I saw this and had to drop everything and make it immediately. I was a bit obsessed. Such a FUN sweater to make. Love it to bits and plan to make a summer version with short sleeves in Rowan Handknit Cotton or Rowan Creative Linen. I worried that my marled yarn choice would be too much for this sweater and I would lose the bobble pattern, but just the opposite, the bobbles bounce and pop with electricity. Named Aggie after the two-toned agate marbles that the bobbles remind me of.
I started out with the second size for the yoke. Did not add stitches at the sleeve separation and came out with a 34.5”. This is pretty much a zero ease fit for me which is what I wanted, but for some reason is too large on me. Next time I’ll make the smallest size. Added length to body and to sleeves although I may remove some body length.
My bobble was a 6 st. bobble and I only knit it “again” one time, not two. I made my bobbles rather loose and tried to pass the stitches over clumped as a group rather than one at a time. When you choose a yarn for this pattern, make sure you can easily make the bobbles; some yarns are not so nice to bobble makers.
Now for the yarn. I’ve used Shelter many times and love it. This batch however was a mess: thick and thin, breakages, knots, wispy bits looping out, stretches of undyed bits and just a lot of headache. I kept thinking I should send it back (I ordered it on the BT website as it’s not carried in any yarn store near me) but I just wanted to plow through. I’m so glad I am familiar with Shelter and know it to be awesome and that this was a rare and unlucky bad batch. I’m finished and happy with the project, but if I ever got a bad batch of yarn again from any company I would not hesitate to return it. BT is an awesome company and they would have wanted me to return it I’m sure, but I didn’t want to stop knitting bobbles! You can see a stripe of whitish mid-center across the bobble pattern. That was a part of the mis-dyed bit that I did not notice until I was through with the body. It’s something you don’t notice while knitting. I have a bit of charcoal Rit Dye that I’m going to dilute and dab with a Q-Tip and see how that goes. In the meantime, I wearing it and loving it.
Apologies for the washed out pictures above. It was hard to get the color right without making me look like either a pink person or a ghost. I settled for somewhere in between.