another new technique for me). The neckline is made in the same rib pattern as the cuffs, but folded over and knitted together with the cast on (instead of using a tubular bind off).

I’ve been wanting to make a pattern by Other Loops for a while now— initially, I’d planned to make the Twist Loop Sweater, but there was something about the shoulders in that pattern that just threw me off a little, so I opted to make the Braidy Loop Sweater instead. I admit, I did think this was going to be a nice, chill jumper knit and… it absolutely was not, mainly because the construction style was so new to me! It did get a little easier once I’d got through the saddle shoulder section, but it wasn’t exactly the low-stress project I had hoped it would be.

I made a Size 2, which has a bust circumference of just over 20cm larger than my actual bust size. The pattern suggests opting for a size with a bust circumference of 10-20cm larger than your actual bust for a classic fit, or up to 40cm larger for an oversized fit. Part of me feels like I should have made the next size up, just for a slightly more slouchy, comfy fit, but my finished jumper is by no means tight or overly fitted, so I’m happy.

The Yarn

For this jumper, I decided to use Knitting for Olive Merino yarn in the shade Bordeaux. This yarn is definitely on the pricy side, so it was definitely a treat to myself, but I really wanted to try it out! I’m glad I did, because it’s such a soft, smooth yarn— it was really lovely to work with! Because Bordeaux is such a dark shade of yarn, I have found that the colour runs ever so slightly when I wash it, but that’s to be expected: I’ll just have to remember to wash it by itself!

To get the right gauge for the pattern, I held the yarn double (which, unfortunately, meant I had to buy twice the amount of yarn… sigh). I bought 12 x 25g balls and had 79g (spread across 2 skeins) leftover once the jumper was all finished. In total, I used 540g (about 2700m) of yarn for this project. I wasn’t a huge fan of knitting with doubled yarn, only because I kept accidentally picking up only one of the stitches as I knitted them, so I did have to be extra careful and keep checking my work as I went along. It did, however, give the jumper a really lovely effect, because it has the look of a sweater knitted with fingering weight yarn and the weight/feel of one knitted in DK (so, the best of both worlds!).

Burgundy was the colour of the season this autumn/winter and it’s one of my favourite colours to wear, so I really wanted to knit a project in that shade. Naturally, I finished this sweater just in time for… spring… which is unfortunate, but I know I’ll wear this colour every autumn/winter (even if it’s not quite so on trend), so I’m not too bothered. Because of the popularity of the colour, Knitting for Olive actually sold out of the Bordeaux shade in their merino yarn, so I had to wait until they had a restock to buy it, but it was definitely worth the wait.

The Knitting Process

I won’t lie: this pattern was pretty difficult to follow. Admittedly, I say that about most patterns I use (your girl likes to be spoon-fed her instructions), but I have seen a lot of other people saying that they struggled with this pattern too, which makes me feel a bit better. Honestly, I think I’m just not a huge fan of the formatting of the pattern— I know it’s just a stylistic choice but all of the underscores and such kind of distracted me!

I also had to make a lot of separate lists to remind myself which rows to increase, decrease and cable on, which I realise is fairly standard, but it somehow felt a bit more onerous with this particular pattern. Similarly, there’s a lot of ‘work as the stitches show’ instructions, which (I’m told) is also standard, but frustrated me a little as I would have liked a few more opportunities to cross-reference my work with the pattern to ensure that I’m on the right track. It’s probably not the pattern to choose if you’re a slightly under-confident garment-knitter like me!

Saddle Shoulder Construction

As I mentioned, this was my first time ever making a jumper with a saddle shoulder construction and… I didn’t love it. I just couldn’t visualise how it was supposed to work as I knitted it up, which made me a bit uneasy. However, as with most knitted projects, I just followed the instructions, step by step, and, lo and behold, it worked out.

I was a bit sad at first because, when I tried on my finished jumper, I felt like it looked a bit odd across my shoulders— just a little puffy and kind of unflattering? Naturally, I left it in a heap for a few days while I lamented all of my hard work, then gathered myself and decided to give it a gentle iron, just to see if I could get it to relax a little. I ironed it from the inside and I do think it really helped— the jumper definitely feels more relaxed and slouchy now (just more flattering in general, really). I’m not sure if the problems with the shape were caused by the saddle shoulder construction (and whether that’s just not a style that necessarily suits me), or by the cables along the shoulders, but I was really glad that the ironing helped, because I was feeling quite dejected after I first tried it on!

