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Selfish Pullover FO

Details

Pattern:

Selfish Pullover by Sweater Freak

Yarn:

New Lanark Spinning Co. Chunky yarn in the colours Denim and Sky.

Cost:

Pattern: £5.75 ($7)

Yarn: £41.65 (based on 6 balls of Denim and 1 ball of Sky (see notes explaining below)

The yarn would normally cost £9.50 per ball, but a local shop was closing down and was selling it for only £5.95 per ball. I bought 8 balls of the Denim and 1 ball of Sky without a pattern in mind, I ended up buying a lot more than needed and have quite a bit left over (225g). So my price shown for the yarn is on how many balls I would have needed, not bought.

I used 610g of Denim and 65g of Sky. I could have made it a little shorter (like the pattern) and used 6 balls of denim.

(Having 8 balls of denim did allow me to knit the arms two at a time, leave them on the needles, leave the hem on the needles and fix the neck with a total of 4 balls attached and without the extra ones it would have been guess work and maybe yarn chicken.)

Total (excluding labour): £47.40

Timeline:

Started – 26th June 2023

Finished – 22nd July 2023

Link to Ravelry Page

Pattern summary

I knit a gauge swatch (why do I bother they are never true to my actual knitting) and it told me to go down a pattern size. I think I could actually have gone down 2 sizes with this yarn.

I feel like I mostly stuck to the pattern as written. It was pretty easy to follow, a simple chart for the colour-work. This is actually my first time knitting a colour-work garment, I’ve just done accessories before.

I knit quite a lot of Heidi Kirrmaier’s patterns and usually have to go on the Ravelry forums for advice, so it was nice knitting a project by another designer and not once doubting what the pattern meant.

Because my row gauge was so different, I should have done decreases more regularly on the arms, as I needed 20 less rows than the pattern. Usually on sleeves I go up a needle size, but with this being so oversized I didn’t need to. I did two rows of decreases just before the cuff to get me back to the right stitch count, and I did those decreasing rounds in the smaller needle that I also used for the rib.

I’d posted earlier on about my concern about the neck stretching under the weight of the jumper and getting too wide. Marilyn from Yarn, Books and Roses had suggested I try an icord around the neck, to stop it stretching so wide, so I had various attempts with contrast colour, same colour, different size needles, 2 stitch and 3 stitch icord. In the end, I went for 3 stitches, the same colour and the collar’s needle size. I applied it from the inside of the collar (by mistake) and it has definitely secured the neckline from expanding further and from the front it just looks like twisted rib. Turn it inside out and there is the icord edge!

For the hem and the cuff she recommended the sewn bind off and there was a video link to one. I actually used from my book of Cast On / Bind Off, the Invisible Rib Bind Off that uses a tapestry needle. Boy of boy it is not a quick process, but I’m very happy with the look and will use again for sure.

Yarn Summary

If you’ve been following me for a while you will know how much I love the yarns made by New Lanark Spinning Co. The wool is made from a mixture of British sheep breeds, it is spun in Scotland using hydro electricity on their heritage mill equipment. It’s is very warm and a woolly wool but I don’t find it scratchy. It softens quite a bit when washed. It felts well if you want it to.

With their Aran yarn I’ve made a felted bag, blue jumper, burgundy jumper. With their DK I’ve made pink/purple mittens. This was my first time knitting with their chunky sized yarn though.

In my stash I have lots more of their yarns, 2 x jumper quantities of their Aran yarn, a mix of colours of their DK for more colourwork projects and the leftover chunky plus some other coloured chunky yarn too!

I enjoyed knitting with the chunky yarn, it knit up very quickly and after recently knitting so many pairs of socks that was a nice change.

We keep our house at 18°C (~65°F) and I wear the Aran weight jumpers a lot in the house in winter. It will be interesting to see how much warmer this chunky one will be.

In the photos you may see the range of colours within each shade…some pink tones in there.

Photo Gallery

28 comments

  2. Oh it’s gorgeous!

    I went on a lot of school trips to New Lanark back in the 80s/90s, looks like a lot has changed since then and I may even have to arrange a grown up trip for the wool shopping 😁

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  3. Your jumper looks great. Thanks for sharing about the icord at the neck. I will definitely have to try that! I’m so frustrated with necks growing. (Almost as frustrated as with lying gauge swatches. Yes, I’ve given up on swatching for the most part.)

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    • I don’t like a wide neck and I’m amazed the icord is so invisible so I’ll definitely be using it again. Isn’t it frustrating that swatches are so completely different sometimes? I suppose I’m glad at least I did one to know I was going to need to go down a size. If I was smarter I’d have calculated a % variance my swatches and FOs are, Ah well.

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  4. That’s a lovely jumper! The colours are beautiful and it looks wonderfully cosy.
    The i-cord trick is a great tip. Thanks for sharing – I never would have thought of that.

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  6. What a lovely jumper. I love the New Lanark DK but you’ve inspired me to try the chunky. It looks like the neck is shaped really nicely too which is excellent.

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