This is the Salty Days pattern from Kutovakika.
I’ve done everything you’re not supposed to do in knitting this sweater.
Knit with the recommended yarn? No, I went single strand instead of double because I fell in love with the yarn. Follow the pattern? After changing the yarn, there were some issues with fit so I winged it. Then I repeatedly ran into issues with the pattern as it always ended up being misaligned in the same spot no matter how many times I did it.
Once I figured out it was a pattern issue and not me (that was after I’d given in and found a second strand of yarn to knit the sweater with, as per instructions) I learned how to compensate on the fly and get the pattern to line up.
The first time I went in winging it, I made the sweater in a too big size. Frogged it, started over. I’ve frogged this sweater probably like 12 times in total, before I finally finished it. There was always something wrong – whether it was my awful, uneven knitting, the pattern going haywire or something else cropping up (like the fact that I’d never done anything like the diamond pattern and only done cabling a few times before, absolutely hating it – which I still do).
Then I finally finished it and threw it into a cupboard while I brooded. After several days of brooding over the sweater, I finally realised I hated it. And I specifically hated it because of the yarn I added to it. Also, this was supposed to be a loose fit and it’s nowhere near loose (do skinny people not know how to design loose fits for bodies that aren’t size small?) as the arms were too tight compared to the rest of the fit of the sweater.
And I love a loose, comfy fit.
Anyway, I’m almost done frogging it. I’m saving the acrylic yarn for something (tbd) and I’ll restart the knitting with the single yarn once I’m done frogging.
