Hello Internet Friends!

I can’t believe that it’s been exactly one year since I was in Japan surrounded by Cherry blossoms! So many things have changed since then not withstanding the current global situation (it feels like at least a year since my Bali trip but that was exactly one month ago!) The pop ups in my phone photo app have reminded me not only of that amazing time in Japan, the lovely sakura blossoms, and a time when we could all get together, but also of this fab poet sweater that I knit in time for our trip! So since spring has rolled around again I decided it’s high time I finally blogged about my speckled and striped poet sweater!

I fell in love with the Poet pattern by Sari Nordlund when it came out in Laine Magazine issue 6.  really liked the geometric lines of the pattern in combination with the lace motifs. I decided to knit a size small which left me with less ease than what is depicted in the pattern, I had originally wanted the same looser fitting top but the task of converting the pattern charts to get a size in between the small and medium was more maths than I was willing to invest at the time so I settled for the smaller size and closer fitting top. In retrospect I could have simply gone up in needle size and made a looser gauge but I think that would have ruined the effect of the pattern so I’m glad I didn’t. 

The pattern itself was a really fun and interesting knit, starting at the back neck and slowly increasing stitches to create the body of sweater with the sleeves added later. I really liked how the pattern was drafted such that there isn’t a visible seam at the beginning of round which is really cool! Having now knit the whole pattern I think I could possibly make a second version where I either modify the charts to get that in-between size that I need or simply break the chart repeats into to halves, front and back, and add some additional width through either a simple vertical stockinet stripe at either side seam. (i’m really considering making a second as the chart was really fun to do and I have some left over yarn from my wool and honey sweater that would be just enough, with the addition of a single additional skein, to knit up a second poet!) 

The yarn I chose is this beautiful Monet colourway from Yarn Ink that I picked up specifically for this project at knit city the previous year. I had a hard time choosing between all of her beautiful colour ways but Monet came out the winner! You’ll notice that I did end up getting some stripping with the yarn towards the midsection of the sweater….since this pattern is top down I initially thought that I was in the clear since I didn’t have any real colour pooling issues in the yoke. But I think when I switched to a new ball of yarn for the bottom half it happened to have a bit more ‘chunks’ of colour that ended up making stripes. I usually alternate between two skeins of yarn when I’m using a variegated/speckled yarn to avoid issues like this but for this pattern I was hesitant because of the way the chart was set up, I was worried about making a visible side seam on one side…..Having now knit the whole pattern I think I would have been fine alternating skeins so lesson learned for next time!

The stripes do look kind of cool though! When I first tried it on post blocking I was really disappointed with the stripes, I was having a body negative kind of day and I felt that the stripes really gave me extra width around the waist. In a more body positive mindset I do realize that I’m being quite silly and that the sweater looks great, but, like most people, I find it hard sometimes to retrain that internal voice that only wants to find negative aspects with both myself and my me mades. So when I feel like that when I put on this sweater I try to look back to these photos and remember how happy and proud I/was of projects and that that silly voice can go sit on a knitting needle! 

I’m really glad that I have these beautiful pictures of this sweater along with all of the amazing pictures from that trip to look back on today. It's a reminder that things will eventually get back to normal again and more trips like this are for sure in my future! Hope everyone is coping as best they can with the current situation, stay healthy, happy, and sane friends!