I’m pleased and relieved to announce that into the deep sea (woods) pattern is live now, at last!
The test knit was over a week ago but I couldn’t take nice pictures to show you both the Sea version and the Woods version of the sweater. That’s finally done on a less cloudy day and the pattern is available on my website and on Ravelry.
into the deep sea (woods) sweater was born from my craving for a blue sweater. I also wanted a sweater with a cowl because having something around your neck immediately gives you feeling of warmth. So a new blue sweater should have a cowl, not a turtle neck because it can be itchy, but not a too large cowl either which would get in my way to dishes (I had a thin sweater with a very large cowl and it was not practical to eat)!
I purchased a bright deep blue yarn, from fonty as usual. It’s BB mérinos, 100% merino yarn, which should be the yarn for baby clothes at fonty (because BB read bei bei, totally like bébé, baby in French).
The only drawback of this yarn is its thinness. 400 meters (420 yards) for 50g is rather at the light end of fingering weight yarn and the standard gauge is 30 stitches to 10 cm (about 4″). That said, this, altogether with the large color palette, makes it a nice base color to hold with mohair lace yarn!
So I bought two mohair lace yarns and, despite my desire for a bright blue, I chose the left one because I found that it added depth to the whole tone.
From left to right: Gepard Kid Seta Royal blue, fonty BB mérinos #0818 & Drops Kid-Silk Cobalt blue
You may have noticed that I like set-in sleeve garments. This is because I have broad, square shoulders and set-in sleeve sweaters fit me best.
And I opted as usual for … stockinette stitch! Some love very challenging lace or cables, or colorwork patterns, and I do like working these kinds of things sometimes, but what I love the most about knitting is its soothing side and stockinette stitch is perfect for evening knitting.
So this top-down sweater is, except for some shaping, worked even in stockinette stitch. The lower body has no shaping, neither the sleeves for smaller sizes.
The sleeve cap, on the contrary, might be the most “exciting” part of the pattern. You pick up stitches around the armhole, perhaps at a surprisingly low rate, but wrap-and-turn short rows used here will fill the spaces between stitches (and if you want to know why, please read this post about W&T short rows).
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And here is the deep sea sweater on me, because this blue looks better against a white background than on a wood (kitchen) table.
The cowl is slouchy, not too large to keep you from eating but large enough to play peek-a-boo 🙂
And I wanted to knit the same sweater with a ribbed cowl to accompany the testknitters (I make test calls on Instagram, please follow me if you are interested).
I bought the same fingering yarn in a different shade, a dark oak moss green, and another mohair lace yarn. The mohair yarn is lighter than the fingering one this time, and I think it’s a good match because it brings lights in the dark woods.
fonty BB mérinos #825 & Knitting for Olive Soft Kid Silk Bottle Green
I at first tried knitting the cowl with the same neck shaping as for the stockinette cowl (I didn’t knit the entire body to do this, don’t worry), but as expected, the neckline was too low. The ribbed cowl version has therefore different neck shaping and the instructions for both versions are included in the pattern.
Otherwise, the deep woods version is worked the same as the deep sea version. And at some point, we decided that the sweater was for my daughter.
The sweater worn classically (she is shorter than I).
But she says with mom-fit jeans, tops should be worn in (really 🙄?)
So, which version do you like better?
The pattern is available on this website and on Ravelry and is 15% off through February 3, 2022. Enjoy!