Finished Strokkur

Strokkur

Well after almost two years I can say I finally finished Strokkur!  Hurray.  For anybody who reads my blog and hasn’t been following the saga I have cast on and ripped this sweater back So. Many. Times. it isn’t even funny.  Now that I see how long ago I cast this on I think easily over a dozen times.  Due to gauge issues. I finally decided to F it and just knit it.  If it was too big I would slightly felt it.  If it was too small I have children.  And here we are with a sweater that blocked perfectly to proportions {maybe a smidge longer} and is so cozy.

Now some notes….

I rarely knit sweaters because I am perpetually dieting.  I lost 4″ off my bustline since this summer when I decided I didn’t care anymore about my gauge.  Since Ysolda is so wonderful about offering a huge range of sizes this sweater is now a size larger than I would have picked if I were starting to knit it today.

I need to fold back the sleeves about 3″ which means I officially have mutantly short arms.  My last sweater I knit for myself… the lovely Retro Prep all the way back in 2014, which also took @ 2 yrs to complete hmmmm, had long sleeves as well.  I plan on tackling a top down sweater to figure out how long my sleeves should be.

The neckline is wide… one of those really wide barely scooped out jobs I have seen often on Ravelry.  I am actually not sure I like it. On one side my tank top & bra straps show. On the other side however, because my circumference is almost the same as my height yessss I am a ball,  having a non crew or turtleneck means I look less round.  I usually buy V-necks to cut into the expanse of my chest and this neckline is slightly less flattering but still attractive.

I blocked the sweater out to about an inch longer than called for and my shortness means it may just be a smidge too long.  I believe it is 24″ long which is significantly shorter than the 27″ I used to consider tunic length.  Again being short, I think I need to cut another 2-3″ off of it.  Not sure if the length is imagined or factual due to weight of sweater.

I have been wearing this sweater often since I finished it a week ago.  It sat for about 2 weeks waiting for me to weave in ends so kicking myself.  I love the fuzzy coziness of it tho I know some people find Icelandic scratchy.  Okay it is slightly scratchy but I don’t care.  It has also been unseasonably warm.  St Louis is one of those cities that doesn’t really get cold or get much snow :weeps: and we have been looking at temps in the 70’s.  Elka doesn’t care.  I wore it last night with my Pendleton wool skirt pic for reminder:

My husband said wow honey that sweater and skirt look great together.  I let him know that yes I knit the sweater to go with the skirt.  Success!

BTW the astute will have figured out I bought a skirt I couldn’t fit into and then bought yarn to knit a sweater to go with it and then lost about 40 lbs…. most of it in the past 4 months.

yarny days and knitterly evenings~

Elka

Gauntlets Done & Strokkur Choices

Elegant Gauntlets

Elegant Gauntlets

I finished weaving in the ends of my Elegant Gauntlets.  The yarn, Merino Mia by Prism, stretched out horridly when wet and I dried them in the machine to counteract this.  Even so my gloves are looser now than when I washed them.  This is what I get for not washing my swatch in advance. However, the entire hand portion, most notably the thumb, was longer than expected going by pictures and description.  I suppose this means I have particularly short digits.  They look to be a ‘casual’ length but were knit for the shorter 1″ post thumb opening for dressy version.  My thumb is practically eastern up by that lone inch:

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poor missing thumb….

As I mentioned last time the colors are glorious and I believe they show up  much better in this post than last.  I enlisted my beloved husband into helping me take the pictures but the close up was taken under a light by myself in hopes of getting all the brown, blue, and purples in the smoke color way.

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pretty colors

I am fairly certain that I will not rip out the thumb and tinker with it at all.  I figure a few washings and drying in the machine will work their magic and shorten my mitts a bit.

I am excitedly working on Strokkur.  When I ordered the yarn I went with the called for gray for body and ash for 1st contrast color.  Ysolda knit this with a yellow for the 2nd contrast color and to be honest I don’t actually wear much yellow.  I do own a yellow bee scarf that I tie into my hair occasionally but other than that nothing primarily yellow in my wardrobe.  I am being drown to the gray/yellow combos I am seeing so may end up adding a bit of it here or there.  However I do own a Pendleton Wool skirt from way back when.  It has accents of pink and lilac which I tried matching via online color cards.  I did well with the pink and rose shades but the lilac is way off.  I would have preferred the lilac since pink is another underrepresented color although I do think it looks great with gray.  I have completed one sleeve so have quite a bit to go before making my final decision.

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Strokkur Color Choices

yarny days and knitterly evenings to all

Elka