April Sweaters

Here are two quick sweaters I finished in April. I love quick knits. Who doesn't like instant grantifications? They took between 4-8 days. These were really fast knits because of the simple stitches and construction.

I'm pretty happy with how the turmeric dyed yarn knitted up.
I just love yellow. I'm in love with yellow color. Not sure if it's a good color on me. But I don't care. It makes me happy.
I dyed the yarn, both yellow and brown were Elann Luxury Merino Superwash (now discontinued) in cream color. They were dyed with turmeric first then dipped in grape flavor Kool-Aid. The brown was resulted from dipping in more concentrated Kool-Aid for longer.

Pattern: Ingenune by Wendy Bernard from "Custom Knits." It's really a simple yet elegant pattern. I will make another one. This one I altered the sleeve length and used DK yarn instead of worsted, also changed the edging to ribbings. All due to what I had on hand.
Yarn: Elann Luxury Merino Superwash, color cream dyed with turmeric and grape kool-aid. 8 balls = 854 yards.
Needles: US #4

I really wanted a long sleeve Ingenue, but ran out of yarn. The sweater turned out to be somewhat cropped style too. I still like it and would definitely wear it often.

Another recent sweater is called Red. Yarn was bought near the Grand Bazaar during our recent trip to Istanbul. It actually took some shopping around and digging through tons and tons of acrylic to find some yarn that I'd want to carry back in my luggage.
It's a cashmere, bamboo mix, quite soft against skin.

Yarn: Nako Bambu, 7 balls = 763 yards
Pattern: My own
Needles: #7

The stitch was Dainty Chevron Lace pattern from Second Treasury of Stitch Pattern by Barbara Walker.
I knew I wanted a lacy sweater with this yarn. So I designed this one. Originally it was going to be a cardigan. After a few inches knitted I decided that I want it to be a pullover tunic, therefore the splice at the bottom. (I really love being able to change my mind and improvise as I go when I'm working on my own design.)

It was knitted from bottom up. First back and forth, then joined in the round. Basically it's Dainty Chevron stitches with 1x1 ribbing on the front center. I put in a little shaping on the front ribbing part near the waist. The sleeves were knitted separately and joined the body at the armpit. Then the sweater was worked with raglan decrease every other round along the raglan line. The neck line was just simple 1x1 ribbing.

I had to really stretch the sweater. Now it fits quite well. I wouldn't mind it being a little looser though. I think I could've made it a bit wider.