I have made The Weekender by Andrea Mowry before. It was one of the first indie patterns that I knit. I remember that the instructions were good and that I figured at some point, I would knit another one. Fast forward 6 years, and here we are. I was visiting the Father in January, and naturally, I visited ReCraft in Roseville. ReCraft is a fabulous crafting thrift store, that stocks everything that any flavor of crafter could want. I came upon four balls of Queensland Collection Sunshine Coast in very vivid rainbow colors. I almost passed it up because as much as I love rainbows, I couldn’t quite picture myself in a rainbow bright sweater. I circled the store and kept coming back to that yarn, and finally decided to just buy it. I then remembered that I watched a podcast and the knitter was knitting a Traveler Sweater for her boyfriend, pairing a rainbow held double with black. The effect was really cool and I wanted to try it. Since I was breaking my rule of working from stash, I pulled out some Knit Picks Palette that was in my stash and planned to pair them to knit another Miss Bracken sweater. I cast it on and realized that the neck construction was going to skew the rainbow pattern and make it look messy on the neck and shoulders. I decided to shift gears and went with the Weekender instead. For the black sections, I held two strands of Palette with one strand of the left over Shibui Lunar to give it the required thickness.
What went wrong?
Why do I always question the designers? Why don’t I follow the directions as written, especially when I have knit the pattern before and the end product was correct? For some reason, that I don’t recall right now, I didn’t do the slip stitch that creates the cool design down the front. I realized this about an inch into the pattern and KEPT GOING. Why did I do this? I got about 4 inches up, then had to count the stitches to the center stitch and drop the stitches down so that I could ladder them back up correctly. I did this for the front and back, though I don’t know if the pattern is supposed to be on the back too. I felt pretty dumb, and like I had wasted some time. I don’t know if I thought I could will the slipped stitches to be there, or what. So I dropped them down and laddered them up, and it looks good, and all is well. But it was a very stooge move on my part.
What went right?
Everything else. I really love how the combination of black and rainbow pair. I like that I made all of the hems in solid black to give a nice contrast. The picture shows the rainbow looking more stripped than it is in real life. I even matched up the color repeats on the sleeves, so they would be symmetrical. I knit the sweater to the cropped length and I love how it falls on me. I forgot that I am not the biggest fan of boat neck sweaters, but I can always seam it up a bit if it stretches out.
I really love this sweater. It is happy and cheerful and has Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon vibes. I was very happy to use up most of these yarns in my stash. That is another Sweater quantity of yarn out of my stash and onto my body. I get compliments every time I wear it. I have worn it quite a bit and I am not seeing any piling yet, which is great, considering the Queensland wool is single spun. The fit is great, and so far the neck is fine. The weekender was the perfect pattern to knit with yarn that I didn’t want to interrupt or pool the yarn. A perfect score for pattern and yarn pairing!
Loves,
M
Mrs. Collins Makes Stuff 