I do also think that the instruction for “1 row_” on the right shoulder (page 3 of the pattern) contains a mistake: I’m pretty sure that it should be ‘p1tbl and k1′ instead of ‘k1tbl and k1′, so that it follows the ribbed pattern.

Yoke

The yoke was actually my favourite part of this pattern to knit— I think the construction is really smart and looks super neat. There’s a significant amount of knitting in it, but it was interesting enough that I didn’t really mind that. I have seen a lot of other knitters comment on how deep this yoke is, but honestly, it doesn’t really bother me— the shoulders were much more of an issue for me personally.

Body

The main body of this jumper was the simplest part of the whole thing— just round and round in that basic, wide rib pattern. It wasn’t at all complicated but my goodness did it feel endless! It just seemed to take ages and, after the intense and involved shoulders/yoke, I was expecting this part to be much more relaxing and speedy. Alas, that wasn’t really the case…

Neckband

The neckband is worked as a double-length piece of ribbing, then folded over and knitted together with the cast on edge of the neck to form a folded neckband. In theory, I like the neatness of that, but I just feel it’s a little… bulky? in reality (which I don’t think it particularly helps with the shoulder issues).

I did adjust the neckband ever so slightly, in that I picked up and knitted the stitches as I did so (as opposed to just picking them all up and leaving them unknitted), then skipped the purl round (moving straight onto the first knit round), so that I didn’t have the purl ridge. The latter choice was just a matter of stylistic preference, but the former was a result of me being a little fearful of picking up all those tight stitches without knitting them at the same time…

Again, in theory, I like the idea of knitting the neckband together with the cast on edge to fold it over and secure it but, honestly, I just didn’t feel like I was able to get the neatness I wanted with this method, and I do feel like it added even more bulk to the neckband. I’m wondering if I would have preferred it if I had stitched it down by hand (or even if I’d worked the neckband like the sleeves/hem, with the tubular bind-off, instead of being folded over?).

Sleeves

The sleeves were super quick to make (particularly after that endless body) and really flew off my needles— perhaps because they had the extra interest of decreases and cables? I did have to make a lot of notes to keep track of when to work the cables/decreases but, again, that’s probably unavoidable.

I made my sleeves a little longer than suggested and, if I made this again (which, truthfully, I probably won’t), I’d consider making them even longer— I do have quite long arms, but even with the added length, these sleeve are a little short on me. I worked the sleeve until it measured 20cm (as opposed to 18cm) before working the decreases alongside the cables, which, at my gauge, worked out as exactly 50 rows.

After working the decreases, the pattern says to work until you’ve knitted between 4 and 8 rows since the last cable. After my decreases, I’d worked 7 rows since the last cable, so I didn’t work any further rows before adding the ribbing for the cuff.

Tubular Bind-Off

The cuffs and the hem of the main body are all finished with a tubular bind-off. This was my first time ever working a tubular bind-off and… like, it’s fine, but I didn’t love it, you know? It just seems like a lot of faff? I’m not amazing at grafting anyway, and the fact you have to work 2 setup rows (which I could never seem to get into the hang of because, by that point, I was so settled into the 1×1 rib process) just makes it feel a little tedious. It’s a pretty neat bind-off, but I just feel that, for the amount of effort, I’d want something perfectly neat, you know?

Weaving in the Ends

Ah, the ends. My nemeses. I decided to sew in all of my ends individually (i.e. not doubled, like the yarn I’d been using), so I gave myself twice as many ends to sew in (go figure, right?). Admittedly, this did make everything super neat, so I’m glad I did it, but it did take a bit longer. There was also quite a number of ends to sew in, which was sad, but what can you do?

