Ananke Linen Sweater Finished!
After about four months, I finally finished my Ananke sweater knitting project! This knitting pattern is available from Quince & Co (link to pattern). I did make a few modifications to fit my preferences. I knit the 4th size from the waist up and the 5th size from the waist down. I added two inches in length in the waist to hip section. I raised the location of the v-neck split by about two inches.
The yarn I used is also from Quince & Co, it is the Fen colorway of the Sparrow yarn line. 100% organic linen. I LOVE linen, which I have written about before on this blog. I plan to make many more projects out of linen in the future. It’s very durable and machine washable. Supposedly it also takes less water and pesticides to grow than cotton. One of my knitting goals is to make my wardrobe more eco friendly and sustainable but also using colors/styles/fits that I love.
Cost Analysis
The yarn for this project is priced at $10/100 grams. I bought 11 skeins, so $110. In this case I had a discount code that covered shipping and they did not add tax to my order. I have approximately 3.75 skeins left, so this project took 7.25 skeins. This means the yarn cost was $72.50 and the pattern cost was $7.50 for a total of $80 in materials for this project. (It would be less money for a smaller size and more money to knit a larger size) I also purchased needles, but we won’t count those since I’ll use them a lot more over the years.
When venturing into self-made clothing and eco-friendly clothing, the upfront cost of each item can be really startling compared to fast fashion available. So I’m trying to choose colors and patterns that will get a TON of use in my wardrobe. I do think I’ll use this pattern again, and the pattern also helped me learn a lot of skills that I didn’t have yet. Some people also say that the hours spent knitting is valuable in terms of dollars per entertainment hour and getting a piece of clothing at the end is just an added bonus. I still just find it so unreal that it costs so much just for eco friendly materials compared to purchasing a fast fashion sweater for something like $20-$30 off the rack (and sometimes even less on sale or clearance racks).
Finished Project Photos
I had my son help take these photos of me wearing my Ananke, and of course I feel like I look really silly modeling my new sweater. But this wouldn’t be much of a post without pictures of me wearing the garment, so here we go!
Things I learned
This was my first ever raglan project and also my first project with short rows (I think….I did make socks 9 years ago but don’t remember any of that process!) I had to look up a lot of techniques called for in the pattern. If I made the pattern again, I know I could do it much faster since I wouldn’t have to look everything up! I also got really confused on the short rows for the back hem and had to start the back piece over again. I also did the mattress stitch to seem the garment which I didn’t know how to do.
I also made some very ambitious (for my skill level) alterations to the pattern. Raising the v neck required a LOT of math. What I did was copy the text of the pattern to a word document. I made the document into two columns, the first had the original pattern, and the next had the modified pattern. I worked through the modifications for each section and then printed out the word document. Did this take a lot of time? Yes, yes it did….but totally worth it to have a custom fit piece. And now I can knit the pattern again if I want to and know exactly what modifications I did. I think I’d consider doing this again with even shorter sleeves. This garment will be great for spring/fall I think, but in the highest heat of summer, I think it would be a bit warm. Probably fine in an air conditioned office all day though.
This sweater certainly isn’t perfect, but I’m super proud of it nonetheless! This is my first successful sweater project. I made one 9+ years ago, but it came out so terribly, and I gave up knitting for the 9 years after that.
Other Updates
With the weather being so hot lately, I’ve mostly only been wearing makeup on work days. And I haven’t been very inspired to post makeup content lately. I find the new Pat McGrath release (Moonlit Seduction) really tempting though! Pretty sure I already have all those colors, but I still want to try the Pat McGrath formula. Maybe when she does a good sale…
My next/current knitting project is moving much faster since it’s using a bit thicker yarn, has short sleeves, and is more of a fitted style. I am knitting the Brenda pattern, which is a free pattern from Berroco. The pattern measurements seemed like they would work for me, so I am not making any modifications to the pattern.
I’ve been binge listening to a podcast called Breaking Down: Collapse (link to Apple Podcast) which is very science-y and calm-toned in spite of the title. They present a lot of facts and figures, a lot of which I did not know about. It has me very much deeply pondering the state of the world and climate change challenges we’re facing. I’m not a big podcast person (but I’m becoming more of one lately), but this one has a really easy to listen to style, and discusses a lot of issues we should all be learning about.
I hope your summer has been great! We’ve also been spending lots of time prepping my daughter to go off to college in the fall. I’m going to miss her terrible, but I’m so excited for her to start this new chapter of her life.
