~ My first sweater!

Hello there!! How are you all doing?

It's been a while and I'm sorry for the silence, I just got back from a vacation and I'm so happy to be back to blog land. Thank you so much for your visit and kind comments during the time, that really warms my heart. Hope you had a great time. For me, I know I had!

Well, you know what I took with me on the vacation, of course it must be something crocheting/knitting! I picked out a WIP sweater to work on the go, tried every moment I could on this project, and when I was home, it was almost finished! I just needed to work on the finishing and you know how excited I was to get it all done and blocked and pictured to show you! My very first sweater! Yay!!!

When I found this pattern at Pickles, I couldn't wait to give it a try! This is the first time I tried to knit a sweater so honestly I was not expecting it would fit me perfectly like this! You can guess how much thrilled I am! I am wearing a sweater I knitted myself!

Name of the pattern is "Norwegian Summer Sweater", but for such a tropical country like Vietnam it's obviously not for summer at all! I so much love the yoke, how about you? :)



Another view from the arm:



This sweater pattern is knitted bottom-up, very quick and easy to make, perfect project for even beginners (like me). For this first try I used the yarn available in my stash, and also modified a bit on the original pattern for the bottom and the yoke (as I just don't like the curl of stk. stitches). 

- Yarn: Bernat Super Value: 1 skein in Forest Green and about 0.25 skein in Magenta.  

- Needles: Circular 32": 5mm for the ribbing and 6mm for the rest to get correct gauge.

- Modifications: - Bottom: Made 6 rounds of ribbing instead of stockinette.

                             - Yoke: Added 6 rounds of ribbing.

A closer look at the yoke I'm just in love with:

I got a small problem when blocking this however. After checking some instructions on Internet about blocking, I decided to block with spraying method. Everything should have been going well if my silly hand then hadn't reached a hot iron and put on the sweater (as a try with hoping it would become smoother): a little part of the fabric got too stretchy and the stitches there got so loose! Fortunately I stopped using the iron right away and the damaged area is just small so it's hard to realize. Anyway it's an experience sometimes we have to pay for. I will NEVER use a hot iron on knitted fabric again! I turned to wet blocking and it looked so pretty after getting completely dry. Lay on desk:

... and on me! I can't wait until the winter comes to wear this (well, winter here lasts only a few days, though!)

Thank you so much for stopping by and spending your time reading my post. I'm off to check yours out - my inspirations always!!

~ Wishing everyone a great day ♥
Hugs, LS

P.S. I have added the link to the pattern for the bolero I showed on my last post. Hope you can find something useful there.