Off the Needles: Arctic Intentions!

Hello friends!  Phew, Tuesday is already over — how’s your week going so far?

Usually, when I finish a project — especially a big one — I wait until I’ve gotten it photographed and (ideally) done my blog post before wearing it.  Silly? Maybe! But I like to make sure I get pictures before I wear it in case some sort of disaster occurs (ha!)

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It’s a testament to how much I love my newest sweater that I simply couldn’t wait to get pictures to start wearing it … which means today, I can show you my finished Arctic Intentions cardigan and tell you a little bit about how it’s wearing, because I’ve barely taken it off since I finished it!

When I heard about Knit British’s Good Intentions Club, I knew without a doubt that this would be my first project for it.  I loved this sweater, designed by Carrie Bostick Hoge, from the moment my issue of Making, Vol. 2 arrived, and my thoughtful and wonderful mom got me the yarn for it for last Christmas — what a wonderful surprise that was! I had every intention of knitting it last winter but … you know how that goes (or maybe you don’t, and you always start projects right when you get the yarn — if so, I salute you!)

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The pattern is a simple, top down raglan that really allows the gorgeous Brooklyn Tweed Quarry to shine.  It was pleasurable and fast to knit — it’d been ages since I knit something bulky.  The knitting took me just over a month, and that was with a few breaks where I set it down for days or even a week — I think if I had focused on it alone, I could have knit the whole thing in under two weeks.  It flew off the needles!

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I imagined this would be a cozy cardi that verged on a jacket — and I haven’t been disappointed.  The Quarry yarn has a gorgeous loftiness — when unbuttoned, I was perfectly comfortable wearing this in a well-heated cafe in Edinburgh on my yarn crawl this weekend (which was so much fun that I forgot to take pictures — I was going to do a little round up of Edinburgh yarn shops … guess I’ll just have to go back!), but buttoned up, it’s warm enough to keep you toasty on a mild winter day.  I love that, even though it’s knit with bulky yarn, there’s nothing heavy about it as a garment.

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Here’s it in action during our Sunday errands outing.  

I made a few modifications to the yoke, both because my row gauge was off and because, the dimensions as written were going to make for a cardi that was too tight at my underarms — something I definitely wanted to avoid as I wanted to be able to comfortably wear a long sleeve shirt under this.  The pattern suggested anywhere from -1 to +3 ease, and I went for the latter — as I said, I wanted this to be on the looser side! Yarnwise, it turns out I could have even knit a larger size — I have a skein of the Quarry that I didn’t touch, even though I made a pretty large gauge swatch!

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Overall, I’m really happy with the fit.  When I first put it on, the sleeves felt a little tight with a long sleeve shirt, but they’ve loosened right up and now feel great on.  In my eagerness to add extra length to the yoke, I might have put slightly too much in — but I’d rather have a little extra looseness there than tightness!

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I got the lovely grey buttons from Textile Garden — I think they pick up the flecks of the Quarry nicely.  Because my row gauge was off and I didn’t make appropriate adjustments with the button holes, I’ve ended up with quite a few more than the pattern suggested — if I were to knit it again, I might space them out a tad more, but the buttons are gorgeous, so I don’t mind so much!

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I love lots of things about this sweater, but by far, the thing I love most is: it has pockets!  Beautiful, mustard colored pockets!

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What’s that?!
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Mustard pockets?
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Yes, MUSTARD POCKETS!

I really like the pockets.  I used a bit of De Rerum Natura Gilliatt for those beauties.

A fab pattern, fab yarn, and quick (for me) project. And bonus: I actually finished well ahead of the end of the first quarter of Good Intentions.  I’m still hoping I can whip up my bonus first quarter project, a pair of Ysolda’s lovely Aoibhinn mittens, but I have a few things to finish, before I can think about casting them on.

I needed a new black cardigan, and I’m really happy I’ve gotten around to making this — I know it’ll be something that’s in pretty constant wardrobe rotation.  Do you have a favorite sweater that you go to again — if so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Thanks, as always, for stopping by!

 

 

25 thoughts on “Off the Needles: Arctic Intentions!”

  2. So cute! I love the mustard pockets too 🙂 I knit an Ease in an aran/bulky yarn a few years ago, and although I’d be lucky to knit all the sweaters I want to, let alone revisit patterns, this is one I’d happily reknit!

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  5. Gorgeous sweater! I absolutely love it and you look amazing in it! Makes me want to cast-on a bulky sweater asap. Thanks for sharing! Hopefully you’ll make it back to all the yarn shops soon:)

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  6. What a great cardigan! I’ll bet you’ll be wearing it all the time. My favorite part . . . the pockets! I love the contrast color — a perfect little surprise-inside! 🙂

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  9. This sweater turned out so cute 🙂 The pop of color hidden in the pockets was a delightful surprise as well. I will definitely have to put this pattern in my queue. We rarely turn on the heat in our house and it’s gotten quite chilly lately. Something like this would be perfect to transition between super chilly mornings and a not as chilly afternoon.

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