Yarn: 2 balls Schulana Morbido + 2 balls Plymouth Baby Alpaca Brush
Pattern: Evening Shell from Twinkle’s Big City Knits
Size: M
After the week-long gluttony of my cruise, I’m feeling a little thick for this. But in my imaginary world of make-believe, where I’m back at my goal weight, it’s freakin adorable. And even now, I think it’s pretty cute. Way too hot for the current weather, but cute when it cools off. I think it might actually be toasty enough to wear with just a scarf in the fall (no jacket).
A very fast and easy knit. There were 2 strange things about the pattern for me. First, in the cable pattern, the WS rows are written as if you were working flat, but the pattern is knit in the round–so when it says to purl, you’d actually knit. If you’re used to cabling in the round, you might not even notice (I didn’t the first time I knit it), but if you’re not, it might throw you. And on the armholes, after you cast off & have that live stitch, the numbers it gives you to knit forward are actually for the total number of stitches you’ll need. So you have one live stitch already on your needle from the BO & it tells you to work 5 st, when in fact you just work 4 for a total of 5 st. I don’t know whether that’s just a writing convention I never noticed before, an actual mistake.
That aside, it’s an easy peasy pattern. I actually knit it twice, once with a very stupid combination of yarns (at gauge, but stupidly dense and bulky–don’t ask me what I was thinking). Then I frogged the whole mess, unravalled the giant uberballs (3 yarns held together), rewound into smaller uberballs (unterballs? just plain balls?) with just 2 strands, and reknit. Much, much improved.
I think the key to substituting on these bulky knits is to keep the work fairly loose–so gauge, but with a really relaxed fabric, to keep it from looking like a macrame plant hanger.
I might make the longer version (same, I think, but w/ 3 cable repeats) next time, and I’d definitely go with a solid. I think my 2-color fights the cables more than I’d like.
That is the coolest thing ever …really awesome Sister!
Amelia
I LOVE this sweater. It is one of the most feminine and creative patterns I have ever seen on. Thanks for all the pics, you are very encouraging for those of us yarnaholics who live in non-knitting communities
Your shell looks great!! I just found your site while trying to figure out my own evening shell. Thanks for the info. on the armholes. I was totally confused.