knitting neels

I finished this up a few months ago but never got around to photographing it.

Pattern: Layered Skater’s Top from Knitting Classic Style by Veronique Avery. There is a light mohair tshirt that is paired with it in the book but I thought that the undertop would make a nice thermal longsleeved shirt by itself.

Needles: 3.5mm (for the body) and 3.25mm (for the hem) Knitpicks.

Yarn: Baby Cashmerino by Debbie Bliss, from This is Knit; 8 balls.

Modifications: None, unfortunately… if I were knitting this again, I would make it longer by about 20 cm.

I lovelovelove the saddle shoulder shaping. I’d never knit it before and I think it is a shaping I will definitely come back to. It seems to look good on everybody!

I think I’ve said this before but I wish that Baby Cashmerino didn’t have the ‘Baby’ in the title. Everyone seems to forget that it is a perfect sport weight yarn because of it! There are a lot of patterns out there that call for a sport weight – sort of a light DK – and the Baby Cashmerino really fits the bill. The colour range has really improved in that weight over the last year, with stronger colours being brought in to complement the many pastels.

I know a few people have some beef with the Cashmerino range, mostly from a pilling point of view. From what I saw in the shop when I worked there, this seemed to be mainly with the Cashmerino Aran and mainly with people who insist on chucking their sweaters into the tumble dryer. I knit this sweater a few months ago and it still looks like new. Perhaps the Baby Cashmerino is more tightly spun than the Aran? Maybe it is a problem that befalls loose knitters? Or perhaps it is simply a sign of a well-loved sweater? Any jumper that’s worn enough is going to look worn, right? (Take my Central Park Hoodie for instance… never has there been a more obviously worn jumper!) Theories in the box below, please!

PS: I seem to have had a few issues regarding my hosting over the last few days… the index, category and archive pages weren’t loading and none of my posts were being picked up by RSS. It seems to have been fixed so you will probably find a cluster of posts all together so apologies for what looks like a bombardment!