So. New Year resolutions. Yea or Nay? (I almost wrote "yay", ha) I have a few resolutions floating in my head, nothing set in stone. Perhaps writing them down here will make them more likely to happen!
One thing I want to do this year, for my own sanity really, is to carve out some time for "selfish knitting." My definition of this would include knitting more things for myself of course (rather than just for my children or for gift-giving). But also, and this is trickier for me to do: not always knitting with a potential design in mind, or heavily modifying an existing design that falls short of what I want.
Rather, the idea would to just knit recreationally sometimes, mindlessly really, from a great pattern that someone else has completely worked out. Trying to get back the feeling of meditation that you can get from the act of knitting, knitting in the round, stitch after stitch to create a sea of stockinette, or chanting the instructions to yourself as you work a lace repeat.
So: here's my first Selfish Knit of the year, which I did as part of a Knitalong on Ravelry-- A first for me! That was fun!!
Pattern: Sprig by Alana Dakos, a "preview" from the upcoming Botanical Knits 2 collection
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers in Birch Heather
Time to knit: about 3 weeks, but I knit most of it in 10 days.
My mods: I started with the smallest size for the neckline because I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't gape. Then I increased until I got the raglan stitch counts for the second size, and added the number of underarm stitches of the third size. So I ended somewhere between size 2 and 3 for the bust and sleeves. My detailed mods are visible on my Ravelry page.
What I thought about the pattern: A really neat and clever design, surprisingly straightforward and pretty fast to knit. I loved working the neckline, I will definitely use this idea of working "attaching as you knit" in the future. I liked the little finishing touches, which make the sweater look really polished. I do think it fits well but I had to mix-n-match the stitch counts to achieve this. On the other hand I am not getting the boatneck effect, but honestly, even though it looks lovely on the model with nothing underneath, I wouldn't love it as much with a bra-strap or t-shirt peeking-out of it.
What I would do differently next time: I wouldn't use Cascade 220, which is one of the yarns that is suggested, the resulting fabric is a bit too stiff, lacking drape. I was hoping it would grow a bit during blocking but it did not budge at all, which is a good thing in general! The alternate yarn suggested is 50% alpaca, so the drape would be better, though I'd worry that the gorgeous neckline details might get lost in the alpaca fuzzies.
I think I might also skip the waist shaping altogether, it's a bit snug-fitting at the moment (leftover pregnancy weight notwithstanding) and possibly make longer sleeves, though that might mess up with the balance of the design.