As promised in the last post, here’s the pullover I knitted with Lyonesse DK, a British yarn.
This is Seacoast pullover by Joji Locatelli, published in Woolpeople No.7 of Brooklyn Tweed, in 2014.
I’ve fallen in love with this pattern when it was out. The pullover is beautiful, with simple and clean lines, and the model who has it on is really charming!
But somehow it took me long time to decide to cast it on – the time to find the perfect yarn for this project. The pattern yarn, Shelter by Brooklyn Tweed, is attractive with its nuanced shades, but frankly speaking, it becomes expensive when it arrives in Europe and I’m not ready to spend such amount for an “American local yarn”. And one day, when I was browsing Blacker Yarns’ website, I got that idea of knitting this pullover in a summer yarn.
I customized a lot the fit and noted every step of my knitting (and unravelling) in Notes on Ravelry, but to avoid drowning you in too many details, I’m noting here only what you see on the finished pullover.
First the yoke, because this pullover is knitted from the top down.
I lengthened the yoke to “narrow” the neckline, which is too wide for my taste. To do this, I knitted as indicated in the pattern, though my row gauge was completely off – 24 rows over 10 cm/ 4″ instead of 30 rows, one fifth shorter! I even added 2 plain St st rounds after the short rows you work after ribbing to make back higher than front. The back yoke is only 18.5 cm/7.25” high though, not so deeper than that of the size I made.
And the short rows after ribbing are normally worked in Stockinette stitch, but I continued the slipped rib pattern to get the impression that the back and the front are the same height.
And I’ve got this boat neck I wanted 🙂
I began to work the body and realized that it was the first time that I was knitting a circular yoke pullover. So I worked the sleeves first to see how they fitted and it was a good thing: sleeves fit differently than those of raglan yoke pullover. I think it’s because the yoke is … circular 🙂 , whereas the raglan yoke is squared and you have more “room” at underarm.
For sleeves, I CO 2 extra sts and decreased with larger intervals – every 9 rnds 7 times (remember that my row gauge was off). I shortened the rib at the cuff – I don’t like so much the classical looking of long 1×1 rib border.
I shortened the body too (39 cm/15.25″) and modified the waist shaping: began the first dec at 5 cm / 2″ from underarm, and decreased every 6 rnds (=2.5 cm) 5 total times, worked even 5 cm and increased every 6 rnds 5 total times too.
And here’s the result 🙂
A little note about the yarn.
Lyonesse DK is made of Falkland wool and linen (please read my last post too). The colorway I used is Moonstone, natural and undyed color, but surprisingly it ran! The water of basin – hand-wash required! – got brown and the pullover whiter. And unfortunately but perhaps because I was wearing it everyday, it pills though it’s a worsted spun – so should be stronger and more hard-wearing – yarn.
The brand says it’s a summer yarn, and it is for a cool weather, like that of the UK! It’s perfect for the weather we are having for a couple of months now 🙂
P.S. I should say that after the Leave vote, I wrote this post with mixed feelings…