I finished knitting my Carpino sweater weeks ago. After doing all of the finishing and trying it on, I decided it was too short, so I ripped out the ribbing, and re-knit it a few inches longer. With my busy schedule, that took a while. Then, it took an entire week to get some photos of it. So, here, a little delayed but better late than never, is the finished project:
This is my first time knitting with Brooklyn Tweed Loft. I must say the yarn is not what I expected. The knitted fabric is very fleece-like; it really has the feel of a sweatshirt. I am not sure what I think about this – after all, if you wanted to wear a sweatshirt then why knit a sweater? On the other hand, I’ve only been wearing it a week so I would still like to reserve judgement. There is no denying that the colours of Loft, like its sister worsted yarn, Shelter, are rich and tweedy and lovely. I wish I had used one of the lighter colours to knit this as the lovely lacey pattern on the front is somewhat obscured in this dark purple. I tried wearing it with a white tank underneath so that the lace would show up, but it wasn’t the most successful of styles:
Still, it is a nice photo of the shape of the sweater. If I were to knit this again, I would use a different yarn and a much paler colour (I keep imagining it in a silk blend in a very pale blue or pearl grey).
The pattern is Carpino, and is designed by Carol Feller of Stolen Stitches. I really like Carol’s designs, and as this is the third one I’ve knit, I knew that the fit would be good and the pattern would be clear. I was not disappointed. Except for making it longer and using my normal bindoff (rather than the super stretchy one she recommends) I made no changes to this at all. It’s knit exactly to pattern. It is an extremely well-written and intuitive pattern and quite a fun knit. I have at least two other Carol Feller sweaters on my short list, so its unlikely to be my last.
I realize that my last three projects have all been purple. I seem to be stuck in a purple theme here. In a complete and total change of subject, for some reason this reminded me of the purple man, a character from my childhood. When I was in junior high school, my dad lived in Manhatten, just off Central Park West, and my sisters and I used to visit him on the weekends. One of the neighborhood characters was a man who was always dressed entirely in purple – purple coat, vest, shirt, trousers, socks, shoes, hat, tie. He even rode a purple bicycle. We would see him frequently and to us he was a beloved part of New York – like the pickle man on the lower East Side. Once, after many years of seeing the purple man on his own, we were out walking with Daddy and came across the purple man walking hand-in-hand with a purple woman, also dressed head-to-toe in purple. It was a magical moment, one in which I really thought that there was someone special out there for everyone.
Doug took the above photo in our back garden, just as the light was going, late in the evening. I think its kind of pretty. In fact, Doug took 171 photos of me in this sweater, so that I could find a few good ones to show you. I’ve put on weight since I started knitting it (business school should come with a warning label – “Business school makes you fat!”). There were photos that looked like this:
And photos that looked like this:
And there were about 150 photos that vanity won’t allow me to publish.
I submitted a big paper this week for b-school, so tonight I am on holiday. I have poured a glass of wine and plan to pick up my needles and knit something not-purple.