Last year I started a series that I call Make with Me. The name is a bit misleading because I don’t really allow for us to make the same project concurrently, instead, I share projects in their finished state. Most of these projects use other designers’ patterns, so I can’t even share a pattern or tutorial. Instead, I give you the project details, helpful hints, and links to the patterns and materials.
If I’ve talked to you about 2020 and the pandemic, I’m sure that I’ve told you that this was the sort of situation I was made for. Definitely didn’t like the health crisis, but I was so excited to not leave the house for weeks on end. I have enough ideas and supplies to keep me busy for years (no joke), and 2020 was my big chance to get busy….
But about 6 months into quarantine, I needed something new and a bit of inspiration.
Up to that point I had done a great job of going through my stash and working on a variety of “someday” projects. But then I had a bit of decision fatigue. There are some supplies that aren’t destined for a specific project and I just couldn’t decide what to use and how to use it.
So, I decided to treat myself. I wanted a knitting project that would take a few weeks, but that didn’t require much decision-making on my part. Basically, I wanted to pick out a pattern and use the exact supplies that are called for. No digging through my stash for this one project to find a yarn that might or might not work.
Shifty + Spincycle
Enter Shifty. This is a sweater that I had seen on the interwebs and loved, but definitely didn’t have any yarn in my stash that would fit the bill. I was also intrigued by this project because it called for a yarn that I had swooned over but had never seen in person. Some notes on both the sweater and yarn below
Pattern: Shifty by Andrea Mowry
This is a relatively easy pattern to follow. It’s a seamless top-down sweater with just enough variation from the stitches and the yarn to keep things interesting. Because it’s made from the top-down, you can try it on as you go to get just the right fit.
The pattern notes call for no to negative ease (don’t make this one a baggy sweater), and I agree. I ended up starting the sweater and then taking it out and going down a size because the fit with a bit of ease didn’t look great. I have an extremely skinny upper body on a medium hips. While I didn’t want this sweater baggy, I knew that something too fitted also wouldn’t look good, so I tried to split the difference and I think it worked.
As for arm length, the pattern calls for 3/4 length sleeves, but I ended up going for bracelet length. Something that would be cozy but wouldn’t be long enough that I would feel the need to pull them up while washing the dishes or help the boys with an art project. #momlife.
Spincycle Yarns: Dyed in the Wool
As I mentioned, I partially picked this pattern because I’ve really wanted to try some Spincycle yarns… and I have a few things to say about the yarn.
I really like this yarn. I think that they do a good job of pulling off the “looks like hand spun” uniqueness. When I was in Bellingham, the home of Spincycle, I got to browse the yarn in person, and that was awesome. I will definitely use it again for future projects… and am so glad that Sarah moved to Bellingham so I won’t seem crazy when I’m buying a plane ticket to purchase yarn.
BUT I bought the yarn for this sweater from their website and before having seeing it in person. As other people have said, I agree that I don’t think their website provides the most comprehensive representation of the skeins. For example, the photographed skein may contain more darker shades but then your skein may be on the lighter end. Even so, the skeins and colorways are all beautiful.
I ended up using the following colors for my sweater:
I didn’t follow the exact color change scheme that Andrea used, but I think that’s the beauty of this sweater. You’re working with a few different colors, and you can add them as you please. Of course, that also caused a slight amount of anxiety.
Sometimes the two colors that I was using were so similar that I felt like you wouldn’t see the patter of blips and blobs, but other times the yarns contrasted so much that I felt like the blips (or was it the blobs?) were really jarring. In the end, I wouldn’t often just keep knitting after a few rows, the section I was worried about looked just fine. Follow Dory’s advice and “just keep going”.
For all of that hemming and hawing over color, I wanted to make this sweater FOR all of that color. This sweeter has so much color variation that it’s a really versatile piece.
Final Thoughts
In the end I’m really happy with the final results. So happy that I’d definitely knit this one again and this time go for some darker, moodier colors. Think fall oranges, maroons, and deeper blues. But again, I’m not sure that I’d be able to pick those colors out over the internet. I’m worried that I’d end up with skeins that have pastel pinks, baby blues, and neon yellow in the them. 😉
Between size, sleeve length, color variation, this sweater gives you a lot to customize, but at the end of the day, it’s still a really easy knit. And all of those details, my friends, are why it’s fun to make your own clothes! You can adjust every little detail and end up with a garment that’s perfect for you.