I'm knitting once more! The Pouf pullover

So, the item I started on my 2018 Make Nine list is the one that ended up being the last one to get completed. Yeah...how about that?

I started this pullover around new year last year, chose it because it was cool but mainly because it was a simple knit and given my lack of experience, I needed the practice...or rather, I wanted the practice because I wanted to learn to knit.

The whole thing started with me being in Antwerp, Belgium beginning of December last year and wanting to bring back a piece of fabric. I went around a few shops and didn't find anything appealing enough that I just had to have (and I thought the struggle was only here in Norway...), so I started looking at yarn, you know...because I wanted to improve my knitting skills.

I found this fluffy bouncy merino wool in the nicest color. It looks like powder pink but when you look a bit closer you see it has flecks of many colors in there too. Lovely!

Then I started knitting...As I was working on the bottom ribbing, it looked really small, so I did some measurements and decided to increase the number of stitches by a third...which looked OK until I finished and tried the thing on...Oh! the horror 😱! The thing ended up being quite heavy and big that it pulled itself down making it look like it was melting down! The high neck was non existent and the hem reached my knees! I even washed it at high temperature and the thing refused to shrink. There was no way I'll be wearing this!

So do I throw it into a dark corner and forget about it for a while? That wouldn't really be me now, would it? 😁 So I took a deep breath and unraveled the whole thing, then threw it in a dark corner 😂😂😂. But I did pick it up again, and started over. This time not deviating at all from the pattern and guess what? It worked! It looks really close to the pattern photo and I'm really pleased with it.

It's delightful to wear, it's warm, it's cozy, it's just great! Is it perfect? No, far from that. It looks unevenly knitted, it does...and I'm really hoping some wear and tear will even that out a bit. The chunky wool proved not to be the easiest thing to knit prettily with for a beginner like me, but I still love it 😍. And guess what? I'm knitting something new right now. Far more involved but it seems to be going surprisingly well (fingers crossed).

This concludes my 2018 Make Nine list! I made them all! But will I do 2019 Make Nine? No. This was far too restrictive for me who sews for fun, changes her plans a lot and actually likes to do it that way, so pre-planning 9 items early on in the year was not my thing...Plus, if everything goes according to plan, I'll be way too busy for that next year 😉

Pattern: The Pouf pullover by Lion Brand Yarn
Yarn: Schachenmayr Merino Extrafine 85, color 241
Photos taken at home in Asker, Norway with world's most gorgeous model: My cat Otto 😘