{"id":10722,"date":"2019-04-18T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/?p=10722"},"modified":"2020-07-06T11:51:07","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T18:51:07","slug":"a-sweater-for-my-bestie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/?p=10722","title":{"rendered":"A sweater for my bestie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I was seventeen years old in 1999 when Air Canada dropped me into the sweltering humidity of a small Ontario university town where I would study architecture… in preparation for becoming a hand-knitting pattern designer, of course. I was pretty certain I was grown up, and knew everything I needed to about the world. This is, of course, hilarious looking back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chantal and I twenty years back, in 1999 – first year of Architecture at University of Waterloo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chantal was 20, super cool and oh so worldly, having worked and traveled around Europe the year prior. A long-legged blonde, she wore a yellow rain coat and jumped in puddles with a contagious crazy-eyed exuberance. So I followed her around like a puppy, overawed, and we became friends. Over our university years, we shared a dim room in Rome, a walk-up in Montreal, a lovely two-bedroom in Toronto, a hot little townhouse next to the tracks in Cambridge Ontario, and had many wacky adventures. Though we haven\u2019t lived in the same city for over a decade, we still talk every month or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When I was getting married in 2014, Chantal landed in Edinburgh, and took over my unrealistic project to design and sew three bridesmaid dresses (WTF did I think I was doing?!). She calmly consoled me when, 72 hours before the wedding, I concluded amid floods of pregnancy-hormone-fueled tears that NO, the wedding dress I was attempting to construct WOULD NOT work. Luckily 2 hours of shopping later the tears were dry and I had a dress I loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That was 5 years ago! Since then I\u2019ve wanted to make her something special, a gift that would show at least a fraction of the love and work and time that she\u2019s put in over the years. This sweater was the result. Full disclosure? I made this for her in May 2018 when she visited Scotland, and it\u2019s practically an entire year later and I only just shipped it last week…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’m modelling Chantal’s sweater, as I couldn’t manage a trip to Toronto to photograph her!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chantal\u2019s Sweater<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This sweater is a Strange Brew<\/a> yoke. I followed the bottom-up sock weight instructions<\/strong>, thought I made body and sleeves on the knitting machine to save time. After yoke join, I had 344 sts on the needles. I diverged slightly from the Strange Brew recipe by working raglan decreases (at the points where sleeve sts and body sts joined) 3 times, decreasing the stitch count to 320. Then I set up the 8-st pattern repeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As this was a \u2018knit\u2019 rather than a \u2018design\u2019 I felt free to pick from my rather large palette of 4-ply yarns. The body is Tukuwool Fingering<\/a>, which is this LOVELY Finnish yarn, available in a great palette. I hoped this sweater would be be a hard-wearing heirloom (it\u2019ll probably be another decade before I make Chantal another sweater). I selected contrast colours from within my extensive collection of shetland and shetland-style 4ply yarns, and they all work nicely together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used several yarns and colourways: <\/p>\n\n\n\n