sewniptuck

The silhouette of this jumper is right up my alley, its Ravello by Anabel Kraemer.

Loose from the waist down, neat from the boobs up, slim armed, stripey goodness. Ravello is knitted top down, quite a challenge because I am no expert when it comes to knitting. I added the lifted increases at the raglan seam to give the impression of a seam – ?why. But it does seem to give the area some stability – kudos to me eh?! Right behind me would be the Sydney Harbour Bridge if the trees didn’t keep growing!

I bought the suggested yarn which is a Holst Garn wool but the stuff kept snapping and I don’t think I’m a tight knitter at all. So after the 3rd snap I visited the ever helpful staff at Morris and Sons and bought some of their own brand Estate 4 ply. It was a perfectly behaved yarn and knitted up beautifully though I hope the bit of pilling which has started at the underarm doesn’t continue. BTW does anyone else have an aversion to the term armpits? Or is it just me?! Anyhoo, I have a whole lot of Holst Garn yarn on offer if anyone wants it. Best described as scratchy and greasy!

I know blocking is important but I didn’t and the garment sits perfectly I think. Ooooh the yellow yarn came from a knitting shop in Kelowna, Canada, years ago – never did conquer the socks! Hi there S!!

The one caveat on recommending this pattern is the stripes are knitted in the round. One can easily end up looking like a barber pole, because knitting in the round is essentially a spiral. There are all sorts of ways to get around this, I used a lifted stitch at the end of each row. A Craftsy knitting class teacher suggested carrying the stripe colour down the 4 rows, but admitted she’d prefer to knit stripes in a flat piece with side seams to hide the ends – me too. Being as I’m a novice knitter, correctly tensioning those intarsia bitties is a tad tricky and I’m not all that happy with the look of the carries.

This free short rows class on Craftsy was excellent and the tutor – Carol Feller, has a delightful irish accent to boot. She demonstrates a few ways to knit short rows in order to make increases within a knitted area similar to a dart, you then get to choose your preferred method. I do love me a Craftsy class, I use them like a TV station dedicated to my favourite pastime. Must ask them to sponsor all this free advertising I give ’em!!

I ‘d never knitted in the round before and the staff at Morris and Sons were very helpful yet again. Now I’m a ‘magic circle’ devotee – but not for stripes! I have chosen an aran type cardi for my next knit, in a delicious raspberry colour, a giant leap? Perhaps. Wish me luck, I’m diving in! I’ll leave you with a little competition. Here’s the photo, your job is to suggest a caption!