What a knitting journey this has been. The minute I saw The Weekender Crew by Andrea Mowry I wanted to make one. It’s a big, comfy sweater with some cute stylish details (pockets on the front) that I thought would be my best friend all winter long. Dropped shoulders. Long sleeves. Split hem. DK weight yarn. Deep ribbing on a perfect crew neckline. I mean, this was an ideal sweater for me. I went on an online hunt for the yarn and my son drove me to a yarn store up north of me for a birthday yarn shopping event.
I cast on in late September and immediately ran into trouble with the cast on. Tubular cast on, to be specific. I think that I’m a pretty accomplished knitter, but definitely that new cast on required a learning curve. I blogged about that whole adventure here. The edge created by the cast on looked really nice, so I patted myself on the back for hanging in there and mastering a new technique and enthusiastically knitted on. I should have realized that the cast on was a harbinger of things to come. This perfectly simple weekend sweater was a great vehicle to learn many new things.
So, now I’d learned a new cast on and a new bind off. Cool. I managed knitting the rest of the sweater and arrived at that wonderful moment when the whole thing gets blocked. This sweater had obvious ripples in the fabric at the transitions between ribbing and the stockinette, so it really did need to be blocked.
Andrea gives good directions in the pattern on how to block using a good soak, sandwiching the sweater between towels, and then walking on it. Who are you??? I wondered. Have you been channeling my mother… she absolutely would block like this, but there was no way I was walking on my beautiful squishy (expensive) yarn. This yarn is superwash; I’m nervous about it stretching during blocking. While thinking of mom, I suddenly remembered her explaining how to steam the gathers out of a pinned sleeve before sewing it when I was a nervous teenaged seamstress. I decided to go with mom on this blocking adventure… I laid the sweater out on the blocking mats, misted it well with a spray bottle, and then gently steam blocked the gathers away with my iron while the yarn bloomed and the ribbing opened up. Yay!! I covered the damp sweater with towels to dry, and Hannah immediately moved in.
Hannah: Don’t you just love the smell of wet wool in the morning?
Yep. Time to learn a new skill. Andrea linked to a tutorial on pocket sewing that was extremely helpful, and after letting the sweater sit in a corner over-night, I pulled myself together and tackled the task.
I used a lace weight yarn to outline the exact row of knitting that I was going to stitch into while attaching the pockets with mattress stitch. What a good idea, right? I also followed the tutorial directions in attaching the pocket bottoms, which gave me a perfect bottom edge. Wow. An old knitter can learn new tricks!
Ta-daa! I have the perfect oversized, comfy sweater with lots of polished details that I am going to wear all winter long. I kind of wish that I had made a smaller size now that it is done, but I can always make another one, right? Altogether, a great knit and the perfect birthday project.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Oh, BRAVO, Marilyn ! – it’s beautiful !!
I have decided that you are never going to knit anything that doesn’t present you with some hideous challenge. I can’t understand this, but hey, we’re all different, eh ?
Gorgeous wool. Gorgeous sweater. Gorgeous knitting.
You must be proud !!!
Well, you wouldn’t want me to be bored, right?
Thank you.
Oh, that’s beautiful. And with pockets! How I covet pockets. Always needing a place to stash tissues and/or phone.
I know, right? Everything should have pockets!
Absolutely!
This is beautiful! I love the details on the upper sleeves. WOW!
Thank you. It really is a nice design, deceptively simple with these nice classic details.
That is beautiful! Love all the details and all the finesse! And congratulations to your lovely assistant as well 🙂
Thank you. I’m pretty sure that it will be a workhorse piece for me this winter.
Hannah: Thank you. I should have double tuna, don’t you think?
I would wear it all the time too!
Hannah: yes, definitely!
An amazing undertaking so well executed
Thank you!
Hannah: Of course. I’m an amazing cat!
Great pattern, and a beautifully made sweater. Although I’m not particularly a pink person, the color makes me smile. Most important is that you felt well enough to forge through the problems and finish the thing.
It is a great pattern and very well designed. I felt that it was time for a pink sweater since I have soooo many grey and blue ones in the cupboard. This was a long knit because I was battling the “I want to be Covid but I refuse to test positive” virus event, but l feel that I now have something positive to show for the time. 🙂
Definitely comfy. Great color.
Thanks! The comfy factor is really high with this one.
A beautiful sweater, Marilyn. Was this a bottom-up knit? That has discouraged me from her patterns in the past. I think what makes this sweater special is the yarn and your impeccable ribbing.
This was a bottom up knit, but you never sew any seams. It’s in the round after you join the bottom ribbing, then you work the front and back separately with the other side’s stitches on a holder until you get to the three needle bind off at the tops of the shoulders. I was a little disappointed about bottom up, but as it turned out, this worked perfectly.
This yarn is the DK from The Uncommon Thread, and I am so much of a fan about how wonderful it is to work with and the high quality of the dyeing. I usually have to blend the yarns by alternating rows (and using the darkest skeins at the bottom), but in this case I couldn’t really see any difference.
It looks great.
That is a beautiful sweater! I love the color. And I see that Hannah had no problems with walking on the sweater.
It’s stunning, I love it! Walking on the knitting to get excess water out is also a tip my mum scared with me and I think of her every time I do it – I should probably tell her that, she’ll get a kick out of it I think.
My mom actually rolled the sweater up in a towel and then leaned on it to get the water out. Then she would get a new towel and repeat the whole process; by the time she was done she was as wet as the sweater. She would love to just walk on the towel sandwich!! I put my wet knits into the washer and use the spin cycle to get the water out, but I don’t like to do that for the first block.
😄 The things we do for our knitwear!
Oh I love it, and the color too! I’ve had that pattern for ages and now I want to make after seeing yours ☺️
I’ve always wanted to make a Weekender sweater, but I didn’t like the boat neck. I just can’t handle having the sweater pull across my neck. This crew neck is just perfect as it is a little lower and rides below my crew neck tops. The pockets were the icing on the cake!
Crew neck sweaters always seem to fit me better and I get what you’re saying about the boat neck. I’m looking in my stash to see what I have to make one. Yours has inspired me ☺️
Ooh that looks so comfy! And you can never have too many pockets
I feel like the pockets saved the sweater from being plain and frumpy. I wore it during out last cold snap and it is really nice. I made the sleeves long and it was just perfect!