My nemesis: the Salty Days sweater

This is the Salty Days pattern from Kutovakika. And I’ve done everything you’re not supposed to do in knitting while knitting this sweater. Knit with the recommended yarn? No, I went single strand instead of double because I fell in love with the yarn. Follow the pattern? After changing the yarn, there were some issues with fit so I winged it. Then I repeatedly ran into issues with the pattern as it always ended up being misaligned in the same spot no matter how many times I did it.

Once I figured out it was a pattern issue and not me (that was after I’d given in and found a second strand of yarn to knit the sweater with, as per instructions) I learned how to compensate on the fly and get the pattern to line up.

The first time I went in winging it, I made the sweater in a too big size. Frogged it, started over. I’ve frogged this sweater probably like 12 times in total, before I finally finished it. There was always something wrong – whether it was my awful, uneven knitting, the pattern going haywire or something else cropping up (like the fact that I’d never done anything like the diamond pattern and only done cabling a few times before, absolutely hating it – which I still do).

Then I finally finished it and threw it into a cupboard while I brooded. After several days of brooding over the sweater, I finally realised I hated it. And I specifically hated it because of the yarn I added to it. Also, this was supposed to be a loose fit and it’s nowhere near loose (do skinny people not know how to design loose fits for bodies that aren’t size small?) as the arms were too tight compared to the rest of the fit of the sweater.

And I love a loose, comfy fit.

Anyway, I’m almost done frogging it. I’m saving the acrylic yarn for something (tbd) and I’ll restart the knitting with the single yarn once I’m done frogging.

Update: nothing went as planned.

I restarted this sweater a few more times. The final time I actually finished the sweater, but then just left it before blocking because on a deeper level I hated it. But I’d already sunken so much time and work into it, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I used a double strand of Jacaranda and a slightly smaller needle than the pattern. I got through the pattern a lot better and it felt soft and luxurious with a double strand (still absolutely love the colour), but still, something wasn’t clicking.

I moved on to other projects, one of them which was to figure out what size needles I like knitting with. I already knew I don’t like to knit chunky, I like fine yarn, but how fine was the question. I ended up with the answer 3-3,5 mm is the needle I like to knit with. And I started a new project where I didn’t even change needles from the neck ribbing to the yoke and it made me happy.

Feeling refreshed with this knowledge, I decided to frog the Salty Days sweater again, and begin with a 3mm needle and make the 5XL. I took it with me to a friend’s house when we went for a play date with the kiddo, so I could sit and frog it while we chatted, but when I pulled out my project, she fell in love with the sweater.

And so that particular sweater found a new home, making me super happy in the process. Because as much as I loved the colour of the yarn, I’d come to realise it wasn’t really my colour. But my friend loved it, so instead of frogging it, I borrowed a needle and finished sewing the collar and the tails instead.

Before I completely gave it away, though, I snapped pics of the finished sweater. Despite be going bigger with the size (since I was using smaller needles than recommended) it was still quite small. If I attempt this project again (which I very much suspect I will, and I might even do it chunky like this) I’m going to do a swatch. I know, I know, I never do them, but this resizing adjustment may just require it to get it perfect.