It’s been a long while since I’ve finished a knitting project. This last one has taken me almost six whole months to finish! (In my defence, I took a looong break from knitting over the summer as it was too warm to sit with this project draped over me!).
After deciding I wouldn’t buy any more Wool and the Gang kits after a couple of fails from them, I got sucked back in with one of their sales and bought another one! There is just something about their marketing that always seems to reel me back in – it’s terrible! I bought a more advanced kit than what I’d tried before and got the New Rules Sweater which was a collaborative design with Irish designer Katie Ann McGuigan. I was struck by the graphic checkerboard design with the lacework.
The sweater is cropped and loose fit with a deep V neck and dropped shoulders. It’s the kind of shape I tend to go for with knitwear/ sweaters as I prefer a looser, shorter fit though my previous experiences of knitting dropped shoulders and piecing together these very square shapes hasn’t always been super successful. I was hoping that have a more advanced pattern would mean a better overall fit.
The kit uses the Feeling Good Yarn which is super lightweight and snuggly, made of an alpaca and merino mix. I chose a black and beige colourway as I wanted to keep it as classic as possible. I was very naughty and didn’t check my knitting gauge before I started. I do think my gauge (using the recommended 4.5/5mm needles) came out very slightly larger than it should have but luckily it’s a loose fit anyway!
Starting out knitting this project was a bit daunting! I don’t have a huge amount of experience with lacework and I always have that feeling I’m doing it wrong to start off with! This pattern also uses an intarsia knitting technique which means using a different ball of yarn of each of those squares as you knit along. Trying to handle nine balls of wool was a new challenge! Once I got into the swing of things, knitting up became surprisingly easy which I was very glad for.
Once the knitting was complete, I had to weave in all the loose ends on the reverse. That’s two loose ends for each of those little squares!
This was the most frustrating part as I knew I was so close to finishing it but it felt so far away!
Was it worth all the effort? Honestly? Yes!!! It feels wonderful on, the yarn is just so squashy and soft and snuggly. It’s exactly what you want from a sweater! The softness of the yarn helps the sweater drape well on the body so despite the width of the body, it doesn’t come out too boxy. The length is also great for matching with high waist jeans.
It’s an expensive kit and if it wasn’t on sale (I got it 25% off), I probably wouldn’t have considered it but I’m so happy I did!
