FO: Phildar sweet tie up sweater

Yay! Another FO post :) They make me feel so satisfied knowing I've finished something!

The knitting on this one has actually been finished for awhile, but I just couldn't be bothered sewing it all up, and actually doing the finishing because I stuffed it up twice already.

Pattern: Tie up pullover short sleeve sweater, from Phildar Tendances 456. Pattern number 456-T6-225 (Ravel it!)

Yarn : Bendigo Alpaca 8 ply, in Grey. I used approximately 1 and 3/4 of a second ball. I had heard great things about the alpaca and thought i'd give it a go seeing as though I needed something drapey in substitute of the cotton the pattern originally called for.

So what are my thoughts on the yarn? Well, I do love the heathered look of the grey colour. It helped me disguise a few mistakes I made during finishing, and gave the sweater a little bit of a textured look.

The yarn itself shed a whole heap during knitting, and I often made the mistake of unknowingly heading to the shops with a black sweater covered in alpaca hair only to realise at the counter. The yarn is also a little scratchy , possibly because the guard hairs haven't been removed. I'll definitely have to wear a little singlet underneath this one if I want to wear it!

Needles: 4.5mm UK

Comments and modifications:

Unlike other phildar patterns ive used in the past, this one is very straight forward and easily understood. No "huh" moments or frustrating frogging to be had with this one.

The construction of the sweater is interesting, but I can't help but think it was way too much finishing for something that could have easily been avoided.

For one thing, you knit the main part of the sweater. Then you knit a separate band for the bottom and attach it on for a finished hem. One can't help but wonder if you couldn't have just done the folded hem in one continuous knit pattern instead of doing it separately.

Secondly, the neck bad / neck tie. You knit these separately too - you knit two separate sections of long strips, and then you sew the two together, and then you sew it onto the body of the sweater. I did this originally, and ended up with an ugly result. I then thought it would be easier to cast on, pickup stitches, and continue knitting . Much easier, and much neater, but in my case, I ended up knitting too short a strip. By then, i was too lazy to fix it. So short little bow it is for now .

I do like the key hole, button up, puffed sleeves but my "key hole" is too big . I would make it smaller if I were to knit this again.

So whines and whinges aside, this really is a very easy knit. Straight forward reverse stockinette all the way, and easy to follow instruction. Just be prepared to do some extra legwork at the end of it ;)

UFO discovery

When people ask me "do you go to the gym", I often reply with a smile "I have plans..." knowing full well that somewhere in my mind, I have blocked out all thoughts about the $60 / month that is coming out of my credit card and I have only been twice in 2 months, and that while I'm on site for work , I get free membership to the gym.

I block these thoughts out because I don't want to feel guilty about the money i'm wasting, the food that i'm eating, and the general lazing around i've been well known for .

Today, when it started to pour outside, I woke up and couldnt get back to sleep so I decided to be a little bit resourceful and unpack one of the boxes that has been hiding in my craft room for some time (a box that I brought back with me on a recent trip to Perth). In it , I discovered several sweaters that I had forgotten (including my Phildar Swing Jacket and Patti Cardigan).

I also discovered a shoe box with some UFOs, including my first chocolate brown Lisette Cardigan, Thermal Sweater, as well as a stashed away Phildar tie up sweater I had only just started..

I don't even know where I'm up to for Thermal, or if I even still have the pattern but luckily it's freely available so *phew*


Regarding the phildar sweater.. I am ooooooohhhh sooooo close, but in my attempt at being "smart", I decided to pick up the neck band and knit rather than sew on a separate neck band. In my "smart" state however, I grossly undercalculated how many stitches I would need and the resultant neck band hardly ties up. In fact, it just bobbles.


So, in an effort to finish off some of the knits I've started, I'm hoping to take a leaf out of Christie's blog, and make it my two aims to finish these knits. Unlike her however, I won't be putting a timeframe on it.. hehehe i'm just "planning" to do it ;)


And finally.. here's a progress shot on the Millefiori Cardigan. It's been very quick going.. only two sleeves and some finishing to go. Hopefully i'll end up with something finished ;)

Almost there

As I mentioned previously, the sweet Phildar tie up sweater is a mindless knit. Rounds and rounds of reverse stockinette stitch and little shaping made perfect tv knitting. But by golly, the finishing is taking awhile..

First there was the puffed sleeves..


Then there was the slit sleeve finished off with a loop buttonhole


Then there was the bottom band...

Then there was the TWO neckbands that form the tie..


Almost there.. almost there...

Hair hair everywhere

As much as I love alpaca, I hate the way the fibres shed. It's all over me, my bf, and on the clothes. It's just like having an alpaca bleeping away in my living room ... :S


PS. I did say the Phildar Tie Sweater WIPs were going to be dull didn't I ? ;)

Casting on : Phildar Sweetness

Flicking through an older Phildar magazine, I came across a sweater that I fell in love with as soon as I had bought the magazine. However, many magazines and pattern book purchases later, I soon came to neglect the previously loved sweater until recently.

The sweater itself is very simple, knit in reverse stockinette stitch the whole way, and finished off with a sweet tie up at the front. Not difficult knitting it seems. And it's also one of those sweaters that you can wear very easily, so coupled with the simple sweetness of it, I decided I just had to knit it right now.


I've cast on using Bendigo Alpaca , which is fairly different to the Phildar Frimas suggested, but the cotton i tried to swatc with was fairly ugly knit at the looser gauge. So, I'm trying alpaca as it is fairly drapey, and hopefully will give me a similar effect to the Phildar Frimas. Plus, i'm trying to use up stash yarn before purchasing more yarn.

I don't expect it to have very exciting WIP photos along the way, so we may stay quiet on this one for awhile ;)