Whitmoor Sweater

This week marks three years since I learned to knit, so to celebrate I thought I’d finally write about this jumper that I finished in May! I know I’ve written before about my love for buying yarn secondhand. This sweater I made in 2019 was made from secondhand wool and this sweater last year was made from secondhand bamboo blend, both from eBay. It isn’t a convenient way to buy yarn, if you are looking for something specific it can take a really long time to find the right yarn secondhand. But on the plus side it can be really cheap, and also a great way to not create any demand for anything new.

Sourcing the yarn for this sweater was a labour of love. I bought the cone of yarn from someone local on Facebook marketplace, it cost £4 and I did the burn test when I got home and I believe it is a viscose or bamboo yarn. It is such a pretty colour but it’s fairly light fingering weight so it sat in my stash for over a year. Then I started thinking about making the Whitmoor Sweater by Tailoress Studio, this beautiful pattern is designed to be held double with mohair so off shopping I went again! Amazingly, I came across an exact shade match on eBay shortly after I started looking, this is an amazing coincidence and is certainly not what I expected. I was prepared to bid big (within reason) but I managed to buy 5 balls of it for £12ish!

Armed with two lots of secondhand yarn, I set about knitting my sweater. After casting on, I initially made a mistake which I want to mention in case anyone reading this wants to knit the same pattern. When doing the centre spine of the lace, the instruction says to: sl2,k1,p2sso – I started by slipping them purlwise and didn’t like the look, it looks much nicer if you slip the stitches knitwise! Frogged it and started again. These pictures show the stitches slipped knitwise.

After starting the second time, I raced through the yoke, the lace is written in a way that makes it quite intuitive to knit. It was easy to watch it grow. I don’t remember having any particular problems with the pattern and finished it in a little over a month!

The bamboo yarn mixed with the mohair makes a light and airy sweater and I’ve been reaching for it whenever I’ve been chilly over the summer. I don’t know any vegan alternatives to mohair but I do think a bamboo version without it would be lovely because of the drape.

I also wanted to mention that I knit this along with my lovely friend Ellie who you can find on Instagram as @sewingforswing – it was lovely knitting along virtually with someone else and watch their progress and cheer them on. It was a lovely experience and I treasure my finished sweater. I cannot think of anything else to say about this lovely pattern, I’ve been wearing it loads and would definitely consider making an autumnal one as well. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments if there’s anything I’ve missed!