It’s my finished Banaue Breeze sweater!

Since I’m writing this two days before the new year, I’m fairly confident saying that this will be my final finished project of 2016 – which brings my total finished project count of 2016 to three! (and one project was mending a pair of pants). Huzzah!

It turns out that traveling and moving apartments seriously cut into my making time.

2016 has been an adventure. And 2017 is looking like it will be too.

Have a wonderful & safe New Years, I’ll see you next year.

– xo, Holly

Now on to the sweater details!

Materials

Pattern: Banaue Breeze by Stephen West

Yarn: 3 skein of Malabrigo laceweight

Malabrigo’s Silkpaca in colorways “Natural (063)” and “Piedras (862)”
1 skein each; 420 yds (384 m) per 50oz skein; 2 ply laceweight; 70% Baby Alpaca, 30% Silk

Malabrigo’s Lace in an unknown colorway (this is the variegated one – it came from my yarn stash with no tag), I poked around the Malabrigo website, but didn’t see a colorway in Lace that jumped out at me.
1 skein; 470 yds (430 m) per 50oz skein; single ply laceweight; 100% Baby Merino

The light brown almost solid is the skein of Silkpaca in Piedras – it doesn’t look a whole lot like Piedras. And while it does have some variegation in there I would have assumed it was a solid. So either it came from an incredibly subtle dye lot, or it was mislabeled.

Needles: US size 5s (3.75mm)

Blocked Gauge: 6sts and 9 rows per inch

Pattern Modifications

I made three modifications:

1. the colorblocking

I worked sections 1 and 2 of the “Right Half” of the pattern in the Malabrigo Lace (the varigated unknown colorway), and sections 3 and 4 of the “Right Half” in the Silkpaca “natural” colorway. Then I worked sections 1 and 2 of the “Left Half” of the pattern in the Silkpaca “piedras(?)” colorway, and sections 3 and 4 of the “Left Half” in the Silkpaca “natural” again.

2. the exposed seam in the center of the front & back

As written, the pattern has you work a 3 needle bind off with the right sides together – making the seam end up on the wrong side. I just worked the 3 needle bind off with the wrong sides together – making the seam end of up on right side.

3. the i-cord bind off at the neckline

As written, the pattern has you pick up and knit a handful of rounds, then work a standard stretchy bind off. Instead, I picked up and knit a handful of rounds fewer than the pattern called for, and then worked an i-cord bind off. Like I do on most of my sweaters.

The Sweater Parts I Love

1. the turned hems at both cuffs
2. the exposed seam
3. the pattern blocking
4. the loose floaty fit
5. the beautiful drape that makes the floaty fit work
6. the wide open neckline
7. the shape!
8. the line of double yarn overs across the shoulder

The Other Parts

1. the sleeves – they are huge! I like them, they’re part of what attracted me to the sweater in the first place, and yet, every time I look at the sweater my first though is “the sleeves are huge!”
2. the drape of the hem – it’s different, but every time I look at it I wonder how it was intended to sit on hips.
3. the back of the neckline – I love how open the neckline is, but don’t love how it bunches at the back of the neck.

PS. if you missed it yesterday and want to procrastinate for 15 minutes, I dug out all my current works in progress, plus all my unfinished projects, and filmed them all.

You can watch my face say “I don’t know what I was thinking…” more times than I care to count, here!

Be sure to like or comment if you enjoy.