Becca Made That

Hi friends!

Lots of knitting posts lately but that's to be expected with the cool fall weather... it's the best time to bust out all the knitwear I've been making all year :D This post is a throw back to a project I finished waaaayyy back in Febuary of this year but never got around to posting (Although it saw a fair bit of action during #MeMadeMay if you travel back in time to those posts!) I first saw Marylebone, by the amazing Bristol Ivy, when it published in May of 2016, and while the accompanying pictures certainly gave off a spring/summer vibe this is definitely a cold weather sweater my friends! I had always wanted to try out knitting with Quarry yarn but the price tag always scared me away...After visiting my local yarn shop and sourcing a few alternative options and price points I put this project on hold until January of this year when my semi-local yarn shop (I mean Victoria is a kind of local to Vancouver no? it's only a ferry ride away), Beehive Wool Shop, had a sale and since they are one of the few Canadian retailers for Brooklyn Tweed it put Quarry back in my price point and directly into my shopping cart! Funny story, I had tried to purchase the yarn from their website but it wasn't working with the sale discount so I gave the lovely ladies at Beehive a call but they were so inundated with customers because of the sale they couldn't confirm if they had enough skeins left of the Moonstone colour way so they agreed to honor the sale price for me when they called back the following day. It so happened that we were going snowshoeing the following day, but I figured they would probably call early so I wasn't worried. Turns out they were a bit busy in the morning re-setting from the sale (duh!) so they didn't call back until we were half-way up Hollyburn mountain. So there I was reciting my credit card in the middle of a snow covered forest, having paused our trek half way up a mountain, while fully equipped with snowshoes/winter gear/crazy-carpet/hot chocolate & Bailey's for the top, just to get my hands on some coveted yarn.....and this is when I knew I was a crazy yarn lady (:

If you've been lurking my Instagram you've probably seen the in progress picture below from some time around January or February of this year. So much cable love in this picture!

Let me tell you guys that knitting with Quarry is a different experience! Like Brooklyn Tweed's other offerings, Quarry feels lighter than other yarns of a similar yarn weight, but it has a different kind of feel almost like there's a slight 'roughness' mixed with a slight residue that, while not unpleasant, left me concerned for the final product. However, after blocking this yarn really changes, it becomes super soft and 'airy', any residue that may have been on the yarn from the manufacturing process was completely gone. I really, really, REALLY love how final finished knitted fabric feels and how it drapes, it really is a joy to wear! Despite it's airy feel this is a very warm cardigan, to give context even though I am #ForEverCold I found myself wearing Marylebone as a spring/fall jacket this year with either a short sleeved top (the Kale shirt below) or a thin long sleeve and I was toasty warm. I'll have to be careful in the future....I can totally see myself knitting #AllTheBulkyWeightSweaters in Quarry and living a cocoon of knit wear in my living room with tea provided by the #fluffyblondemonster (I can literally hear his brain re-calculating why are deciding to get married from both a financial and a 'why would I want to marry this crazy person' perspective.....)

I May have a crazy yarn lady brain, but at least I'm warm! Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the cabling on the sleeves? I think they look stunning in this pattern.

I finally got a chance to take some 'blog pictures', as I call them, while in DC last week for a conference.....I swindled my poor co-worker into playing photographer while we walked from the Washington Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial since I forgot my trusty tripod and remote shutter at home (and no I don't mean the #fluffyblondemonster although he does quite often act as my photographer....again, I can hear him re-thinking this whole marriage thing...). Luckily for me, since we were at a super touristy spot, I didn't feel totally awkward taking photos like I usually do :)

Like I mentioned above, this cardigan works great as a jacket for a crisp fall day, especially if you'll be doing a TON of walking (it's hard to judge perspective for distance between all these monuments...and I had run out of US data for my phone so I couldn't consult google). You may notice that my version of Marylebone is lacking a few key features, namely the pockets and the buttons. I actually have both buttons and pockets but they never made it onto the final cardigan. The buttons because I bought grey buttons from Dressew that matched the Moonstone colour way much too closely, I went back to Dressew to get new ones and accidentally bought more of the exact same type....so I now have 10 of these buttons (one of which doesn't even have the holes to sew it on drilled in....). The pockets were left off because I coudln't decided if I wanted/needed them on this cardigan or not....since it's been knocking about for 9 months without the pockets I think it's safe to say that they will stay as swatches in my sweater drawer for the imminent future.

Also pictured is my blue crazy stripped Kale shirt and my black ginger jeans #MeMadeEveryDay

Let's take a moment to appreciate the cables on this pattern shall we? They are the defining feature of this cardigan, the cables mirror along all sides of the piece; along the front button band, the sleeves, and along the spine. Now, you may have noticed that the back cable has this beautiful tapering that really adds to the overall design as it merges at the top with the sleeves. Because of the tapering nature of this cable work I couldn't even begin to fathom how to shorten this pattern for my short self. In the end I decided to just go with it and knit it as written for the body and I think it worked out pretty great to be honest. The hem hits just under my bum, which is similar to how it looks on the pattern model, which is my go to method for determining if something fits after a life time of wearing clothes that were too big....I ask myself 'where on the body should this hem hit on a regularly heighted human?'. In this instance I think I just kind of lucked out that it ended up being a good fit length wise, it was meant to be I suppose! :D I ended up going a bit smaller on the recommended ease, I have 2" of easy with the size 38 vs the 3-6" recommended int the pattern, but this was mostly because I knew I would probably never button it up (well I can't since I don't have buttons but I didn't know that when I was choosing my size), I also I did shorten the sleeves by about an inch but that was easy since the cabling was a consistent width for the entire sleeve. Another small alteration point I would like to make here is about the joining of the spine cables with the sleeve/shoulder cables at the back, there is a slight gap when all is said and done that I didn't really mind when it was all finished but has gotten a bit bigger with wear, so I've use a bit of leftover yarn to seal it up. It's just the nature of how the cables all come together at the end, and it's a simple fix, but I thought I should mention it in case anyone else notices the same issue.

All in all I really love my Marylebone :D both as a light jacket and as a nice warm cardigan for winter! In terms of wear and tear, despite the 'loosely spun nature' of the yarn (direct words from the manufacture here!) I think it's going to hold up really well for years to come! More fall and winter knitting (and sewing!!!) coming at you guys soon!