Hello, lovely knitters! Lauren here.
Summer sweaters and I have a problem. As you may remember from last year, I never quite nailed down the perfect summer sweater. I knit a linen tank, but it’s just a touch too long to feel right. As a result, I don’t wear it often. I started and stopped several other sweaters during last year’s KAL, and never managed to make it through with one I like.
That’s going to change this year!
Welcome to the second annual Summer Sweater KAL. I’m resolving to knit a summer sweater I’m truly happy with this year, and I’d like to let you in on my plans.
First of all…
My main goal is to finish (finally!) a sweater that’s been troubling me for a year. This sweater was begun on July 18, 2014, for the last Summer Sweater KAL. Though I finished the back and sleeves in record time, I haven’t been happy with anything I’ve tried with the fronts.
All of the many pieces I’ve started (only some of which I’ve finished!).
I knit nearly up to the armholes on a cardigan front, then abandoned that because the Effervescent stitch pattern was too ornate for my simple aesthetic. A few months later, I decided I liked Coracle, and worked up about 6″ of the front of the sweater, which is knit in Open Mesh Lace.
… which I promptly abandoned when I remembered that lace and I just don’t get along. I love the look, but I can’t stand knitting it! For this process knitter, that’s a recipe for an unfinished sweater.
I’ve got a plan this time, and it involves minimal thinking and no lace. As Stephanie Pearl-McPhee always says, experienced knitters make bigger mistakes faster. I’ve learned from this one — simple is the way to go.
But there’s more…
Since finishing one-third of a sweater shouldn’t give me too much trouble over two and a half months (knock on wood), I’ll have plenty of time left in the KAL. I fell in love with the yarn used on Spanish Bay:
Rowan PureLife Revive feels amazing when knit up, and it drapes beautifully in an open cardigan. I need more cardigans in my life, so I’ve got my eye on a sweater quantity of this gorgeous stuff.
(But I’ve learned my lesson — no lace! So, Spanish Bay itself is out of the running for now.)
We’re sharing our finished Cardipalooza Cardigans in this thread on Ravelry. I’ll pick a winner on Friday, so share before then. If you finished a single thing, you’re better off than I am …
Finally, stay tuned next week for some of Amy’s words of wisdom on summer sweaters and Pescadero. In the meantime, you can follow our Summer Sweater progress on our Instagram — join in by using the hashtag #sskal15!
Amy Herzog Designs