Shifty Sweater in Northiam
I recently finished my Shifty sweater and had such fun knitting it that I thought it deserved a blog post to itself!
I used my small-batch British Bluefaced Leicester, Northiam fingering for Andrea Mowry's cute design. Andrea used variegated yarns for this design so I didn’t follow her colour changes with these solid hues. The complex pattern is actually formed of slipped stitches so you are only knitting one colour on each row, unlike real colourwork, making it much simpler and quicker to work.
The pattern suggests negative ease which I ignored. I don't really like my jumpers to cling, so knit a 38 for my 34 bust and have a nice roomy, slightly boxy cropped jumper I can throw over loose layers. The round yoke still fits perfectly and the stitches blocked out beautifully in this soft non-superwash Bluefaced Leicester, making the fabric cohesive and warm.
To get a similar random look to Andrea's variegated sample with my solid coloured ethical yarn, I switched colours around as I went to get an effect I am super happy with. This allowed me to make colour decisions as I knit. I think that is why I am so proud of it - I got to ‘create’ my colour as I went along adding some fun choices along the way, and it made me feel more involved in the process! This jumper feels truly me.
Colours used from bottom: Swift, Amber, Thistle, Rosehip, Shale.⠀
I used 5 hues of Northiam fingering and you can easily adjust the colours with the skeins to make all the larger sizes with this amount of yarn, 2000m, as there is plenty of meterage left in the other colours to alternate with striping.⠀
Here are two other yarn combos you could use, that I originally considered.⠀
Colours from bottom to top: Barley, Shale, Amber, Swift, Canvas.
The mock up for this one is an approximation - the contrast between darks and lights will be much more pronounced and dramatic in real life.
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From bottom: Seafoam, Barley, Caspian, Samphire, Blackthorn.
I even have enough yarn left over to knit one of the other designs in the collection and will probably cast on the hat or shawl in the near future, maybe mixing in some new colours to change the results a bit. Cast on now and see how fun this jumper is to knit for yourself... you won't regret it!
