Finally Finished: Finland Sweater

/ wolfberryknits

  
For someone that can rabbit on as much as I do, I am struggling to come up with something to say about this sweater. It’s…ummm….nice? 

   
 So, obviously, I don’t love it. I don’t hate it either. I think, in the end, it’s just a little too sophisticated for scruffy bohemian me. The colour, the lines. I tried hard to roughen it up a little with some deep ribbed edgings and patch pockets. Nope, that didn’t help.

Out of nowhere, even my lovely sheepy-smelling scratchy natural wool turned into a smooth, drapey soft fabric when I blocked it. Bollocks. So in the end I abandoned the idea of elbow patches and wooden buttons and went with the natural flow of things, adding pretty mother of pearl buttons instead.

Pattern: Top-Down Turtleneck Cardigan by Purl Soho

Yarn: Bagabo Country Spun Wool 5ply 
Needles: 3.5mm (US 4)

Size: 35″

Mods:

4 x 4 rib edgings on body, 2 x 2 on cuffs

Patch pockets with buttonholes

Added about 2″ to overall length (I’m tall)

Ignored provisional cast on instructions at the under arms and just cast off/picked up

Likes: 

The yarn. Gorgeous.

The pockets with little buttons

The funnel neck

Dislikes:

The non-metric pattern

The slight pull at the shoulder increases

Trying to get a good photo in the thirty seconds I could wear it before dying of heat exposure.

  
  
I really did enjoy working a sportweight sweater. It fits very nicely under a jacket, and is surprisingly warm. Two weeks to go until I get out of this furnace and get to wear it in the cold! :))

 

39 thoughts on “Finally Finished: Finland Sweater”

  7. Words fail me. That thing is GORGEOUS! It must be the German quotient of my brain that finds the very simple and clean lines orgasmic. I want that sweater. I NEED that sweater. You are seriously making me twitch here Ms Wolfberry K. I promised myself that I wouldn’t even LOOK at starting to knit prior to finishing my studies and hightailing it out of TAFE for this year but I just realised that I was stroking the credit card. You look gorgeous in that jumper and when you are in Finland you will be more than happy that sheep provided the soft and delicious yarn to make it. Obviously Queensland in November is a foolish time to be wearing wool. Even I know that and I have only lived in the deep south of Australia (and have never even contemplated visiting anything higher up than the Perth/Sydney meridian ). We all completely appreciate your having to drink your weights worth of ice cold beer once shedding that scrumptious sweater. Is it good to know that someone is lusting after it like she lusts after hot chips on a cold day? As soon as this course is over I am ONTO that Metallicus pattern and this comes a close second. I am off to learn to spin with the “ladies at Deviot” so that I can hopefully learn to spin something that might let me afford to make a gorgeous jumper like this. Maybe in 20 years I might just manage it ;).

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    • LOL you do make me laugh narf!! :)) I am so glad you like it and it makes you feel inspired…I know what that study feeling is like, it kind of hangs over your head for what feels like forEVER until finally one day you are FREE!!! Then you can go wild!! 🙂 of course study is always worth it, but it certainly makes you appreciate your freedom 🙂 I can’t WAIT to see how your spinning goes! So jealous you have a group to go to. I can’t even find one person to knit with here :/ yep QLD in November, bad time for jumpers in general…I feel like I may come back with a heap of Finnish wool and have to store it for six months before I can bear to touch it…

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      • I am thinking its time to start your own knitting group. You might have to suck it up and allow the odd crocheter but they tend to hover around the fringes yarnbombing tables and chairs so they shouldn’t get in the way too much. I am thinking you may have to appropriate your local pub at some point or a local cafe that will appreciate the business for your knit-togethers. I am contemplating the same thing as I think communal knitting/crocheting/crafting is the way to go. You get a whole lot more out of it than the sum of your attendance. Building community is an awesome thing and I am guessing you live “out the back of woop-woop” like we do? If so, always good to have a bit of a get together with like minded people. I like my own space but appreciate that you get an enormous amount of additional info (and gossip if that’s what you are into 😉 ) whenever you start crafting/cooking/eating/whatevering with other people. The trick is finding “like minded” people. I haven’t found many so far. That won’t stop me from hunting though :). If you bring back gorgeous Finnish wool to Queensland you have to bring back enough for the WHOLE CLASS young lady! ;). Can’t wait to read about your exploits. I am still dead jealous and about as green as a leprechaun on St Paddy’s day. I am starting to think I might never be free of study but there are worse things to shackle your hocks to 😉

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  9. Ah that garment will be an heirloom one day… so glad you didn’t add patches and decided on the delicate buttons. It’s perfect and you’ll feel perfectly comfortable in it when you step out of the country into the city in Europe.

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  10. This is an elegant garment with clean lines and it looks fabulous on you! You will be gorgeous on your Finnish adventure–and warm–in this and no doubt other sweaters you have made as well. Mary’s right, too, about changing environments. Though we do all gravitate toward a particular style, something about the pattern must have grabbed you.

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  11. It looks lovely and very soft. Looks to me as thought it may be very versatile and you may get more use from it than you think. If not, drop it out the plane window as you fly back over the UK on your way home. And if you’ve not flying over, send it with a pigeon 😉

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    • LOL thanks Bekki :)) I have to say it’s growing on me, I tried it on with my big coats and it’s very warm and snuggly 🙂 perhaps it could go on your queue after all your lovely Christmas sweaters? I’d love to see someone else make it! 🙂 and your climate would suit it much better!

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      • Damn! You’re not going to drop it on my house if you start liking it 😉 Mind, there’s nothing sophisticated about me! Still, have added to my favourites, just in case 🙂

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    • Holy moly, how observant are you!!! 🙂 yes, the Wollemi was a gift a few years ago from my mother-in-law. I kept moving house so I never planted it out as I didn’t want to leave it behind, and luckily it seems pretty happy in its pot 🙂 there isn’t any ‘soil’ to speak of here, so it will stay in the pot. We use it as a Christmas tree every second year, it doesn’t seem to mind :))

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  14. Comment from Finland.

    I let my wife to read Your post first, before me. She loves knitting and knits nearly always when watching the television. She said that it looks gorgeous, warm and must have required lot of work. I love it too.

    At this moment, we are in the town called Oulu, in the middle of Finland and the outside temperature is about +5 Celsius. Few hundred kilometers to the North, there is snow about 20 centimeters! The temperature varies daily very much from plus to minus degrees, but in few weeks, the real winter will arrive. Therefore, man needs this kind sweater in the Northern Finland already and later in the South!

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    • Kiitos paljon! :)) thanks for your kind comments, I am flattered you and your wife like my sweater especially because you are both such creative talented people!! 🙂 I loved hearing about the weather there, I am SO excited for my trip next week and looking forward to being cold! Also seeing where my great grandparents came from. (You are very good with languages, I have learnt some Finnish although I know I may not need it. But at least I know the important things like kahvia and suklaa ;)) olen siellä kaksikymmentä päivää. 🙂 Kiitos uudelleen

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