I’m really very happy with how my latest knitting project turned out: Etherow designed by Sarah Hatton from the Rowan Winterscapes brochure.

The yarn, Rowan’s beautifully soft Alpaca Merino DK (Baby Alpaca, Superfine Alpaca and Extra Fine Merino), makes this Fairisle and stocking stitch sweater cushiony soft to wear and light as a feather. Here’s a back view so you can see the Fairisle design goes all around the neckline……

The original design was knitted using the shades Hoby (pink) and the creamy white shade Melbourne…….

I almost went with Hoby but then decided on the strong turquoise blue shade Belvoir for the main colour. But there are 14 shades to choose from so take your pick……

The sweater has a nice fitted look, although I wouldn’t say it has negative ease, probably +1 inch of ease. I decided to add a bit of waist shaping as I hate it when the extra material around my waist and my lower back bulges out strangely, which seems to happen a lot with the shape of my body. I did this by gradually decreasing 4 stitches on each row (situating them above my two front hip bones and the relative position at the back) 6 times and then gradually adding them back again as I knitted up towards the bust.

The sweater itself is knitted in the round from bottom up to the neck. What I love about the pattern is there are only 12 stitches (6 under each armpit) to graft together at the end of the knitting; it is all knitted in one piece. Sarah Hatton is really great designing patterns like this…….no seams = no sewing.…..love it!

One thing to watch out for though, when you are knitting the yoke there are some short rows but the pattern does not tell you to wrap the stitches when you turn in the middle of a round, which you do quite a lot. I wasn’t sure if there was a reason for this but wrapped the stitches anyway and then hid the wrapped stitches when knitting these stitches again when I came across them on the next row. If you don’t wrap the stitches you will have lots of holes all around the yoke……so I’m glad I went ahead and wrapped.

As I mentioned earlier, the pattern for Etherow can be found in the Winterscapes brochure which has a great collection of Alpaca Merino DK designs, all by Sarah Hatton, featuring simple colourwork and textures such as cable designs, from scarves and hats through to sweaters and cardigans; I still have Ewden……

Ewden

and Toost……..

Toost

on my list. But I think I will knit up another pair of my Zebra Mittens first from the leftovers. (Zebra Mittens pattern available to buy on Ravelry – click here). I would love these in another colourway…….

Also, check out Kim Hargreaves books Hush and Embrace for several gorgeous designs using this yarn. Here’s Swift from Hush……

Swift

and Lori from Embrace…..

Lori

Have you used Rowan’s Alpaca Merino DK? Please do let me know by leaving a reply below or scroll to the top and click on the little speech bubble!

Click on the links below for more information on……

Zebra Mittens Pattern

Zebra Mittens Blog Post

Winterscapes Brochure

Hush by Kim Hargreaves

Embrace by Kim Hargreaves

Thank so much for reading my blog.

Esther x