Hey there, Jess jumping on the blog after a long hiatus! I’m so glad to back! The newest addition to our family is settling in nicely, even if he’s still spitting up and not quite sleeping through the night. But he’s only 10 weeks old, so I’ll cut him a break.
You may recall that I set myself a knitting challenge last year (see: Disciplined Knitter post). Sadly, it fizzled out, largely because it was too ambitious and too rigid for my knitting needs. For 2022, I’ve set myself a more doable challenge: Finish or Frog! Each month, I need to finish or frog two projects (from 2021 or earlier). I’ve already finished January and had two bonus finishes as well!
As part of my Finish or Frog challenge, I dug out my Daytripper Cardigan, which had been languishing in my closet. All it needed were sleeves and the steek (shout out to our very own Gretchen Funk for the needle felted steek technique that I used!), so it was a fun, quick knit to finish in January. I learned a lot from it, which you can read more about in my Project Review over on my blog! This was a project where I lived dangerously (i.e., no swatch), and it’s a bit more snug that I would ideally like, but I’m still delighted with the finished project.
As we’re approaching February, there are stirrings in the knitting communities about the Bang Out a Sweater challenge. For those who aren’t familiar, the challenge is to knit an entire (adult sized) sweater in the shortest month of the year. I’ve never participated, but I think 2022 is my year!
The folks over at Modern Daily Knitting have selected the Daytripper Cardigan as their Bang Out a Sweater pattern for 2022. I think it’s a fantastic choice for a lot of reasons:
- You may already have some Lettlopi floating around in your stash;
- If you don’t, loads of local yarn stores here in Minnesota carry Lettlopi (see below);
- The loose gauge makes it a truly quick knit;
- If you’ve never done a steek, Lettlopi is pretty forgiving; and
- It’s got a smattering of colorwork to keep things interesting, then a nice long stretch of single color to let you build up some momentum to the finish!
That being said, I felt the call of the Destination Pullover (also from MDK’s Field Guide No. 17) and it was impossible to resist! Armed with my actual gauge for Lettlopi on size 10s thanks to my Daytripper Cardigan, I’ve confidently cast on the 42-44 inch size and am cruising through the body of this bottom-up sweater. My friend liked the design so much I’ve been chatting about knitting one for her as well, though I imagine she’ll go with different colors than I did.
I’m clearly not the only one feeling the siren song of Lettlopi in Minnesota. If you want the chance to dream up your palette in person, check out these LYS:
- BeWoolen has an entire wall FULL of Lettlopi, in nearly every shade imaginable;
- Yarn Harbor up in Duluth has a number of shades that are sold out, but still a pretty great selection;
- Northfield Yarn also has a great selection, with some shades being sold out;
- Ingbretsens has a nice selection as well;
- Yarnology does too; and
- StevenBe has a small selection as well.
If I finish in time, I’ve been batting around a few ideas for modifying the colorwork charts in the Daytripper Cardigan to fit the odds and ends I’ve got in my stash. Should I do an all over design of colorwork charts from Mary Jane Mucklestone’s fantastic 200 Fair Isle Motifs book? Or should I go with a more modern design of bold stripes? Let me know in the comments on my Project Review post!
For those interested in following my Finish or Frog challenge for 2022 or reading my knitting ramblings, please check out my blog or my Instagram!