New Techniques

There were quite a few new techniques to me in this pattern, as well as some opportunities to practise techniques I’ve previously met (as always, previously encountered techniques are marked with an *):

• Provisional cast-on*
• Saddle shoulder construction
• Cables*
• Folded neckband (knitted together with cast-on edge)
• Tubular bind-off
• Double knitting*
• M1L & M1R*
• M1L-P & M1R-P (purlwise increases)
• Purling through back loops

Final Thoughts

Honestly, I’m a little… disappointed with this project? I’m not obsessed with the fit (particularly across the shoulders— though the ironing definitely helped, I feel it’s at least wearable now?), I feel like I should have made the sleeves (and maybe even the body?) a little bit longer and it just wasn’t the relaxing knit I was expecting it to be! Overall, I’m okay with it, but it just wasn’t everything I dreamed it would be.

I did struggle with the pattern— I wonder sometimes if these kind of struggles are just a result of a pattern-writer and pattern-knitter being on different wavelengths, but I found it quite hard to follow and not at all intuitive, which was sad, because I was SO excited about it! There were a number of instances where I wasn’t sure how to interpret an instruction or started second-guessing myself and had to ask my mum for assistance (not unusual, but still not ideal). The finished jumper is fine, and the knitting process was fine, but I guess I was just hoping for a little more than fine with this project?

Having said that, I did really love using the Knitting for Olive Merino yarn! The colour is rich, but still matte, in a way that makes it feel a little less rich and a little more… dusky, particularly up close. It’s such a soft, smooth yarn— it was really nice to work with (though I can’t say I loved working with two strands of it, but that wasn’t specific to the yarn itself!).

I have learned a lot from this project though, and I’m sure I’ll still wear my Braidy Loop Sweater anyway. They can’t all be absolute winners, right?

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Braidy Loop Sweater pattern by Other Loops on Ravelry here.

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

Gemma

xxx

Also, a slight disclosure: I actually haven’t blocked this jumper before taking these photos (I just gave it a heavy steaming), because I wanted to get this post out before we get into the festive posts! Please rest assured that I will be blocking it (and, if you see any bumpiness… no you don’t).

Table of Contents

• The Pattern
  • Adapted Charts for Size L
    • Chart 3
    • Chart 5 & 6 (combined)
    • Chart 7
• The Yarn
• The Knitting Process
  • Neckline
  • Short Rows
  • Colourwork
  • Hem/Cuffs
  • Sleeves
• New Techniques
• Final Thoughts

The Pattern

I was inspired to make this sweater after seeing the pumpkin sweater made by Tiny Human Knits, which was itself inspired by a commercial sweater. Just like Tiny Human Knits (or THK, as I’ll be referring to her for the rest of the post), I used the Strange Brew pattern by Tin Can Knits for the actual jumper construction. This pattern is kind of a build-your-own sweater recipe: it contains lots of different puzzle-piece instructions that you can join together to make the perfect jumper for you. I also relied heavily on the notes on THK’s Ravelry project page for her sweater, which include LOADS of information & tips for making the sweater.

Using the Strange Brew pattern, I followed the instructions for the top-down sweater in size L (which is significant, because THK’s sweater was made in size M/L, so the charts were made to suit the stitch counts for that size and I did have to adapt a couple of them for the larger size). I adapted the ribbed neckline to created a folded-over neckline (because I thought it would look cool). I also added German short rows (following THK’s instructions) underneath the neckline, on the back.

This was actually my first time making a yoked sweater (or any fitted sweater really, my jumper experience before this was limited to two, boxy Weasley jumpers…). Of course, being me, I decided to go all out with a pretty complicated colourwork situation for my first foray into sweater-making. As recommended by THK, I used the Ladderback Jacquard Technique for most of the colourwork sections (which I had practised a lot while making the two hat swatches!).

Adapted Charts for Size L

As I mentioned I had to adapt some of THK’s colourwork charts to suit the stitch count of the size I was making (L). Charts 1, 2 & 4 were all absolutely fine, so I just followed them directly from THK’s Ravelry page. For the other charts though, I did have to make a few alterations to get them to work. You can find them here (I’ve given the basic chart for each one first, then the one with red lines to indicate where I placed my ladderback stitches, for reference):

Chart 3

Chart 5 & 6 (combined)

Chart 7

The Yarn

After copious testing of various different colours and combinations (you can read more about that here), I finally settled on the following yarns/shades:

• Yarnsmiths Merino Sock, in the shade Rich Brown (2K079)
• Scheepjes Metropolis, in the shade Liverpool (065)
• King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply, in the shades Aran (046) and Willow (3942)

I wasn’t quite sure how much yarn I’d need of each colour, so I played it safe and ordered more than I thought I would need… I guess there’s some more pumpkin hats in my future, because I now have quite a lot of leftover yarn! I kept track of how much yarn I used throughout the process, so, to give you a rough idea, if you want to make your own Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater, I used the following amounts of each yarn:

Yarnsmiths Merino Sock, Rich Brown (2K079):

• 235g (3 skeins, with about 2/3 of a ball remaining).

