Not Your Grandma's Christmas Sweater

Remember the Christmas sweaters of yesteryear?  The ones in bright red, white and green?  The ones with Santas or bells or reindeer prominently displayed front and centre?  Well, that's not what mine  looks like.

Check out  my Christmas sweater.  Not your Grandma's sweater!

 

Knit in my colour palette with just enough bling in both the yarn and the buttons  to make it 'seasonal'.

Pattern:  Snowflake by Tincanknits.  Based in British Columbia, Tincanknits produces all their patterns in a great range of sizes.  From 2 to 52.  So you can make Father/son, Mother/daughter look-alike garments.  Many of their patterns are free and on their blog they feature great tutorials.  Check them out.

Needles:  Trim 3.75mm  Body 4.mm

Yarn:   Yoke and trim was knit with Nashua Grand Opera in 'warm brown' with a strand of sparkle woven in.
             Body was knit with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in a shade of gold that compliments the warm brown.

The pattern for my size called for 360 yards of trim yarn so I purchased 3 balls of the Nashua at 128 yards per ball.  I used almost, but not quite, two.  The body called for 860 yards. At 110 metres per ball, I purchased 9 of the Cashmerino and had one plus 95% of a second left over. Accessories to come it seems.

Mods:  As you know from a previous post, I knit the body below the divide of sleeves from body on my machine.  Time is of the essence after all.  I have another sweater to knit before our family get- together on December 12.  By hand, I knit as far as the  completion of the bust darts  then hung the sweater on the machine.
Bust darts were not part of the pattern but since coming across Deb Gemmell's easy peasy bust darts in her Need A Circular Yoke? book I now put them in most of my sweaters.

 

Waist shaping was an option in the pattern but I didn't do it.  I  forgot.   I chose to start with a  size  smaller than my norm because of the stretchiness of the lace work in the yoke.  The design is fairly  open at the neck and I didn't want it falling off my shoulders.  As with many, top-down sweaters that I knit, I start with the size that gives me the neck opening I want, then just keep increasing until it fits.

My sleeves are a couple of inches longer than suggested in the pattern.

 

On me, the pattern-length sleeve came only to my elbow.  Since I intend this to be a winter sweater, I thought a  longer sleeve might keep me from having to throw  a sweater on  over my sweater.

I am very pleased with this sweater.   My colours, yet  a bit blingy for  a great seasonal piece.