Baldric is a sweater designed by Isabell Kraemer. Baldric is a top-down construction, worked seamlessly in rounds. I used German short rows at the back to shape the neck for a more comfortable fit. However, I still find that it is a bit lower in the neckline than I like in an aran weight sweater.
Baldric is a raglan-style sweater, which is a style that I love to knit top down. I’ve seldom knit garments in pieces; they usually end up frogged or languishing unfinished. I like to be able to try a sweater on a few times to make sure it fits nicely. Nothing is worse than putting all that time, effort, and expense into a sweater only to have it unwearable.
I used Sirdar Hayfield Bonus Aran with Wool in the 871 Purple Heather colourway. This is a very economical yarn to knit with as it comes in a 400g ball. It has 20% wool and 80% acrylic and can be machine-washed using the wool cycle. Very easy care. It’s not the softest yarn in the world but wears well with minimal pilling. I used a little over 600g to knit Baldric. I bought two balls of yarn for around £22 and have knit the sweater and the scarf. I have enough yarn left to knit a cowl to wear with the sweater on colder days.
Purple Heather is such a pretty shade of purple with grey-blue flecks through it.
I don’t know about you, but I always have difficulty obtaining the correct tension. I have to try different needle sizes and knit swatches, and I still worry about whether the finished garment will fit. I use wood or bamboo needles, and I’m a fairly tight knitter, which makes the difference. It also doesn’t help that I often use a different yarn than the one specified in the pattern.
One of the reasons I love knitting top-down sweaters is that I can try them on and ensure I have the length I want. I made Baldric longer as I intend to wear it with leggings.
I love Isabell Kraemer’s sweater patterns and have knitted a few. With Baldric, I adore the garter stitch details on the side panels and the sleeves.
The scarf is Lords a-Leaping keyhole scarf designed by Jacqui Harding. It was published in Knit Now, issue 27 in 2013.
The scarf was designed for chunky weight yarn, and as I was using Aran weight yarn, I just cast on extra stitches and knit it a bit bigger than specified in the pattern.
I have a habit of taking patterns I like out of a magazine and filing them if I think I might knit it at some time or I love how it looks. Even with that, I still have piles of magazines. I’d love to know how you keep track of a pattern you find in a magazine and want to knit later. It is so hard to find the magazine again or even remember which magazine the pattern was in.
Neil photographed me wearing Baldric at Crawfordsburn Country Park several years ago. It has been a while since I wrote about my knitting projects and posted regularly on the knitting Squirrel blog. I intend to remedy this in 2024.
I can’t keep track of patterns either Nicolette. I can’t part with a knitting or crochet magazine so have tried to unsuccessfully stop buying them !!! I am also trying to find time to sort through all my patterns and put them into some sort of order. I would welcome any tips or ideas anyone is willing to share.