Scheepjes Metropolis, Liverpool (065):

• 55g (2 skeins, with most of the second ball remaining).

King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply, Aran (046):

• 81g (2 skeins, with just under half of the second ball remaining)

King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply, Willow (3942):

• 8g (1 skein, with most of the ball remaining).

The Knitting Process

This project was a big challenge for me, being my first time knitting both a yoked and a colourwork sweater. It involved a lot of planning and intense thinking beforehand, but the actual knitting process went pretty smoothly, which was a relief! I did make some adaptations along the way (and, inevitably, ran into a couple of problems here and there), which I’ll talk about now:

Neckline

The original Strange Brew neckline is just a simple ribbed situation. I was 100% thinking that I would work my neckline according to the pattern when I started out, so I wanted to make sure my cast-on edge was nice and neat (and suitably stretchy). To achieve this, I opted to use the Alternating Cable Cast-On and, though it is a bit moot now, I really liked the slight picot effect it gave!

About halfway through the ribbed section, I decided to make a folded neckline instead (hence the moot-ness of my pretty picot cast-on…). I just thought that a folded neckline would make the jumper look that little bit more neat and professional, so I decided to go for it!

To make the folded neckline, I just knit double the length of rib the pattern called for (i.e. 2.5 inches instead of 1.25 inches). When I’d finished knitting the jumper, I went back with some brown yarn and used a whip stitch to secure the cast on edge to the base of the rib on the inside of the jumper (I used the first row of purl bumps as a guide). I made sure to keep my stitching loose, but neat, to preserve the stretch.

Short Rows

Like THK, I included German Short Rows in my sweater, to help it sit better. The Strange Brew pattern does contain instructions for adding opitional short rows, but they are worked after the yoke, which I didn’t really want. Instead, I opted to follow THK’s instructions and worked my short rows right after I finished the neckline (before starting the colourwork yoke), on the back of the garment.

I did, however, skip the ‘knit 1 row, purl 1 row, knit 1 row’ section from THK’s notes, just because I didn’t really want a visible purl ridge on the yoke.

Colourwork

As recommended by THK, I used the Ladderback Jacquard technique for the majority of the colourwork sections (basically anywhere where there were gaps of more than 5 stitches between a single colour). To set up my ladderback stitches, I followed this tutorial from knitdarling.com. I found that I preferred setting up the stitches by working a M1L increase purl-wise, as opposed to a backwards loop cast-on, which I also (accidentally) tried out when making my hat swatches. I purled all of my ladderback stitches throughout, to make the inside of the sweater extra neat (because, that way, all of the ladderbacks appear as knit stitches from the back).

I did run into a little bit of trouble with the increase rounds of the yoke distorting my colourwork, so I did have to do a little bit of trial and error to work out the best places to work those rows. In the end, I worked the increase rounds on the following rounds:

• Increase round 1: Row 1 of Chart 1
• Increase round 2: Row 2 of Chart 2
• Increase round 3: Row 18 of Chart 2
• Increase round 4: Row 3 of Chart 5

I also added 2 more rows of plain brown before starting the colourwork (on row 6) in Chart 1, just to suit the size L a little better.

The one real problem I ran into with this pattern was The Jog, where the colourwork is slightly offset at the beginning of the round (on mine, this was at the centre back in the yoke, then under one arm after splitting for the sleeves). The Strange Brew pattern talks about this in depth, so I was fully prepared for it, but I did get myself into a bit of a pickle with it, where I thought I’d made a mistake, so dropped down, ‘fixed’ it and then couldn’t for the life of me figure out why my colourwork wasn’t working. I stared at it for ages, trying to find the problem, then gave it to my mum, who also stared at it for ages, before she was eventually able to work out what I’d done (spoiler alert: I hadn’t made a mistake— The Jog tricked me…)! Phew.

