I have been knitting pretty monogamously lately, partly because work has been busy and multitasking multiple projects was too draining, and partly because I was involved in a game of yarn chicken. With this sweater to be exact. And there is some part of me that truly feels like I’m in a race whenever I start to feel I might run out of yarn. As if, when I’d just knit fast enough, surely I’ll beat the yarn to it. Well, maybe it is true, because I totally managed a full sweater with the yarn I had.

Pattern: Piece of Silver sweater by Veera Välimäki (featured in Laine Magazine issue 1)
Yarn: Marianthi yarn in Merino fingering extra soft, in the Opal colourway

This is one of those patterns I have been meaning to make for ages, and the yarn had been in my stash for one year already. I am so happy I finally cast on. The yarn is so so soft, and so much fun with the subtle speckles in many different colours throughout.

This sweater pattern is incredibly beginners friendly. The knitting is basically a top down raglan, and there is no shaping whatsoever in the body. I had no problems following the pattern and the finished product is incredibly light-weight and comfi.

But in full honestly, I will show this picture of the back of the sweater as well. I think I have been seriously knitting for 5-6 years now, but I am very far done from learning. I often find that if I am not very good at a technique, I will avoid it. Which is truly a shame and stops me from knitting all the patterns I want. One thing that often holds me back is alternating skeins when knitting with hand-dyed yarn. I’m much more prone to do this when I know my sloppy alternations are easily hide-able in the button band of a cardigan for example. With sweater I’ll often only alternate for the body, and not for the yoke part where it would be more obvious to see. For this sweater I did alternate throughout, with the exception of the turtleneck. For the yoke the alternation happened on the back, for the body I alternated on the side, where it looks like a seem. And is my alternation on the back neat and invisbible? Hell no, you can definitely tell. I know a lot of knitters would probably run away screaming from a sweater with such an obvious ladder in plain view. But honestly? I don’t care so much. It’s a learning process, at least I did not shy away from it this time. I’m sure in the future I will do better, and until then, I will be wearing this sweater with pride. Imperfections and all.