Hi there guys!
I’m back from a week in the Alps, but I’ve been keeping busy there too! I finally finished the Effie sweater that I’ve started back in May. Knitting the body and the sleeves was fairly quick, you see, but the ruffles and the finishing were a royal pain in the ass. You have to double the yarn and then cast on 360 stitches for the ruffles – that takes a while. I managed to eek out one ruffle a day at the beginning of August, but couldn’t bring myself to sew them on.
I had more success sitting on the balcony of this cozy little cottage in the late afternoon sun after a day of hiking, particularly because of my knitting companion and faithful cheerleader Patricia! (She expertly took these pictures, too!)
It took aaaaaaaages to sew on each ruffle, especially since I accidentally kept picking up stitches and sewing them to the ruffles that definitely did not belong there … It was also kinda hard to space them out evenly, you can see below that the left one is all kinds of wonky. At this point I didn’t care enough anymore and left it like this. Mohair just isn’t that great to open up again (sigh). Another thing that warrants a big sigh are the millions of ends you have to sew in at the end … thanks two-stranded knitting for all the extra ends!
If you had asked me a year ago, I would’ve laughed at the idea that I’d make a lace weight garment. I’m notoriously lazy and this just seemed like too much work. But I got inspired by Meike’s Featherweight Cardigan, and then I saw that Wolle Rödel offered this 2 ply mohair yarn for 99c/skein and couldn’t resist. I really love how it looks in stockinette stitch!
I didn’t knit the pieces of the body separately, but added the stitches for the back and front piece together so I could knit the body in the round. Everything that eliminates a couple of seams is a positive in my book.
I’m fairly happy with this jumper. I hope the yarn won’t be too scratchy in the long run, but I’ll have to wear it a few times to find out. I do love the colour, though!
Pattern: Effie by Kim Hargreaves
Yarn: Fashion Romance by Rico Design (Lace, 50% Acrylic/30% Mohair/20% Wool), #003 lachs
And now some mountains, because who doesn’t love pretty scenery? I definitely do! I took all the pictures of all the mountains, you can be sure of that!
8 responses to “Effie in the Alps”
The scenery is spectacular, but your sweater is definitely the star of the show, and it looks great on you. Congratulations on completing such a beautiful project.
Aw, thank you! I’m really happy that I didn’t give up on it, even though the process was really frustrating at times.
Gorgeous sweater! And what an amazing place are the Alps. Stunning! Way to go with these ruffles 🙂 The sweater looks amazing. I don’t think I’d have have the patience to do this 😀
Thank you so much! It certainly tested my patience, too – I don’t think I would’ve finished it if I hadn’t been in the mountains sans all other distractions. 😀
Wow I can’t believe those ruffles were knitted! It looks so complicated! Lovely work! And thank you for the beautiful photos. Those mountains are lovely too!
Thank you! The ruffles weren’t so much complicated but frustrating to knit – it took so long for a bit of frill! I’m glad you like the pictures, I couldn’t stop photographing the beautiful landscape around me. It was really hard to choose three from all of my pictures. 😀
[…] pattern is supposed to be knitted in separate pieces, but I decided to knit it in the round like my Effie. Of course, Effie is knit in stockinette stitch while Hey Teach! has a lace section … I […]
[…] need much skill to cover up. After that, I got … too big for my own boots. You see, I spent a week in Austria hiking with friends, during which I discovered the magificent specimen pictured above. Only it didn’t look like […]