Hem/Cuffs

The Strange Brew pattern recommends going down to the smaller needle size (2.75mm, instead of 3.50mm) for the ribbed hem/cuffs. I opted to use 3.00mm needles for my rib, instead, just so they didn’t pull in too much. 2 inches of rib ended up being about 21 rows at my gauge.

To cast off both the hem and the cuffs after the ribbed sections, I used HiyaHiya Grandma’s Stretchy Bind Off, making sure not to do it too tightly (which is a longstanding, unfortunate habit of mine). I like this cast off for rib, because it looks nice and keeps everything nice and stretchy.

Sleeves

To make sure that my charts fit the sleeves, I opted to pick up a handful more stitches than the pattern called for at the underarms: 11 and 12, respectively (before and after the centre marker), for a total of 96 stitches for each sleeve (instead of 92). I made sure to pick up the 4 extra stitches at the beginning and end of my underarm cast-on stitches, because that’s usually where you get a bit of a gap anyway. Actually, this method ended up reducing the gaps, which I meant I had less darning to do at the end of the project, so it all worked out for the best!

I worked the setup round in the white yarn, then, once that was done, continued on in colourwork, following Chart 5/6.

Things got a little trickier when it came to the sleeve decreases— there was a lot of trying on and measuring and calculating. To get sleeves that fit me, without the decreases warping the colourwork, and ending up with the right amount of stitches for the colourwork at the cuffs, I did the following, all in brown yarn:

• [Decrease round, 4 plain rounds] 7 times.
• [Decrease round, 3 plain rounds] 10 times.
• [Decrease round, 1 plain round] 1 time.

So, this gave me a total of 18 decrease rounds, which took me from 96 to 60 stitches, just as I needed. They’re more condensed than the decrease rounds in the Strange Brew pattern, but the sleeves fit me, so all is well. After the sleeve decreases were done, I worked Chart 7, before knitting the ribbed cuffs in brown, again.

New Techniques

• Alternating Cable Cast-On
• HiyaHiya Grandma’s Stretchy Bind-Off*
• Ladderback Jacquard colourwork technique*
• Following a colourwork chart*
• Colourwork in the round*
• Folded neckline (stitched down)
• German short rows*
• Knitting a yoke
• Sleeve decreases*

Final Thoughts

Oh. My. Goodness. I kind of can’t believe I made this?! It was so far out of my comfort zone and felt like such a mountain to climb, but it was actually a really fun project to make. I was very much overwhelmed initially by using the Strange Brew ‘recipe’ instead of a regular pattern that you can just follow to the letter, but it did make it super easy to customise the jumper and make sure it fit me perfectly (which is good, because it was a lot of work and I would hate to not be able to wear it after all that!). I’m proud of myself for persevering, though, and, actually, I just took things one step at a time, making adjustments when needed, following the pattern/THK’s instructions when needed (and, of course, taking a break every now and then!) and it all worked out.

While I don’t think I’ll be jumping into another colourwork sweater straight away, I really did enjoy working on this project— I think I may just have got super used to working the Ladderback Jacquard technique after the double-hat-swatch-situation, but I honestly found that the colourwork sections went faster than the plain brown sections!

This was definitely my most ambitious Project Knitwear so far, but I also think it might be the most successful: it turned out exactly how I imagined it, which makes me so unbelievably proud!

Also…. a special thank you to Tiny Human Knits for providing such extensive notes on her Ravelry project page for her jumper: it has truly been my Pumpkin Sweater Bible over the last couple of months!

If you're interested...

You can find the Strange Brew Sweater pattern by Tin Can Knits here.

You can find the project page for the Strange Brew Pumpkin by Tiny Human Knits on Ravelry here.

You can find the project page for my Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

The first stage of any knitting project is swatching (sigh), because it’s important to test out gauge, yarns and colours (so I’m told). In the Strange Brew book, there is a pattern for a colourwork hat called the Anthology Hat. The pattern even suggests that you treat the hat as your ‘swatch’, thereby testing out both the yarn and your gauge AND being left with a wearable item by the end of it. As someone who quite literally despises swatching, this seemed like a great plan for me! So, in swatching for my soon-to-be Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater, I made two colourwork hats (hence why this is Project Knitwear #6.5— technically, these are wearable knits, but they’re not the knitwear item I have lined up for the next instalment). In this post, I’ll be giving you all the details for both hats, chatting about my experience making them AND talking you through my final colour/yarn choices for my sweater.

