Mottainai (勿体無い)

I was waiting for some yarn I ordered to come in to make some other sweaters when I remembered that I had purchased the Extra Light Bright Sweater and I already had yarn for that! So, while I was waiting for my yarn to come in, I decided to start on this sweater project.  Here's how my adventure went:

 

First, I needed to figure out how much yarn I needed.  Since I know that when I knit, it tends to be tight but by the time it's washed, my sweaters tend to relax a bit, I figured I would knit the 3rd size even though I normally knit the smallest or 2nd to the smallest size (but, according to the measurements, it looks like I should be the 3rd size so ...).  Once I had that figured out, it was time to figure out which yarn (and how much of it) I needed.

 

Based on the instructions, I would need anywhere from 1,020 to 1,410 yds of yarn.  Based on my Dala Sweater, I had used 982 yds of yarn (and yes, I wanted another 3/4 sleeved sweater. Thus, I needed at least 1,000 yds of yarn or so, especially if I wanted a looser sweater. Plus, I wanted to also use up all my bits of sock yarn I had.  So ... I dug through my stash and found the following:

Irlanda Effect                                                          Colour:05                   257 yds 

Lang Yarns Jawoll Color Superwash                     Colour:902.0078         45.9 yds

Diff G. Brui Confetii 100 Superwash                      Colour: Multi Brown    46 yds

Hjertegarn Camouflage                                          Colour: 7716              153.3 yds
H&W Comfort-Wolle Comfort Sockenwolle 4 fach Colour: 574                110 yds  
Blue Moon Yarn Squishy Sock                               Colour: Bechglass     106.6 yds

Wisdom Yarn Pix                                                    Colour: 104                270.8 yds

Lion Brand Sock-Ease                                           Colour: Rock Salt       175.2 yds

Garantiert Filzfrei Super Soxx Color                      Colour: Faux Fairisle  68.9 yds

Maui Yarns Superwash Merino Nylon Fingering    Colour: Tidepool         76 yds 

 

All of this yarn totals up to 1,309.7 yds of yarn.  In theory, it should be enough for at least a 3/4 sleeved sweater, if not a bracelet length sweater.  Then, based on the math they provided, I should need to make about 14 rows per colour to make the fade work.

 

Next up was making sure I fully understood the pattern so on my "start" day (Day 1), I reviewed and basically rewrote the pattern in my notebook so I had something I could follow step-by-step with my own numbers (so I don't get mixed up and use some other number accidentally). I reviewed all the way through the split (for the sleeves) before reviewing the collar part (even though the instructions said that should be done last, I've also read that you should do the collar next as it really set-up for how long your body & sleeves should be). According to the instructions, I need to pick up stitches for the collar so I went back to review if I could pick up those said stitches as I casted/added it on doing the yoke. But, it seemed that I had hit my limit for the day. 😔😭🤦‍♀️

 

I actually casted on the next day (Day 2) and finished Step 1 of the yoke. On Day 3, I finished Step 2 & 3 of the yoke.  Since I needed to start a new ball of yarn for Step 4 of the yoke, I reread the instructions (again) and determined that this would be a good point to complete the collar before finishing the rest of the yoke. So, on Day 4, I picked up stitches for the collar, finished the collar then went back to finish Step 4 of the yoke. I ened up picking up 2 extra sts but I just decreased it on the shoulder area to get to the stitch count needed. Then I decided that I would do 2 knit rows before the ribbing. Once I was on Round 3 of the ribbing, I felt like the collar was still a bit large so, I tinked back Round 3, decreased it by 4 sts and finished the rest of the ribbing (total of 9 rows) before binding off using Lola's alternative for Jenny's Stretchy Bind Off method. On Day 5, I went back to the yoke to finish Step 4-5 and started the fade (as recommended) here. Then I found that I couldn't count for the life of me so, I decided that I would "pause" for a bit. About two (2) weeks later, on Day 6, I finally finished Step 6 of the yoke and split for the sleeves. 

 

Now it was time for the body. I realized that I really needed to reassess my yarn choices because I had already used my nearly 2 full balls of the Irlanda Effect and my remaining Lang Yarns Jawoll Color Superwash just to get to the split portion and as beginning to feel doubtful that I actually had enough yarn to do the rest of the body and the sleeves (I might have enough for the body but not the sleeves!😶😱🙇‍♀️). Here's what it looks like so far:

I think I have enough of my initial yarns to make some of the sleeve but it may not fully "match" length-wise. So I reassessed my stash and decided to move three (3) of my leftover stash (my Lion Brand Sock-Ease Rock Candy @ 175 yds, my Garantiert Filzfrei Super Soxx Color Faux Fair Isle @ 68.9 yds & Maui Yarns @ 76 yds) for the sleeves instead of the body.  I also think I may have enough of my Wisdom Yarn Pix @ 270.8 yds for both the body. As I was trying to calculate yardage, I realized that while the transition chart was useful, for the amount of yarn I actually had, it just wouldn't work for that many rows; so, I decided that I would "cheat" a bit and just use portions of the chart for the transition portions, especially if I felt like there wouldn't be enough yarn.😳😱🙇‍♀️This was how I spent Day 6 - hemming and hawing over how much yarn I may or may not have to complete this sweater!😳😱😭🤦‍♀️😤

 

After reassessing my yarn and transition choices on Day 7, I worked on the body and ribbing for the next 5 days. Here's what I did for the transition between yarns:

