Finally! I finished this sweater after working on it for the past several months. The spring was cold when I began knitting, I took a break over the summer, and then returned to it in November.
I posted about learning the brioche stitch in order to knit the recommended finish of the design. And I’ll say it one last time: this pattern was the push I needed to teach myself brioche. I wouldn’t settle for any of the alternative hems, so I had to learn!
The pattern is a 1 size fits all asymmetric design by Stephen West of Westknits. It’s one of his earlier designs, and a very popular one, because of the unusual shape and infinite number of ways it can be made up. The sizing for any given person is based on the size of needle and the weight of the yarn used.
The sweater was made with a highly varied combination of yarns. Most of the sweater was knit with 2 yarns held double, with one of the yarns being Mohair Glitter by Mary Maxim, a lace weight acrylic/mohair blend. I’m grateful to my daughter for letting me use this skein from her stash; I ended up using it on at least 75% of my sweater. It adds fluff, buoyancy and glitter to the sweater’s texture throughout.
There are 2 instances where I held 3 strands of yarn triple:
Stripe #1 (the stripe below the top wide navy stripe):
Scrap Kroy Paton’s Sock
Handspun (from home processed fleece)
Mohair Glitter by Mary Maxim (discontinued)
Stripe #2 (the stripe below the third wide navy stripe):
Scrap Kroy Paton’s Sock
Lion Brand Vanna’s Glamour in White (discontinued)
Mohair Glitter by Mary Maxim (discontinued)
Both Vanna’s Glamour and Mohair Glitter can only be bought now from individuals selling off their own stashes on sites such as Etsy or Ebay.
More Yarn Details
The wide navy stripes are Jeans by Lion Brand in the “Brand New” colorway.
I also used CoBaSi Hikoo in the “Bluebell” colorway for the top light blue swoop and for the narrow bright blue stripe in the center of the sweater. It was held double with Glitter Mohair and Paton’s Kroy sock.
The large white swoop is Vanna’s Glamour/Glitter Mohair held together.
The 2 light denim colored stripes are Jeans in the “Stonewashed” colorway held together with this handspun and this handspun.
the gray tweed used for the ribbed neckline, half the brioche hem and on the lower sleeves, is
Lion Brand Heartland, in the “Mount Rainier Tweed” colorway.
The pink yarn is Lion Brand Wool Ease in the “Blush Heather” colorway.
The short rowed area between the pink and the brioche hem is this handspun.
And finally, the sleeves are a collage of many different things: my handspun remnants, sock yarn, and CoBaSi, often held together with Glitter Mohair.
Technical Details
I had to lengthen the sleeves because they were too short and hiking up too much, which meant unpicking the i-cord bind off I spent so long knitting. I accomplished 2 things from doing this:
- gaining a better understanding of the construction of the i-cord (seen while deconstructing)
- using my handspun odds and ends on the lower sleeves
I used a standard bind off this time around. I wanted to wear my sweater, I couldn’t wait!
Thank you for reading 🙂
Sewcoordinated 