Table of Contents

• The Pattern
• Hat #1: King Cole Merino Blend
  • Mini Review: King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply
  • Hat #1 as a Swatch: Thoughts
• Hat #2: Scheepjes Metropolis
  • Mini Review: Scheepjes Metropolis
  • Hat #2 as a Swatch: Thoughts
• Ladderback Jacquard Technique
• To Pom, or Not To Pom
• New Techniques
• Final Thoughts (and Final Colour Decisions)

The Pattern

As I mentioned, I used the Anthology Hat pattern by Tin Can Knits. This is a simple, customisable hat pattern, that features a ribbed brim and a large, plain section for colourwork. For both hats, I made the size ‘Adult SM‘ and followed the instructions for sock weight yarn (the pattern also provides instructions for Aran and DK weight yarns). I opted for a regular (not fold-over brim) and used an amalgamation of the charts provided by Tiny Human Knits on Ravelry for the colourwork section.

I followed the chart above (my amalgamation of the originals), then followed rows 1-4 of Chart 4 (from Tiny Human Knits).

Because I wanted a little more of the cream shade at the top of the hat than I had space for in my colourwork section, I kept knitting with the cream shade for the first 3 rows of the crown decreases on both hats, before switching back to the brown shade and finishing off the hats.

On her Ravelry project page, Tiny Human Knits suggests using the Ladderback Jacquard Technique for the colourwork. This is a technique I’ve never come across before, so I thought I could give it a go when making these hats, to practise ahead of the larger (more intimidating) sweater project.

Hat #1: King Cole Merino Blend

For my first hat, I used King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply (which is curiously also known as King Cole Anti-Tickle Merino Blend 4 Ply), a 75% merino/25% nylon fingering weight yarn, in the following shades:

• Chocolate (023)
• Cinnamon (3298)
• Aran (046)
• Willow (3942)

I knit the hat on 3.5mm needles (2.75mm for the ribbing) and used a basic, long tail cast-on. This cast-on wasn’t the best choice- truthfully, I really thought it was a stretchy cast-on, but apparently that is not the case! This hat’s definitely a little tight along the cast-on edge, but I guess we live and learn. I also added a pom pom to the top of this hat (more on that later— see ‘To Pom or Not To Pom‘).

For the colourwork section of this hat, I followed my amalgamated colour chart, but only did 1 plain brown row (instead of 2) between the chevron pattern and the pumpkins, and the pumpkins and the top white pattern, respectively. I increased the size of these stripes in Hat #2, because I thought the pattern looked a little cramped in this one.

Mini Review: King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply

Overall, I liked this yarn. I thought it worked up really neatly in the colourwork sections and doesn’t have much of a ‘halo’ (which I like). It is a soft yarn, but it’s not the softest I’ve used. I also found that the thickness (squidgy-ness?) of the knitted material drastically reduced after blocking, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I did find it a little disappointing at the time.

There’s a pretty good range of colours available for this yarn, but, unfortunately, it didn’t quite have all of the shades I wanted for this project. I purchased this yarn from Wool Warehouse, at £3.89 per 50g ball, so it is a pretty affordable option, which is good to know!

Hat #1 as a Swatch: Thoughts

My main takeaway from this swatch was that the colours weren’t quite what I was looking for: the orange was a little too bright, the brown a little too dark and the cream a little too white. The combination just felt ever so slightly too in-your-face (dare I say, garish…?) for the sweater.

I did go back and look at the colour options for the King Cole yarn, but, as I mentioned, it just didn’t have the slightly more muted, warmer colours that I was looking for, so I had to broaden my search a little. That led me to Scheepjes, which, in turn, led to…

Hat #2: Scheepjes Metropolis

I found some great-looking shades in Scheepjes Metropolis (another fingering weight, 75% merino/25% nylon blend yarn), so I decided to make a second swatch-hat using that instead. For the new hat, I used the following shades of Metropolis:

• Valencia (062)
• Mumbai (068)
• Liverpool (065)
• Vancouver (028)

Just like with Hat #1, I knit this project on 3.5mm needles (2.75mm for the ribbing). However, I used a German Twisted Cast-On for this project, which made the cast-on edge a lot stretchier— much better for a hat!

