OAL2017: Anaheim Wrap Sweater

It's that time again! I just completed my outfit for the Outfit Along 2017! I'm really loving my outfit  as a whole and as individual pieces, so it feels like a successful challenge. Just like last year, I will be blogging each piece separately, so check back over the next week for all 3 pieces. First up: my sweater!

This is the Anaheim by Andi Satterlund - this was her new pattern she released for this challenge. It's a wrap front style with an allover lace design. I was on the fence about the design when I was planning my project, but I decided to just go with it and I'm very happy about that decision. The finished sweater is much more versatile then I originally thought. Since the sweater is the portion of this challenge that takes the most time, I planned and made this piece first. Happily it only took 1 month and that was with mostly only knitting on the weekends.

The sweater is made with Andi's usual top-down in the round construction and with set in sleeves. The sleeves are plain stockinette stitch and a nice airy, loose gauge to keep things from being too hot (a thoughtful detail given the summer style of this sweater in my opinion, but be aware that the gauge is loose).

Gordo bomb! lol my dog really wanted to be a part of this whole picture taking business. The back of the sweater has the same all over lace pattern as the front. As far as lace goes, this is the easiest chart ever and it's very quickly memorized. Normally with Andi's patterns I knit a size Large but increase to an X Large at the waist as well as lengthening for my long torso. In this sweater I was actually able to just keep increasing along the neckline until I got the stitch count of the XL size waist. I have no shaping at the sides - my size worked out so that the lace pattern fit in perfectly, so the design is never interrupted. This extra increasing not only gave me the waist size I needed, it also gave me extra length - problem solved! I will say that while it made the knitting easier, it doesn't really help my figure much to not have any shaping at the sides. I'll still wear it, but this contributes to me not wearing it closed.

Which leads me to another cool aspect of this design - it can be worn 2 ways - there are buttons at the side seams and buttonholes at the points, so you just wrap the sweater over and button it at the sides. But you can also leave it open for a waterfall look.

I had the perfect buttons in my stash! I got an entire tube of these buttons for $2 at The Sewing Studio back in April, and they are the perfect color and size. I love the kind of 80s vibe they have with the triangle holes. I also like the i-cord bind off. I've done i-cord bind of before, but never where it went around the entire sweater before. I seriously thought this binding would never end, but I persevered and I'm glad I did because it's a nice effect.

I've never thought I would like the waterfall style, but I really like the look of this one opened up. To be honest I will probably always wear the cardigan open like this unless I maybe wear it with a dress. Because it sits right at my waist, a lot of my skirts and tops can cause the sweater to bunch up a bit. Also I don't love that the doubled up knitted fabric visually thickens my tummy. I do love the v neckline though. So we'll see how I end up wearing it most.

I guess I should probably talk about my yarn, huh? Whoops. I wanted to work from my (ridiculously large) stash for this project, and I'm happy to say that all the fabric and yarn were stash busts :) The yarn is Bernat Cotton-ish, a cotton/acrylic blend, in the Jade Jersey colorway. The color is a nice teal-y emerald green (it's not quite that teal in real life). I originally bought this to make a different sweater a few years ago, but looking at that pattern now it's not really a style I would wear much so I decided this yarn would work well for this project. It's a DK weight and cotton like the pattern calls for (the original suggested yarn is Knit Pick Cotlin), and after swatching and blocking I decided it would work out. I'm happy I was right (sometimes you never know!). This yarn was nice to work with especially considering how inexpensive it was. I would certainly recommend this yarn if you're looking for cotton DK yarn.

Little side story - usually I take blog photos on my own with a shutter release, but now that my husband is back around he wanted to help me. Both of us out on the porch was just something my dog had to be involved in, and he kept walking over to be in the shot  - which is so odd since he typically hides when we start pointing a camera at him (I think he didn't like that I was getting all my husband's attention). So now blog photos are a family event, lol. He is a pretty cute photo bomber though.

So that's my Anaheim sweater!It's so nice to have have another sweater finished (I was starting to think I wouldn't hit my sweater quota this year compared to the previous few years!), and I really enjoyed this as an easy but not boring knit. I love how it goes with the rest of my outfit, but I also know it will go with other things in my wardrobe. Yay for basic items!

Check back throughout this week to see the deets on the rest of my outfit!

Summary:
Yarn: 3 skeins of Bernat Cotton-ish in Jade Jersey - $9.75
Pattern: Anaheim by Andi Satterlund - $5.40
Notions: 2 buttons - $0.10
Time: 1 month
Total Cost: $15.25