It’s such a treat to knit any of Jennifer’s designs. I love everything about them - the style, fit, great techniques, well written patterns. I could go on and on. Getting to knit with finer yarn is especially wonderful for our climate here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m always excited to see what Jennifer comes up with next. It’s a privilege to test for her on a regular basis.

I absolutely love the way this yarn looks and feels. The fiber content is nice too. It looks like there are 4 thread-like strands plied together - 2 wool, 1 acrylic and 1 nylon. (One of these strands is a 3-ply all by itself, including tiny, closely spaced nubs.) It’s very loosely spun. The tweedy appearance is very beautiful. I can’t understand why I’m the only knitter on Ravelry who’s used this lightweight boucle yarn. It creates an interesting speckled and tweedy looking fabric.

Things I did differently:

I used a size 1.5 US needle for the picot neckline. Instead of “Cast on 6 …. Bind off 1”, I did “Cast on 7…. Bind off 2”. Otherwise, the picots hardly show using this yarn.

I had to knit 12 extra straight rounds before separating sleeves from body. This was because my gauge was more like 8 rounds to the inch instead of 7.25. I’m tall which is another factor.

I intentionally knit the vertical colorwork stripes with a slightly tighter tension so that it would create blousing above it - sort of like a smocking effect. For this reason, I knit the pullover longer than I normally would. I started the colorwork 10 inches from the underarm. I did 22 rounds for the colorwork stripes. The vertical striped band sits on my hips rather than at the lower waistline.

Needles used:

Size 1.5 US for the neckband
Size 3 US for the sleeve wrist colorwork stripes
Size 2.5 US for everything else

How I did my long sleeves:

I followed the instructions in the pattern (for short sleeves) exactly, excluding the contrast color border. I ended with 70 stitches.

From this point, I decreased less frequently (1 dec round and 6 straight rounds) a total off 11 times. At this point I had 48 sts. Then I knit 14 rounds straight without any more decreasing. (My sleeves measure 15 inches from underarm before beginning colorwork stripes.) I have very long, skinny arms, so people knitting larger sizes should plan on ending with a multiple of either 14 or 16 sts in preparation for the colorwork and lace cuff.

I had a multiple of 12 sts (4 x 12 = 48 sts). After completing 22 rounds of colorwork cuff, I placed markers every 12 sts for 4 repeats of the lace pattern.

Since the Lace Chart is a multiple of 16 sts, I had to do the first 4 rounds of the chart differently as follows:

1st round - pretty much the same, but with fewer sts.

2nd round - leave out the K2tog and the SSK

3rd round - leave out one of the Ktbls where there are 2 in a row (one each side of center purl)

4th round - Replace the K2tog and SSK with Ktbl

All other rounds are as shown in the Lace Chart.

If your lace cuff is a multiple of 14 or 16 sts, you won’t need to change as much of the Lace Chart, if at all. If you have very large wrists, you might want to have 5 repeats of the Lace Chart instead of 4. Make your sleeves extra long because it looks pretty to have the lace falling lower over the hand. In retrospect, it might have looked nice to have the sleeves a bit blousey (above colorwork stripes) to match the body. But I’m pleased with how mine turned out. The slight gathering in the body of my sweater would easily block out, but I rather like the way it looks with the little bit of gathering above the colorwork.

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