For the colourwork, I followed my amalgamated chart exactly (i.e. with 2 plain rows above and below the pumpkin motifs). This did mean that my colourwork section was slightly longer, but I have a relatively big head (sigh), so that’s no problem.

Mini Review: Scheepjes Metropolis

Okay, not to be dramatic, but I’m kind of obsessed with this yarn. It’s SO soft. Truly, I was trying to describe to my mum what this yarn felt like to knit with and the only fitting adjective I could come up with was ‘buttery’. It’s a buttery yarn. It’s ever so slightly heathered, but not in a dramatic way at all- more of a solid-colours-with-a-little-more-dimension kind of way. It was really good for colourwork and blocked nicely I feel like it didn’t thin out quite as much as the King Cole.

Again, though, the colour range caused me problems— there are so many shades that I thought I had hit the jackpot, but some colours have very few options (e.g. brown, which is a big problem for this project) and others have lots of variations, but no ‘neutral’ option, if that makes sense (I’m thinking about a nice, basic cream shade here!).

Hat #2 as a Swatch: Thoughts

I was SO confident as I was knitting this— I truly thought I’d stumbled on the perfect yarn for this project, but now I’m just… not so sure. First and foremost, I’m just not a fan of Vancouver (the green shade). It feels very lurid to me, particularly alongside the other, more muted colours. I’m also not crazy about the cream shade I chose (Mumbai)— it actually has little specks of a kind of… hot pink shade in it? So in some lights it looks cream (which I want!) and in others it looks pink (which I don’t want!). I LOVE the pumpkin shade (Liverpool), and I think the brown is more what I was after than the King Cole version, but when I look at them together, the hat just looks a little… muted to me? I feel like there’s not enough contrast between the brown and orange shades, which I think is important for this design. I’m disappointed, because I really thought this yarn/colour combo was THE one, but I guess it’s back to the drawing board a little bit in terms of colours.

Ladderback Jacquard Technique

So, as I mentioned, Tiny Human Knits recommends using the Ladderback Jacquard Technique for carrying the floats in the colourwork sections of the sweater, because often there are large stretches between the different colours in the chart. This is a technique I’d never heard of before (I’m not particularly experienced at colourwork), so I figured it would be a good idea to give the technique I try while I made my swatch-hats.

Weirdly, I really enjoyed this technique— I didn’t find it too tricky (once you’ve set up the ladderback stitches, you’re away!) and I always worry about carrying the floats loosely enough, so it definitely helped to ease some of my colourwork anxiety. In fact, for the first hat, I think it went really well for me— I didn’t make any mistakes (that went unnoticed and uncorrected, at least) and I think it looks really neat from both the right and wrong sides of the work. I actually enjoyed the whole process— I flew through it!

With the second hat… I got a little cocky. I became weirdly obsessed with finishing the second hat as quickly as possible, so I was definitely rushing, which probably didn’t help the situation. If you look closely, you can see a rogue ladderback stitch that I forgot was a ladderback stitch and promptly knit as a regular stitch, increasing my overall stitch count and interrupting my colourwork pattern. The worst part is that it was in the lurid green shade! Sigh. Moral of the story: don’t rush colourwork. I will definitely be remembering that when I make my jumper!

To Pom, or Not To Pom

When I made Hat #1, I was fresh-faced and optimistic, so I envisaged the final hat with a big, multicolour pom pom on top, containing all four of the colours used in the hat itself. With the help of one of my handy bobble makers (the blue one (which I believe is 8.5cm), from this pack), I made the pom pom of my dreams, then promptly remembered all the woes that pom poms bring with them. Why are they never actually secure? Why are threads always falling out even though I tied them TIGHT with ALL my strength AND ran a needle through them? Why are they never as big and puffy as I dream they will be? Why do I have to trim off half the pom pom to get it looking like a pom pom? Why do I have to have the skills of an award-winning hair stylist to trim it and keep it round? Sigh. Pom poms. I love them in theory, and I love how they look, but they drive me insane.

