WIP – Oakwood Poncho

Note: I’m moving this entry from November 2023, after making the decision to migrate back to Squarespace from Wordpress.

Casting on! I bought a WOTA kit for this Oakwood Poncho by Nikki Wagner way back in 2017. I think the warmer color ways chosen will look nice on my mostly black wardrobe.

This project features a brioche stitch, brioche bind off, and intarsia. Brioche seems like ribbing for folks who want to be ✨fancy✨. Looking forward to adding these methods to my lil repertoire.

The rest of the poncho is an ocean of stockinette, with some cute little tassels on the bottom edges. I decided to go without swatching, since there’s no real fitting necessary for this piece.

The poncho’s construction is pretty simple, too, starting from the bottom edge in the back to the front. Meaning, the novel parts of its construction will come after I’ve done a good amount of warming up with the back panel. Dope.

It was pretty insane to think that I was going to finish this in time for NaKniSweMo. A lot is on my plate already, so maybe it’s just fine to have a simple stockinette project in the WIP pile to work on instead of scrolling all day.

fo : ease pullover

I took the path of least resistance on this one. I decided to just accept that my third hand-knit sweater's gonna be one of my more loose, comfy ones. The color's gorgeous (not one I'd expect I'd like so much,) and the pattern was easy enough to follow. 


I'm also happy to report that a friend reached out to me, letting me know that my WIP inspired her. She started an Ease sweater of her own, with Knit Picks Hawthorne!

Knitting-evangelism +1.

pattern : Ease by Alicia Plummer
yarn : Knitpicks Wool of the Andes Superwash in Mineral Heather
needle : US 6,10 [4mm, 6mm]

size : Large

Alicia Plummer’s thoughtful design elements in this pattern were much appreciated here. The use of a purl ridge to encourage a crease on the stockinette knit fabric was a nice touch and made a pretty effect.

I used Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind-off method for the end of the body and the sleeves—Highly recommended.

After the first wash this garment bloomed…a lot. I’m reserving this sweater for days like this one in Lithia Park where bundling up and keeping warm is more important than doing my silhouette any favors.

fo : clarke, rhubarb show-offs

2017 has been a year focused on a lot of other things, like the surprising turn my career took, the first apartment I moved to (with a partner I never thought I would meet and grow with). I lost a lot of good knitting time this year being swept up with a lot of that but still managed to get a few things off the needles.

The problem (?) with taking so long to blog about something you've knit is that it's likely that you've already spent some time incorporating them into your life and putting them into use.

pattern : Clarke Pullover by Jane Richmond

yarn : Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Cobblestone Heather and Garnet Heather

needle : US 6, 7 [4-4.5mm]

size : 40

My Clarke sweater's already a little rough around the edges. I haven't really felt the push to block the garment to make this look as attractive as possible for the blog, I hardly even wove the ends in! As soon as it was bound off I wore it and continued to whenever the weather deemed it appropriate to. It can't be that heretical to admit that, right? I don't block that often at all!

The first pullover I knit was a Jane Richmond pattern. It was such a simple and enjoyable process that I sank my teeth into the Clarke pattern expecting the same straightforward, highly customisable design. I was not disappointed and might make another sometime in the future. So far the Swish Worsted has been soft and very comfortable--no scratchiness at all. One issue I see is that it pills quite a bit. The pilling makes me wonder whether this batch of skeins I bought from knitpicks would suffer the same unfortunate fulling effect post-wash that I read complaints about on ravelry. It would suck to see such a fate from a sweater I love this much.

pattern : Show-Off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell

yarn : Regia Hand-Dye Effect in Rhubarb

needle : US 1 [2.5mm]

size : medium, 10"

This whole sock project was a nightmare, and it was entirely because of the yarn. I had this in the time-out pile since 2014 and didn't pick it back up until 2016. I was determined to finish it. Ignoring the general convention of knitting both socks with the same types of needle to ensure gauge is the same, I just picked some aluminum dpns and sped through the last sock.

With the frustration of the yarn behind me, I can enjoy these gorgeous colors and how the Anne Campbell's pattern has let them shine. To give the pattern a good faith effort once more with less annoying yarn, I casted on once more with a Zauberball skein instead. Anne Campbell kicked ass with this design.

how ease-y is too ease-y?

After toiling on my NaKniSweMo project, I figured it was safe to actually try this thing on to see how the project was coming.

My first response seeing myself in a mirror in this thing was 'ugh, I look like a bag of sausages under a knit tarp'. Alright, I don't exactly have stellar self esteem here, but really--how big and comfy is too big and comfy for a sweater?

This is a really really comfortable garment to wear and all, but with these wizard sleeves and the waist-decreases that didn't seem to amount to very much at all on my figure, I'm beginning to think there's more to sweater sizing than, idk, carelessly matching the bust measurement in the pattern and just going for it.

Expecting some positive-ease to my sweater, I thought it was safe to do just that and get enough yarn for the Large size. 45" can work well with my 42" bust, but the waist on this thing is 37" (I'm something like a 32), explaining clearly why my sweater feels like a blanket with sleeves.

So where can I comfortably sit on the scale between snuggly and actually flattering? I can opt for a noble path of (UGH) unraveling this entire thing and casting on a medium size (39" but..I guess I can mod it)?

Or just finish this project that I'm itching to see done, wear comfortably (even if it's not a thousand percent form-fitting and flattering), and enjoy a size down on my next sweater project?
I'm pretty sure I can pull off a cute oversized-sweater + leggings sort of get-up anyway, but I also have this pressing feeling that the Good-Knitter-And-Someday-Maybe-Designer thing to do is to stop whining and just tink and redo the whole thing. Just to learn some weird important lesson about achieving "perfect results" in knitting, buddhist sand mandala style.

There's still a tiny bit of time left before my self-imposed deadline arrives. I think we all already know what the answer's gonna be.