• Lang Yarns Jawoll Color Superwash & Diff G. Brui Confetii 100 Superwash, I worked Chart Rows 16-24 (total 9 rows).
• Diff G. Brui Confetii 100 Superwash & Hjertegarn Camouflage, I worked Chart Rows 16-24 (total 9 rows).
• Since I had a good bit of Hjertegarn Camouflage, instead of doing regular stockinette stitches (as the colours started to pool), I did a 4-row pattern where I: SL1, K for Row 1, K for Row 2, K, SL1 for Row 3 & K for Row 4 to try to prevent pooling. I did this for 25 rows.
• Hjertegarn Camouflage & H&W Comfort-Wolle Comfort Sockenwolle 4 fach, I worked Chart Rows 14-22, repeating Row 19-22 two (2) more times, Rows 14-17 one (1) more time & Rows14-16 & 18 one (1) more time (total  25 rows).
• H&W Comfort-Wolle Comfort Sockenwolle 4 fach & Blue Moon Yarn Squishy Sock, I worked Chart Rows 13-17, repeating Chart Row 13 one more time (total 6 rows).
• Blue Moon Yarn Squishy Sock & Wisdom Yarn Pix, I worked Chart Rows 13-14 19 times (total 38 rows), switching to my Chiaogoo 3.25mm (US 3) needles for the last row.

Here's what it looks like so far: 

It was finally time to do the bottom ribbing. The pattern says that I could do either a "regular" ribbing (in the round) or I could do a split hem. Then I saw this on Instagram and I wanted to give 'em a try. As I wanted a "deeper" overlap, I casted on 5 extra stitches on each side and started to do a 1x1 ribbing. After 5 rows on the front, I noticed that the front kept flipping up. I ended up ripping it back to the original row (right before the ribbing) and decided to take a break from it. On Day 13, I ripped out the row where I had used the 3.25mm needles, switching back to the 3.5mm needles and knitting 2 rows, purling 1 row (total 3 rows) using only the Wisdom Yarn Pix Yarn before starting the ribbing again. For the ribbing (also using only the Wisdom Yarn Pix Yarn), I did 8 1x1 rows for the front and 12 1x1 rows for the back. Then I used the same bind off I used for the yoke and added this trick for binding off the last stitch. Here's what it looks like:

While I was working on the body, I  also wanted to work on the sleeves to ensure that I would have enough yarn to at least make 3/4 sleeves and here's how that went:

• On Day 11, I worked on the right sleeve:
• Picking up 88 sts using my Irlanda Effect yarn and did 1 row, then added 2 sts (total 90 sts) before staring Chart Rows 13-17 with my Lang Yarns Jawoll Color Superwash. 
• Then, I K 5 rows with my Lang Yarns Jawoll Color Superwash before doing Chart Rows 13-21, repeating Rows 14-17 with my Lion Brand Sock-Ease. 
• Then K 3 rows, slipping stitches when I came to the yellow potions of the yarn (total 17 rows for the right sleeve on Day 11).
• On Day 12, I worked on the left sleeve to catch up that side.
• Then for both sleeves, with the Lion Brand Sock-Ease, I K an additional 7 rows for a total of 10 rows for both sleeves before starting Chart Rows 13-17 with Diff G. Brui Confetii 100 Superwash & Garantiert Filzfrei Super Soxx Color where I ended splitting the Garantiert Filzfrei Super Soxx Color into 4 balls (2 for each side) to spread the coloring more evenly and ending on Chart Row 13 (total 22 rows for both sleeves on Day 12).
• On Day 13, I used the remaining Wisdom Yarn Pix and Blue Moon Yarn Squishy Sock for 9 rows for both sleeves, following Chart Rows 14-17, then repeating Chart Rows 13-17.
• On Day 14, with the remaining Wisdom Yarn Pix & Maui Yarns, I followed Chart Rows 13-17 for 40 rows decreasing 2 sts on the 2nd, 8th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th, 35th, & 40th rows.
• On Day 15, I finished the rest of the sleeves continuing Chart Rows 13-17 for another 10 Rows, decreasing 2 sts on the 45th & 50th rows. Then I did another decrease, ssk on the right side and  ssk, k2tog 2x on the left side then did a 1x1 ribbing (for 2 rows) on the cuffs. I'm sure you're wondering why my sleeve cuff was exceptionally short: well, it's because I realized that I would run out of yarn and not have enough to bind off.
• On Day 16, after a few various attempts to bind off (& have enough yarn to weave in), I finally found a stretchy enough bind off with the minuscule yarn I had left. I basically did the same bind off as the neck and bottom except I did it for every 5 sts instead of every stitch. It's not ideal but at least I won at yarn chicken! 🐔💪

And here's what it looks like (fully blocked):

(Front)

(Back)

(Side)

And here's what I learned from making this sweater:

1. While it was interesting on how the fade worked on this sweater, it used up a lot more yarn than I thought it would due to all the colourwork involved.😳
2. I really liked how this project showed me how alternating yarn could really bring out and change the "look" of the yarn. However, it also made the sweater thicker than I had originally anticipated. It was no longer a sock weight sweater as it became a DK weight sweater in the end; no longer a 3-4 season sweater that I had originally envisioned.😔😭
3. It made me realize that I should be more discerning about the "kind" of sock yarn I may want to purchase in the future, especially if I want to use my scraps for another sweater project. 
4. Despite making a larger size, it was still quite fitted on me. Perhaps I need to try a larger size or larger needles next time?? 🤔
5. Overall, it was a good learning experience and it was a good way of learning how to "fade" yarns in a different way.  Perhaps my next "fade" sweater will be a combination of how this sweater worked and my City Limits sweater.