Anyway, I made the pom pom for Hat #1 using all 4 colours that I used in the hat: brown, orange, cream and green. To make sure the colours were evenly distributed throughout the pom pom, I held all 4 strands (one of each colour) together as I wrapped it, so there were no patches of colour (this also had the added benefit of making the process a lot quicker, which was a win).

To attach the pom pom to the hat, I used a trick my mum taught me: using a button on the inside. This is great because it means you can easily remove and reattach the pom pom at any point, so the hat can still be washed (without a pom pom massacre), or, if you’re not feeling particularly frivolous one day, you can go pom-less. To do this, you just thread the ends of the pom pom through the top of the hat, from the outside to the inside. Next, you thread those ends through a large button (on the inside of the hat, still), pull them tight, then tie them to each other. This keeps the pom pom secure on top of the hat, but makes it super easy to remove it when needed. And, before you ask— no, you cannot feel the button (unless you have no hair, in which case, you kind of can and I apologise for that).

As I was making Hat #2, I was already starting to dread making another pom pom. It was only once I finished the hat that I remembered not every hat has a pom pom, and, seeing as this was my hat, the decision was entirely up to me! Wow, isn’t free will just great? Anyway, I left this hat pom-less, which I think suits it more sophisticated, muted colour palette anyway (or so I tell myself).

New Techniques

As this is (technically) a Project Knitwear post, I wanted to document the techniques that I used while making these hats: both the new techniques, that I tried for the first time, and the ones I’ve met before, but had an opportunity in this project to practise (as always, previously encountered techniques are marked with an *):

• Long tail cast-on*
• German twisted cast-on*
• Ladderback Jacquard colourwork technique
• Following a colourwork chart*
• Colourwork in the round*

Final Thoughts (and Final Colour Decisions)

Overall, I enjoyed making these hats. It was great practising the Ladderback Jacquard technique (even if I did get a little ahead of myself with it) and I did really enjoy knitting the colourwork sections. It’s not something I’d want to do all the time (it’s much harder to watch TV and knit when you’re working with colours!), but it is pretty addictive and SO rewarding.

Weirdly enough, these are actually my first ever knitted hats! They were so quick and easy to make, so I don’t think they’ll be my last. I really liked following the Anthology ‘recipe’ by Tin Can Knits- even though it felt a little overwhelming at first to have so much creative control, it definitely opens up a whole world of hat-related possibilities!

In terms of my final yarn/colour decisions for my Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater (aka the reason we’re all actually here), I had to do a little bit more testing and trialling before I found a combination that I was happy with. In the end, I’ve settled on a combination of 3 different yarn brands (because I’m a very minimal person, evidently):

• Yarnsmiths Merino Sock, in the shade Rich Brown (2K079)
• Scheepjes Metropolis, in the shade Liverpool (065)
• King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply, in the shades Aran (046) and Willow (3942)

The brown was the shade I was struggling the most with, until I remembered that I had a ball of the Yarnsmiths leftover from another project (which you will eventually be seeing!). Sure enough, the Rich Brown colourway was EXACTLY the warm, mid-brown shade I was looking for, plus the yarn has the exact same composition (75% merino/25% nylon) as the other two yarns, so everything worked out perfectly! The contrast between the new brown shade and the Scheepjes orange shade is much better, so I’ll be using that yarn for the pumpkins/orange sections of the pattern. With the warmer brown shade, the cream King Cole shade looks a little less white, so it’ll be perfect for my sweater. Alongside the other yarns, the original King Cole shade of green works perfectly— it’s not too lurid, but brings a nice touch of leafy green to the pattern.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading all about my hat-swatch adventures! I’ve ordered all the yarn for my Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater, so (fingers crossed) that post should be coming to the blog later on this season! If you want to be notified as soon as it goes live, you can subscribe to my newsletter!

If you're interested...

You can find the Anthology Hat pattern here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for the Strange Brew Pumpkin sweater by Tiny Human Knits here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Hat #1 (King Cole) here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Hat #2 (Scheepjes) here.

Gemma

xxx

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
• The Yarn
• The Swatch
• The Knitting Process
  • Yardage Woes
  • German Short Rows
  • Decreases
  • Maths (ew)
• New Techniques
• Final Thoughts

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