Hi Guys!
Today I have real treat for the knitting fans out there! My version of the Ondawa Sweater by Michelle Wang and published by Brooklyn Tweed. :D (I know,I know, another Brooklyn Tweed pattern, huge surprise!)
To be honest I never thought I would be partial to the whole cropped top trend....I mean I did rock a crop top or two during my 'youth' in the 90's but I'm suppose to be a functioning adult now you know? But the style has grown on me and I figured a sweater crop that I would likely wear with a longer shirt underneath would be 'trendy' without having to bear my still in winter mode tum-tum. :D
:D 'what's that shirt you're wearing under the sweater' I hear you cry? Don't worry! It'll be featured in a followup post!
With 4 cable charts to contend with this pattern is a cable lover's dream! The flat and square construction of the sweater also allows you to get fully immersed in the cabling process with few distractions for things like shoulder or neck shaping. The trickiest part, for me anyway, was reading the the wrong side of the work and keeping track of all the portions with twisted stitches. While knitting away I wondered if there was a better way to work the wrong side of pattern, ideally knitting from the right side of the work, aka knitting backwards or from left to right. A bit of googling proved fruitful and after an afternoon of wrapping my brain around the process I was able to knit backwards!! The only thing I couldn't find was instructions for knitting twisted stitches (also known as knitting through the back loop) while knitting backwards.....
But never fear! I've got you covered! I made a short video detailing my thought process of teaching myself how to knit backwards as well as how I figured out how to knit through the back loop while knitting backwards! :D And just in case my method for learning to knit backwards doesn't work for you (everything thinks differently after all) check out this video by Very Pink Knits where Staci details her process (she has some awesome knitting tutorials and I definitely recommend checking her out!)
PS. you know how your voice always sounds different when it's recorded because of the way you hear your own voice through sound vibrations passing through your head??.....yeah....my own voice....ewwws
I love this sweater! But, unfortunately for me, Vancouver has decided to go straight from rainy winter to pretty much summer weather so I only got a few wears of this guy before the weather got too warm. I may still keep it out of storage for the summer for colder nights at the beach for example... #VancouverProblems
I love how these cables look! #HeartEyeEmoji
The only real modification that I made to this sweater was to shorten the over all length by about 1.5" to ensure that it would still be a cropped sweater on my short torso. Another awesome thing about the construction of this sweater is that you can easily modify the boatneck neckline by simply altering the width of the should seam. This means that you can seam up the shoulders a bit, try the sweater on, and then either increase or decrease the length of the seam from there. I really liked the 'off the shoulder' look of the sweater as worn by the models in the knitting pattern (also 'peek-a-boo' shoulders are kinda in right now), so simply ensured that the boat neck was wide enough to have my shoulders peek through.
For more info on what yarn I used see my ravery post here.
I love this picture! This is what happens when your 'photographer' (aka the fluffy blonde monster) tells you to do a 'hair flip' no hair-flips here my friend! I just had to include this photo because of the cut eye! Also because it gives a good shot of the side of the sweater.
I hope that this post has inspired you to try some cable knitting (honestly once you wrap your head around the whole 'cable knitting is actually justchanging the order of stitches you'll be flying along!)! Or if you're a veteran cable knitter I hope that you try out knitting backwards!
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments! Let's end with one more shot of those cables!!
#CableKnittingLove