19.11.2025

I designed a personal variety of one of the common Shetland Star motifs with colours I have available here, to give the main possum yarn a little bit of contrast - in real life, the colour is a little dull (the smartphone camera makes it more saturated - it looks prettier than it is on the photo). It needs a counterpart to make this sweater shine.

15.12.2025

Pre-wash / 3 mm needles

24 sts x 37 rows

Post wash / 3 mm needles

24,5 sts x 40 rows

02.03.2026

Maybe incorporate Emblas Mom?

Or Winter´s fern?

12.03.2026

Will turn it into bottom up.
Casted on 268 sts with 3 mm needles.

I photoshopped the star design I made onto the sweater and didn’t like it. This design wants to appear somewhere else.

I decreased 12 sts to get an A line. (256 sts)

19.04.2026

The pattern only provides 65 sts as sleeve circumference for my upper arm for size M2.
Is the designer kidding?!
This will never ever work for me.
The beginning of the sleeve (the ribbing) is 60 sts, which is the correct amount for me - but 65 for the upper arms is just ridiculous…

Today I underwent a deep dive into raglan v-neck bottom up sweater design.

Found out that Alice Starmore´s “Book of Fair Isle Knitting” provides a lot of information if one wants to design a sweater of one´s own.

25.04.2026

I started the sleeve and decided I will switch to the ribbing Irene Lin’s pattern provides.
CO 66 sts.
Knitted 12 cm in this (dark yarn - it was hard to check if I made all the purl sts correctly).
Switched to 3,5 mm needles.
Then started the colourwork.
After the colourwork section I realized I should increase quickly now. Increased 2 sts in the 2nd round after the colourwork.
Used 20 g of the charcoal yarn for one sleeve.
Used 3 g of the gold yarn for one sleeve.

Absolutely in love with the colour combination! The yellow really comes across as this rich golden colour, sitting beside the powdery berry-coloured possum yarn.

26.04.2026

Forgot to measure my other knitted sleeves.
66 sts up to my elbow are too few. Damn.
Have to restart the sleeve.
At my elbow, I’d say it would be good to have 78 sts.

Now I see why it’s a little difficult to bring a colourwork motif with relatively many rounds on a sleeve, I haven’t decided yet how I will place the increases. Probably simply increasing, like I did for the Oa.

29.04.2026

Have decided to knit the colourwork with 78 sts. This should be perfect for up to the elbow.
Casted on 72 sts for the ribbing with cable cast on.
Will increase to 78 sts for the colourwork.

02.05.2026

I used 2,5 mm needles for the ribbing and the first two rounds of stockinette (one increase round, every 12 sts).
52 rds of ribbing in total. (“Real” ribbing rounds are only every other round, just so that the fabric doesn’t curl.)
Then I switched to 3,5 mm for the colourwork. This looks right.

I continued with stockinette with a 3 mm needle afterwards, increasing 10x every 6 rds.

04.05.2026

Will have to increase every 12 rounds instead of every 6, I don’t like the curve it makes, it’s too fast.

19.05.2026

Sleeves are a good length now. After I increased 10 times I knitted 10 more rounds.
I think they are 46,5 cm now.

28.05.2026

Have continued to add length to the body, it’s 40 cm but I would be more comfortable with a length of 45 cm.

Have inserted thread as markers for the sides and for the front center which travel all the length, like Shetlanders do.

I have 257 sts for the body. The one uneven st shall be the center of the v-neck up front.

I have placed the 12 underarm sts on each side 4 sts further to the back to make up for my bust.

Thought about adding short rows for my bust, but I don’t want to make it too complicated.

Can’t make up my mind if I want to steek the neckline or knit back and forth. I have to recalculate the yoke (want to make a compound raglan with steeper increase lines at the beginning and end of the body which required a little more planning) because I forgot to take into account that the edge of the v-neck has a width too

06.06.2026

Trying to overcome my blockage and indecision.

I have added 5 more rounds to each sleeve, because my jumpers always tend to become a bit broader and shorter after blocking. I don’t want the sleeves to become too short.

I have calculated through everything and have added a lifeline, and by now I’m so annoyed by my indecision that I think I will just take my latest calculations and wing it. I have compared the numbers and construction of several other raglan v-neck patterns and I should be fine. And if not, I have enough yarn and a lifeline. I will start the yoke over.

I will steek the v-neck opening though. it’s more comfortable and faster for me to knit in the round.

