MISURINA TEE: The Fastest Sweater I Ever Knit

I’m sure some of you have had making experiences where something just flew off the needles (or canvas, or jewelry board, or whatever). I haven’t really ever had that happen before with a sweater as I’m not a particularly fast sweater knitter and have mostly moved over to knitting smaller gauge sweaters on finer yarns so there are even more stitches! I’ve had this type of experience with hats occasionally, but even then my attention span is fairly limited.

Anyway, I decided to “treat myself” in January and ignore all other sweater projects on the needles (Birkin, Go-to Raglan, Ferris Wheel yarn raglan, Comfort Fade Cardi… this last one I finally ordered an additional skein for, so maybe will have some traction on that one this year) and so I busted out the yarn I bought in Cambria last September, Manos del Uruguay Alegria, which I used for the Wool & Honey last year. Cambria and that area of the California Central Coast is one of my favorite areas and usually make a little stop at the local yarn shop there, Balls & Skeins & More. They have the full range of Manos yarns and it’s really fun to see everything displayed.

So I cast on for Misurina, a pattern by Caitlin Hunter of Boyland Knitworks. It’s a short-sleeved cropped sweater with two different options on how to handle the body – there is a purl texture option or an eyelet pattern, and I went with the eyelet pattern. Between the colorwork and cables at the top and the body pattern, this really kept my interest and within a week I had complete the following:

This is pretty fast for me!! Plus I have been practicing on my colorwork, so it looks so much better than some previous attempts. I now know you should carry the dominant color (the one you want to “pop” against the background, in this case the yellow) on the left as you are knitting. This makes a big difference.

So it was just a nice, repetitive knit once I got done with the yoke and in another week I had a new sweater! It took 15 days of knitting and one of blocking – definitely a record for me. Previously I had knit the Love Note sweater in 22 days (big needles made the difference on that one!) and thought that was pretty good! The Wool & Honey I knit last year in about 6 weeks, which I also thought was pretty good.

I followed the pattern as written except for the following mods:

• Knit the sleeves about 2″ longer than called for – an additional repeat of the eyelet pattern.
• Knit the body about 3″ longer than called for – the pattern indicates a total length of something like 8″ and I have a long torso – that would have looked really stupid on me where that cuts off so I almost always add a bit of length to my sweaters.

The neck and sleeves both feature ribbing and a rolled hem. I am not normally a rolled hem kind of person, but it works with this design so I kept it. It adds a softness to this design that I rather like.

This was a very fun knit and I had a great time making it.

Next up:

• Finally finishing the marled ombre Go-To Raglan, which finally has a body and a sleeve! Currently it’s back in time out because I knit said sleeve twice and am not in the mood LOL. But probably later this month. I did most of this catch-up knitting after completing Misurina, so it’s nice to be in a knitting groove once again!
• However…. I also cast on for a 2nd Zweig! This one is dark blue and knit out of Knitpicks Stroll Tonal. I have always wanted a blue one, and after living with the first one I knit about 3 years ago, I realized that sweater is a cold weather version, so I’m doing 3/4 length sleeves and a little shorter body length – hoping it comes out more similar to Wool & Honey. I did a big order from Knitpicks in January in lieu of attending Stitches West this year, which is virtual – I am not interested in attending virtual trade shows. I also got some yarn to finally make Caitlin Hunter’s Sipila, which I have been looking for yarn for for years it feels like! But the KP Muse line had the perfect turquoisey blue. And I also got some yarn to knit Arachne, a yoked sweater where the yoke design is a spider web.
• The KP order also included an extra yellow Stroll, which I have almost used up in the marling for the Comfort Fade cardi. I was going pretty strong on that one last year till I realized that I needed more yellow to finish the marling as well as for the collar. So I’m kinda feeling that one after I finish the Go-To and Zweig 2.

We’ll see how all that shakes out… Still under lockdown here in CA so I am just following my whims while I am still stuck at home.