FO: Liesl Cardigan

 

This sweater was my quickest make to date - I completed it in 6 days! - and it was just the fun little jaunt that I needed at the time. 

This was very much a case of yarn before pattern. My stash has become ... I mean ridiculous doesn't quite encompass how much it has grown in the last year lol. I bought bunch in the Hobby Lobby clearance this spring (because they were 75% off or more) and then about a week later I was given two big Rubbermaid tubs stuffed full of amazing yarns. So exponential growth has occurred. I always like to have 1 fingering weight sweater sweater and 1 worsted weight sweater on the needles at any given time. I had been going on my Susan Shaw vintage cardigan, but I didn't have a worsted one for quite a while. Being obsessed with linen this year, I pulled out the skeins of Coton et Lin by Yarn Bee that I grabbed for so cheap in the spring clearance. Because I was buying this yarn on clearance, there were only so many skeins of each color available. At first I thought I was going to make a striped cardigan with all the colors, but I had 3 skeins in the Apple Cider colorway and I started searching for patterns that would stay within that yardage. One of the patterns that came up was the Liesl by Ysolda Teague. I've had this pattern on my list to make for years and I just never took the plunge, but to discover that I could make a full sweater with just 540 yards sealed the deal. I decided to cast on that weekend.

This pattern is a lovely feather and fan stitch design that is knit on size US 10.5 needles (the pattern called for 7mm, but I don't have that size in my set, so I just used the 6.5mm, which is size 10.5). Because the yarn and needles were so large and this was so lacy, this worked up shockingly fast. I thought I was starting an ongoing sweater project, but the pattern was so fun to knit that I finished this entire sweater in 6 days! Definitely a record for me.

I finished this so fast that I didn't even bother to think about closures. The pattern does give instructions if you want to add buttonholes, but it's kind of an optional thing so I just didn't worry about it. I decided to sew on decorative buttons and then use snaps. 

I sewed one snap under each button to obscure them, but sadly the plastic snaps I used are terrible. I need to go back and change them out with vintage metal snaps. I may also add one additional snap to close a bit further down. The buttons are just vintage random ones from my thrifted stash I've had for ages. 

While I was making this and when I first finished it, I thought I would wear this a ton through the summer. Sadly, that has not been the case. It's a great light weight sweater, for sure, but it's still just been so stinking hot here that I can't even think about wearing an extra layer. Even if it's linen. It's still worsted weight, after all. I know I will wear it a lot once it cools down and I factor sweaters back into my wardrobe rotation though.

So that's my Liesl sweater :) Unexpected in  many ways. It's the fastest I've ever made and not the overall cheapest, but it's the cheapest I've bought yarn for in a conventional store (i.e. not in a thrift store). I really love how it turned out and I would absolutely use this pattern again if I have a limited amount of worsted yarn I want to make into a sweater.

Summary:

Yarn: 3 skeins of Yarn Bee Cotton et Lin - $4.47

Pattern: Liesl by Ysolda Teague 

Notions: 2 buttons, 2 snaps - from stash

Time: 6 days

Total Cost: $ 4.47

WIP Wednesday: Knitting Machines, Plant Based Sweaters, and Plans

Last week, I mentioned that I had a sudden desire to use some of my plant based yarn to make a summery project. This is an extremely spur of the moment notion, but it has stuck with me. So after thinking I would make a Hetty or Liesl with the Cotton et Lin I got at Hobby Lobby on clearance, I have now had to take into consideration how much yarn I would leave with each project and what I could do with it.

Because of this, I now think I've decided that the Apple Cider color will become a Liesl. The Liesl pattern is very lacy, and stretches A LOT with blocking, so it take a deceptively small amount of yarn. I only have 3 skeins of the apple cider colorway, but that should be enough for this project. Good stuff. I will be making my Liesl with longer sleeves than shown in the photo, but just how long will be determined by how much yarn I have left when I get to the sleeves.

I cast on Monday night and managed to make almost the entire yoke in a few hours. This is going to be a nice, quick project for sure, which I'm feeling right now. Considering that I don't even have the back piece done on my Susan Shaw cardigan yet, I could use some quick gratification.

For the additional skeins of this yarn, I'm still thinking of making a striped Hetty cardigan. So I'm officially separating the photo from last week, lol. There are several fingering weight sized projects I would love to make up, but I don't have any linen in lighter weight yarn, and I'm operating on stash right now so that will be for the future sometime. Will this second sweater actually get knit up this summer? Time will tell, folks. I'm inclined to think no, but who knows what tomorrow will bring?

In other things I've been working on, I have been playing a lot with my knitting machine. I have a standard gauge knitting machine now, so I can finally make a fingering weight or thinner sweater on a machine - something I have always wanted to do. These machines definitely have a different learning curve than hand knitting. Don't go into machine knitting thinking you'll get it right away because you know how to hand knit - no sir, that is not how it works, lol. But while I do make some mistakes and have to start over, I'm learning each time and will (hopefully) not make that mistake as often in the future.

When a friend of mine destashed her epic yarn stash to me this spring, she gave me 6 big cones of fine gauge yarn, so this week I've been making swatches on my knitting machine that I will use to decide what I want to make with them :) All of these were washed and dryed in the machine with a load of my kids clothes (crazy) except I also swatched some yarn I ordered from China (the flat beige one) that came in much finer than I anticipated when I ordered it. The knitting machine makes using that yarn so much less daunting. Love it. It's honestly been very fun to play with. It's a weird jump in hobbies, for sure, but I like it.

So that's what I have going on this week. Anyone else making summer sweater plans? Or playing with a knitting machine? Let me know!