I knitted the ANKESTRiCK Holsten jumper through the summer in anticipation of winter (typically), and I knitted it from some Panache baby Alpaca/merino that I had in my stash.
I originally bought this wool for a vintage striped jumper that I was going to knit and I had one ball of blue and one ball of red and just a few balls of cream. I thought I could squeeze this jumper out of the existing wool and I did! I put the blue round the neck and cuffs and tied it in with the red by adding a small stripe at the bottom of the red.
My sizing turned out to be perfect (it doesn’t always!) and this is the softest, warmest jumper I’ve knitted for a while. I brought it on my holiday with me and here it is in Vancouver. In the photo above I’m standing on the map of Canada looking at Australia. This is in the Portal Park, which has a beautiful pavilion and gorgeous Japanese maples.
One of the things I’ve loved about our visit is the blossom everywhere. The Rhododendrons have been simply amazing. This one is near to the entrance of Granville Island Markets, and, although it clashes nicely with my jumper, I had to include it.
This jumper is an easy knit, but a couple of things I notice with all ANKESTRiCK’s patterns are that the necks are quite wide and the sleeves are pretty long. The sleeves were an easy fix, I just measured myself and knocked off a few centimetres, but the neck was a more interesting problem. I considered casting on fewer stitches as the jumper is knitted top down and I figured I could just do a few extra rows, but in the end I cast on with smaller needles and did four rows with them before switching back to the correct needles. This did bring the neck in a bit, but if I make this jumper again, I’m going to go down the fewer stitches and extra rows route. Standing awkwardly with hand in back pocket tells me that I was over posing for photos, but couldn’t resist putting this one in because of the view.
I was attracted by the stripe going through the body and one sleeve, and I think this is a lovely design feature – much nicer than if it was knitted through both sleeves.
I have a few layers on under this jumper – a silk long sleeved t-shirt, and a merino ruched neck top, which I’ve clearly never blogged as I can’t find it. I’m also wearing some jeggings, which followers on Instagram will have seen recently as part of my Fashion Revolution posts, knitted socks and Birkenstocks. Trust me, I was warm and comfortable!
I also wore the jumper to visit Capilano Park, and I conquered all the walks twice! Here I am crossing the suspension bridge, which is a bit scarier than it looks here
and some cheesy tourist shots, but I do love totems, so had to include these
Finally, an aww! moment. A random stranger insisted we sit in this photo frame and have our photo taken, so here it is! We have noticed how friendly people are in Vancouver. Every day we are helped and given advice from complete strangers, it is marvellous.