What happens when you find yourself marooned on Sleeve Island with not one, but multiple knitting projects? Well, let me share my current knitting adventure!
It all began like any good knitting story: with a beautiful cast-on for a sweater using yarn from Les Laines Finndor. This sweater is a treasure, largely thanks to the gorgeous yarn choice which has a sentimental significance —I'll share more about that in a future post!
As I happily knitted away, I realized that unless I crafted the sleeves in a different color, I would run out of yarn. It’s nobody’s fault—not the dyer’s, not even mine! I had chosen to hold the yarn double instead of single, and while I bought extra, I didn't quite anticipate needing *THAT much more.
Thus began my quest to make the most of the yarn I had left in the main color. I had to frog those sleeves (cue the dramatic gasp!) and re-knit them, making the fit snugger so the main color could stretch further.
Rip it, rip it, rip it!
At this point, I thought my knitting mojo was still intact. Sure, I was bummed about redoing the sleeves, but what's a little extra effort for a sweater you'll adore, right?
While pondering my yarn dilemma, I did what any knitter would do: I cast on another sweater (insert well deserved eye roll 🙄). Enter the Willard sweatshirt by Alicia Plummer. If you haven’t knitted it yet, you’re missing out! I was a test knitter for this design, and I still wear mine proudly! I dove into this one with Malabrigo Rios in the lovely gray colorway named “gris” (fitting, right?).
Eager to power through, I zoomed through the body—but in my haste, I completely forgot the striping texture sequence (hint: it’s not a single purl round every ten rounds). Oops!
And guess what? Just like that, I found myself on Sleeve Island once more.
Bored with the prospect of more sleeves, I went through my UFO bin (unfinished objects) and pulled out my Skeindeer cardigan. I worked through the body in a jiffy, only to discover that once I bound off the body and finished the button band, I was again stuck—yes, you guessed it—on Sleeve Island!
Three active projects, three garments, six sleeve islands... What do you call multiple sleeve islands?
A sleeve archipelago!
While I envision an idyllic archipelago filled with tropical treasures and knitting secrets, the reality of being stuck on a sleeve archipelago is pretty monotonous. Just knitting round and round, decreasing a couple of stitches here and there, then back to more rounds.
So, craving a little excitement in my knitting life, guess what I did next?
I pushed through and finished one sweater!
And then I finished another!
As a reward for all my hard work—with only two sleeves left to conquer on this sleeve archipelago— I... cast on yet another sweater.
Oops, I did it again! Looks like I’ll be hanging out in my sleeve archipelago for a little longer…
Oh, and did I mention we’re currently experiencing a heat wave in California? What on earth am I going to do with all these sweaters!?!