Make Four: a less ambitious Make Nine

As the old year draws to a close and the new year is on the horizon, the knitting corner of Instagram starts to fill up with knitters plans for the coming year in the form of Make Nine grids: photos of nine things crafters plan to make over the next twelve months. I've never taken part in Make Nine as I know that by the time I get all my work-knitting done, the idea of completing nine personal projects takes a very large leap of the imagination. At the end of last year though, I decided that I would create a slightly less ambitious list of goals: Make Four.

So, what was on my list?

Soldotna by Caitlin Hunter

First (top left), we have Soldotna by Caitlin Hunter. This cropped, short-sleeved sweater was all over Instagram when it came out last year, because (1) it's gorgeous, (2) it's DK weight, so it's fairly quick to knit, (3) it uses four colours, which is a good excuse to go for a stash dive! I was planning a slightly-modified version, with longer sleeves (maybe three-quarter length), and a longer body (I'm tall, though actually a just-below-the-waist length version would look great with a couple of dresses I own), in Drops Cotton Merino in shades of pink and grey, which I picked up in a sale last year.

Chuck by Andi Satterlund

Second up is Chuck by Andi Satterlund (top right). This has been in my Ravelry queue for ages! It's another cropped jumper, but I'm going to make it a little looser and longer to be worn with jeans. Like all the other jumpers on this list, I have the yarn in my stash already: Drops Nepal in Dark Red. I love a dark red jumper, so this will get a lot of wear in January/February where it stops being acceptable to wear Christmas jumpers all the time!

Pavement by Veera Valimaki

The third jumper on my list in Pavement by Veera Valimaki. I already have a Pavement jumper: it's cornflower blue and I wear it a lot in Spring and Autumn. It's perfect for throwing over a vest top with a pair of jeans. The second Pavement that I am planning will be knitted in Hawthorn Fingering Kettle Dye Yarn from Knit Picks in the shade Serpent, which is a rich jewel-toned green that I adore. The first Pavement I knitted grew surprisingly fast for a 4-ply weight sweater, so I'm hoping this one does the same once it's on the needles (I can't be the only one that finds casting on a garment to be a large initial stumbling block?).

Starfall by Jennifer Steingass

The final garment on my Make Four list is Starfall by Jennifer Steingass. This was a work in progress at the start of the year, so I really hoped that I might manage to get it crossed off the list pretty quickly, but that wasn't to be. I took a lot of notes while I was knitting the yoke of the sweater, but it turns out I didn't take a note of the most important details: the needle size is not written down anywhere! I tried knitting a sleeve to see if I could work it out that way, but that sleeve came out a different size to the first, and for some reason that is lost to me now, I used a different shade of grey in the yoke to the sleeve. Who knows?! I decided to quit before investing any more time in the project and cast on Bright Above Me instead. I'm so glad I switched projects as Bright Above Me is flying off the needles and I'm really looking forward to wearing it (in the autumn - who wants to wear a worsted weight jumper in May?).

Bright Above Me by Dieuke Schack-Mulligan

Which jumper do you think I should cast on next? Obviously I have seen other patterns that I fancy since deciding on this list at the start of the year, but I think that I will at least try and stick to the list... Pavement is appealing to me on many levels (that green!), and while knitting a fingering weight sweater in the summer months will be lovely, I suspect the jumper would be ready to wear just after the season to wear it has passed... Do you knit for winter in the summer months, or knit in summer yarns over the summer? Did you set yourself a Make Nine goal for 2020?

All images are copyright the copyright holders. Follow the pattern links for full details.

If you want to see other knitters' Make Nine goals for the year, check out the hashtag on Instagram.

Yarn Along: 29th April 2020: Bright Above Me

Hello... whispering very quietly... I appear to have three children that are entertaining themselves for a few minutes, so I'm popping by to see what you're up to. We've been on lockdown for five and a half weeks now. Pre-lockdown, I dreamed of all the extra time I'd have without having to do the school run, or all the after school chauffeuring, now several weeks into lockdown I'm mostly wondering how I manage to spend all of my time cooking or cleaning up having cooked!

For the first couple of weeks of lockdown I got very little crafting done. I thought I should be doing easy knitting that I didn't have to concentrate on, but all that happened was that my mind wandered. As soon as I realised that what I really wanted to work on was really complicated, fully-immersive knitting that could distract me from what was going on in the world, I started getting a lot more done!

Starfall sweater yoke

For ages I have been saying that I should get my Starfall Sweater done, but every time I picked it up, I was uncertain about how it was going to turn out, and one evening, having knitted a second sleeve that didn't match the first, I finally gave up and decided to put the yarn to better use. One project that has been on my mind ever since it came out last year is Bright Above Me by Dieuwke Schack-Mulligen. I actually started knitting the sweater last year, but got annoyed by the long strands that had to be caught as they were showing through on the outside and I abandoned the project before I really got started. Since then, I have learnt how to do ladder back jacquard, where you create a second layer of fabric on the back for all the floats and it is actual magic! Yes, it does require a bit more concentration, but it is totally worth it for the finished result.

Bright Above Me yoke

Ladderback jacquard

I've hardly read anything since the schools closed (see comment above regarding cooking...), but I am enjoying reading a few pages of How to Stop Time by Matt Haig every night before I go to sleep. I've read some of Matt Haig's non-fiction before and like his writing style, but this is the first of his novels that I have read. Tom, the main character ages very slowly: 15 years for every Earth year. He looks 41, but is in fact well over 500 years old, and he remembers everything from the long life that he is living. This is another book I have on long-term loan from the library (all the libraries are shut, so I can't return anything), and it is proving to be a perfect read for now. The chapters set during the Great Plague London in the 17th Century feel apt for the current pandemic. During the plague, Tom lost the love of his life, Rose, with whom he had a daughter, who ages at the same rate as Tom. In the present day, Tom is trying to built yet another new life for himself, while still pining for Rose and for his long-lost daughter. While I'm reading this quite slowly, I really want to know how the plot will unfold, and whether Tom will ever be able to find peace.

Work in progress

What are you currently working on? Are you finding yourself wanting mindless knitting that requires no attention, or something really involved? If you've been eyeing any of my patterns, don't forget that everything in my Ravelry store is buy one get one free until the pubs in the UK reopen (can you tell that I am missing my weekly pub meet-ups with my knitting friends?!).


Linking up with Ginny for Yarn Along.