I managed to do A LOT of knitting during lockdown. (What can I say? I had a lot of free time… 😂). This project was my second completed sweater which I actually finished knitting way back in May! It took this long for me to put the finishing touches to it though!

I used the app Bellish to make this sweater which is a free knitting pattern generator. Essentially you put in your choice for things like stitch pattern, neckline, sleeve length, hem line, as well as your size and your chosen yarn weight and it comes up with the pattern for you, instructions and all!

It’s really quite clever!

(This is not an ad for the app by the way. I just really enjoyed using it!).

I used a yarn from my yarn stash (yes I have one of those too…) and I picked out a midnight blue cotton worsted weight yarn from Wool and the Gang which I got on sale last Christmas. It’s a lovely and soft yarn though I find cotton is rather heavy once it’s knitted up!

The knitting process was pretty quick for once! Though it probably helps that this was a comparatively fitted style to my previous makes. (Smaller garments men’s less knitting time!). I had initially planned on doing one of the fancy patterns on the bottom half of the jumper but as I was knitting it I deciding to keep it plain.

My plan was then to embellish the sweater after the fact. I had this idea of doing a moon/ star/ space motif with a little quote on it. Seemed like a good idea until I tried to do it and realised there was no easy way of achieving what I wanted!

In the end I was inspired by this image I found on Pinterest!

I think the original image linked to a DIY tutorial on how they did their embellishments but I decided to just use it as inspiration to do my own thing!

I used my stash of embroidery floss (yes I have one of those too… I have a hoarding problem), picked out my favourite colours and went freestyle over the upper half of the jumper!

I used the full thickness of the floss (ie all 6 strands) as my “yarn” and placed a few large stitches where I wanted each colour. I started and ended each embellishment off at the same spot so that I could tie off the loose ends on the back.

If you look closely you’ll see that all the “cool” colours are represented with – signs and all the “warm” colours are represented with + signs! I wish I could say I was clever enough to come up with that from the beginning but I noticed I was doing it subconsciously about halfway through then carried it on!

It was an afternoon’s work to get my little design on and I’m so happy with how it turned out! I think it’s better than my original plan! Goes to show what can happen when you just go with them the flow!