I’m annoyed at paid patterns being not graded correctly, but then again, I have learned so much and I think I’m going the (Shetlander) path of probably never having to buy a pattern anymore because I understand the construction of a jumper for myself better.

06.06.2026

Added 4 more rounds to one of the sleeves because I had made the dark grey part at the beginning a tad shorter apparently.

08.06.2026

Have asked about whether compound raglans are worth the effort in this thread.

17.06.2026

I finally am on my way with knitting the yoke of this sweater. I have added tags to my stitch markers which tell me what to decrease and how often, and I put a stitch marker into every decrease I make. Hopefully it will work out and I will be able to not mess up the different decreases in so many places (being a compound raglan with a v-neck and a steek). Fingers crossed!

04.07.2026

47 rounds into the yoke now, it has a depth of 12 cm.

Still about the same amount of rounds to go. It looks so far already. I hope everything will work out.

For the picture where the v-neck lies on the catdigan:
The underarms, where the sleeves begin, are aligned.
I’m a little insecure whether the yoke will not be too deep (it would end where the ruler ends), because the sleeves have a significantly lesser circumference. Risky… it’s a v-neck and will be steeked.
But I guess I’ll carry on for now.
(The catdigan is very spacious because my FOs always tend to become wider and shorter after washing and blocking.)

Hmmm. Now that I’ve worn the whole thing, I realized I forgot the depth of the ribbing of the v-neck in my calculations.

So that is probably why she has 80 rounds in her yoke, and I calculated with 100…

20 rounds would fit for the ribbing of the v-neck.

08.07.2026

I will rip back to the beginning of the yoke, because I want the S curve of my compound raglan more pronounciated, and I want the 80 rounds for the yoke.

For the first ten rounds, I will decrease in every round for the body.

04.09.2026

I mustn’t forget to take smaller needles for the ribbing of the v-neck, as I’ve read in other projects that it will flare otherwise.

09.09.2026

I am at the end of my decreases for the neck, but somehow I went wrong somewhere, I’m too high up already, so that there is no space left for the ribbing of the v-neck and I have only 33 sts left for the back (I wanted 44).

So it’s ripping back again for a short distance. Oh well…

13.09.2026

In the end I had to tweak the deceases a bit too get the desired numbers (the v-neck sides were not quite correct).
I have now

11 sts each for the sleeves
3 sts each for both sides of the v-neck
44 sts for the back

16.09.2026

284 + 1 sts for the ribbing of the v-neck.
2 for 3 ratio for the slanted edges.
2,75 mm needles.
12 rounds.
Bindoff relatively firm.

I think for a steeked v-neck it would be good if the two front sides would be down to zero or at least only 1 stitch. Otherwise the ribbing will have to make a slight curve. In combination with the steeked fabric underneath, this can result in a slight ruffle of the fabric of the front.

23.09.2026

Before I take off the stitch markers:

Sleeves
10 increases every 12 rds starting at a height of 19 cm from bottom
12 underarm (provisional) sts

Body
3 A-line decreases every 13 rds starting at a height of 30 rds / 12 cm from bottom, ending at 19,5 cm from bottom

Compound raglan
Body
Dec every rd 10x
Dec every 4 rds 14x
Dec every rd 14x
Sleeves
Dec every 2 rds 37x

V-neck
Dec every 4 rds 20x

27.09.2026

Grafted the underarm sts. Now it can be washed and blocked!

I definitely took smaller needles for the ribbing of the v-neck, but which size I cannot say anymore… Probably 2,75 mm?

28.09.2026

I took the jumper off the board, pressed the v-neck with the steek edges underneath a damp towel with an iron (without movement), to flatten the bulk of the steek edges, and seamed them on the wrong side with blanket stitch.

And hooray, the jumper is wholly, totally finished!

The possum mix yarn is buttery soft, has a beautiful, sheepy smell and a nice halo from the possum hair, without being scratchy like mohair. I was so lucky to strike this bargain, the seller really didn’t know what a gem she had before her.

It will be warm and comfy in winter.

If course, one arm (the right one) is a tad shorter than the other.

And apparently, when I decrease by k2tog in every round, a ladder will appear beside it. I had to duplicate stitch these areas on the compound raglan closed from the inside.

Oh, and: I secured the steek edges with needle felting. I was too lazy to use my sewing machine and I think, because it’s non superwash, it will be fine without further enforcement.