Finished Asagi!

Hi friends, and happy Sunday!

I finished my Asagi last weekend, and I’ve been wanting to share it with you!

I haven’t been quite sure, though, how I was going to manage to get pictures since I’m on my own — even though my camera has a handy function that lets you turn your smartphone into a remote shutter, I don’t have a tripod.  Mr. N (who, as my dear sister pointed out, I really should be calling Dr. N, given he finished his Ph.D.) isn’t visiting for almost two weeks, and I didn’t think I wanted to wait that long to take pictures — especially as we are already nearing the end of warm weather sweater season.  So this morning , I bit the bullet, set up a pile of books on my kitchen table, perched my camera on top, and tried to get a few shots … they’re not perfect, but they’ll do.

I blogged about Asagi while I was knitting it back in August, but as it’s been awhile, as a quick refresher: the pattern‘s by the incomparable Bristol Ivy , from the Spring/Summer Amirisu. I used the called for Jill Draper Makes Stuff Esopus Yarn, a sproingy and brilliantly dyed fingering-weight merino yarn, in the colorway Gold Star.  The project was for the Ravellenic Games, which I got a bit of a late start on, and obviously I didn’t finish by the closing ceremonies!  I knit the bulk of the sweater on US size 5 needles, a size up from what the pattern calls for, a real rarity for me as I tend to be quite a loose knitter!

I decided I had to have this sweater after trying on a sample and loving it at Jill Draper’s booth at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  I knit the pattern pretty much as written.  The pattern model was wearing the sweater with 7″ of ease, which I decided was a bit more than I really wanted, so I chose to knit the 37 1/4″ size, which gives me about 4 inches ease … plenty for a nice, loose fit.  I used the better part of two skeins of Esopus — I ended up with about 30 grams of yarn left.  I either finished or almost finished the body of the sweater while I was in California (I didn’t take good notes, so I can’t quite remember where I was when I left), then it laid neglected in my apartment for a few weeks because I didn’t have the patience to deal with picking up sleeve and neck stitches to do the minimal rib finishes.  I’m so glad I finally did last weekend!

Bristol Ivy has a reputation for interestingly constructed knitwear, and this sweater didn’t disappoint on that front.  You start with the lace panel and the sweater grows out from there in quite a fun way.  I made a few silly mistakes at the beginning, but that was because I kept assuming I knew what I was doing, and not actually reading the pattern.  I did have a bit of trouble getting the neckline stitches picked up, and I’m thinking of taking a bit of spare yarn and neatening up some of those stitches at the v neck.  I also had a bit of a scare pre-blocking — the v-neck looked tiny, and the ribbing along the back of the neck was standing straight up, quite high up my neck, making it look like I was wearing some sort of weird Victorian half ruff!  A nice long bath sorted it out, I’m happy to report!

I’m very happy with the finished sweater, and I think I might be able to pull off wearing it with jeans a few times before it gets packed away until the spring.  When I next wash it, I’m going to take a bit more care to make sure the hem ribbing is even (looking at the wavy line above is driving me a bit nuts!) and possibly steam the sleeves so we don’t venture into weird sleeve wing territory!

Final verdict: this is a fun sweater, with just enough detailing at the beginning to make for some interesting knitting, then a nice expanse of TV friendly stockinette for the body.  I really like the v-neck and the loose fit — it makes me feel like I’m in a comfy knitted t-shirt.  I love Bristol Ivy’s patterns — this is my third Bristol Ivy sweater finished in the last twelve months (May Cardigan, which I’ve blogged about, and Newsom, which I finished pre-blog and hope to knit another version of soon, came before) — so I would heartily recommend the pattern if you’d like a fun little knitted tee!

And I’m feeling quite virtuous — this is the second project I’ve finished out of yarn from my MD Sheep and Wool shopping spree earlier this year (the first was my Marigoldjen Socks)  Maybe I should reward myself by buying some more yarn …

Right, I’m off to make some potato leek soup and a lemon cake for the week.  There’s a promising chill in the air … it’s going to be a perfect evening to get cozy and do some knitting!  Hope you’ve had a lovely weekend.  Happy knitting!