Stripes, Solids & Slowing Down

 A few updates!

One Last Thing

One last thing before we officially move on from the Stripes & Solids Sweater.

After nearly two months of designing, knitting, pattern writing, and blog posting, I finally finished the last piece of it—the PDF version of the pattern.

If you missed the process, you can start back at Designing a Pool Ball Sweater, or skip straight to the complete, ad-free version on Etsy. 

Thanks to anyone who’s been following along (and to anyone who ends up grabbing the PDF). <3

It’s Already Dark Out

While it feels like the stores have been pushing it for about a month already, truly nothing says season’s greetings like a 4:50pm sunset.

That being said, I’m planning to slow things down a little here—easier, more casual posts through December. I have a couple of big projects lined up for Christmas, and I want to take some pressure off myself so I can actually enjoy working on them. This section mostly exists so I can hopefully take that to heart.

What I’m Working On Now

My bald brother, JT, is a big New Jersey Devils fan. So one of the big Christmas presents I’m working on right now is a sweater version of their alternate black jersey.

I won’t be including the fake lace-up detail, and I’m hoping it ends up leaning more toward “official team merch knitwear” than “cheap replica” or “homemade.”

I’m using Sweater No. 26 by My Favourite Things Knitwear as the base, but I’ve been modifying it a bit to better match the jersey. The exaggerated saddle shoulders just felt right for this; they already have that hockey-jersey look built in, and I didn’t feel like the stripes would land right on a regular yoke with standard shoulder seams. The original pattern puts the saddle shoulders on hold and uses the contiguous method for a really seamless look. I wanted seams, however—both for structure and to give the stripes a clear place to end—so this has been a bit of a workaround.

For yarn, I wanted superwash merino because it’s soft but still easy to care for. I ended up going with Drops Extra Fine Merino because it came in the exact Devils red I needed. Plus, it’s affordable, which helps when you’re knitting a men’s XL sweater.

It’s been the good kind of a challenge so far, and I’m really excited about how it’s coming together. Here’s where it’s at now: