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A Christmasy Soldotna Crop / Handmade Wardrobe

December 10, 2019 1 Comment

Yarn provided by Berroco, KnitPal and Brown Sheep Co.

Read about one knitter's Christmas inspired take on the Soldotna Crop sweater pattern by Caitlin Hunter, including tips for customizing for fit!

An avid fan of Christmas, I’ve always wanted to find the time to make an explicitly Christmasy sweater. Whether that was improvising something custom like my Jack-o-Lantern sweater from earlier this fall or simply making a sweater in reds and greens, I’d really been wanting to fill this “gap” in my handmade wardrobe. When it came time to pick out my knitting project for a late fall vacation, I couldn’t resist the Christmas sweater knitting urge any longer. Four DK weight skeins of red, green, grey and variegated pink/purple yarn jumped from my yarn stash and into my suitcase in the blink of an eye.

Read about one knitter's Christmas inspired take on the Soldotna Crop sweater pattern by Caitlin Hunter, including tips for customizing for fit!

The Pattern: Soldotna Crop by Caitlin Hunter / The Yarn: Brown Sheep Co. Stratosphere in Hot Air Balloon (red) & Galaxy (grey), KnitPal DK in Michigan State Green, & Berroco Pixel in Cupcake. All yarn was DK weight in my stash, mostly leftovers from my yarn review series.

Read about one knitter's Christmas inspired take on the Soldotna Crop sweater pattern by Caitlin Hunter, including tips for customizing for fit!

Knit Start to Finish (Including Swatching & Wet Blocking) in 10 Days

Much like my yarn for this sweater jumping into my suitcase, this sweater practically knit itself, genuinely going from unwound yarn skeins to a finished sweater in a week-and-a-half. The night before we left for vacation, I speed-swatched my tush off and was able to knock out a gauge swatch. With that in hand, I was able to cast on at the airport and make some decent progress from day 1.

Read about one knitter's Christmas inspired take on the Soldotna Crop sweater pattern by Caitlin Hunter, including tips for customizing for fit!

The other thing that helped me quickly knock out this sweater was the fact that it’s short sleeved and cropped, not requiring an entire (100g) skein of any of the colors of yarn I worked with. I made a point of working with an easy pattern and not straying too far from the listed instructions. As much as I love modifying patterns for fit, that is where you can really add hours to your knitting schedule thanks to math!

It’s still me, though, so I did make a modification for it. (As a pattern designer, I like to practice tailoring patterns to suit my body type to remind myself of how real life makers make, and this was a good opportunity to play!) The Soldotna’s finished circumference options at the bust are: 32.75 (36.5, 40, 44.5, 48, 52.5) {56, 59.75, 64, 67.75} ” or 83 (92.5, 101.5, 113, 122, 133.5) {142, 152, 162.5, 172} cm. I measure in at 37″, and the pattern is designed to fit with 1-4.5″ of positive ease, which would put me in a 38-41.5″ finished bust circumference range. I could wear either the second or third smallest sizes and my finished Soldotna would fit as designed.

Read about one knitter's Christmas inspired take on the Soldotna Crop sweater pattern by Caitlin Hunter, including tips for customizing for fit!

It’s kind of funny – in real life, I almost never wear ready to wear clothes with lots of positive ease because they hit the widest part of my bust and hang straight down. I lose all of my shape, and tops tend to look rather tent-ish or like they came from the maternity section. With that personal hangup in mind, I added a little bit of shaping below the widest part of my bust. I decreased under the armpits, a total of four stitches every fourth row, which lines up with the pattern’s body chart for those who have purchased the pattern. I didn’t want the finished sweater to have no or negative ease (exactly fit or be an inch or two too small for a snug fit) because that would have gone against the style in which the Soldotna was designed.

With my tension and measurements in mind, I knew what to do. I had gauge perfectly, so I knit the sweater in a 40″ bust, a.k.a. size 3, so I was going into the shaping modification with 3″ of positive ease. My waist is 31″, so if I knit the Soldotna as written without shaping below the bust, I was looking at 9″ of positive ease at the waist, right where the finished sweater hem would land. Even trying on the sweater after finishing the yoke, I knew doing a touch of shaping would be best for my personal style. In the end, I did enough shaping to result in a 34″ waist decreasing from a 40″ circumference at the bust. It was a pretty easy modification to make and I’m so glad I did. Again, I don’t think most people would notice the shaping, and I’m happy with the finished knit.

Read about one knitter's Christmas inspired take on the Soldotna Crop sweater pattern by Caitlin Hunter, including tips for customizing for fit!

Overall, the Soldotna is definitely layering friendly with all that positive ease, and I’ve found myself wearing it a lot just from a comfort perspective. It’s not a piece that I think I’ll be able to dress up, but there’s so much more space in my wardrobe for a layering-friendly sweater that I can wear into spring. In the end, I’m very happy with how this speedy make turned out! Happy Holidays!

Read about one knitter's Christmas inspired take on the Soldotna Crop sweater pattern by Caitlin Hunter, including tips for customizing for fit!
Read about one knitter's Christmas inspired take on the Soldotna Crop sweater pattern by Caitlin Hunter, including tips for customizing for fit!

Yarn provided by Berroco, KnitPal and Brown Sheep Co.

Filed Under: Handmade Wardrobe, Knitting Tagged With: christmas sweater, handmade christmas sweater, handmade wardrobe, Knitting, soldotna

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. cheryl

    December 21, 2019 at 8:50 pm

    cutest sweater ever…

    Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi (she/her/hers), a craft book author & pattern designer specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. Really anything with yarn! ❤️  My work combines vintage and modern design elements, featuring bold colors and graphic motifs.

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handsoccupied

Yarn craft designer & author. Into intarsia knits, latch hook, color & vintage-modern style.
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Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
Sneaking in a few stitches in the shade. 😎 Sneaking in a few stitches in the shade. 😎
Another morning of filming! One of the knitting vi Another morning of filming! One of the knitting videos I’d like to release soon is a big overview of how to swatch and why - if you have any questions or favorite tips, let me know. 
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To be honest, I want to be able to link to this video as a resource when I get angry gauge questions, so please don’t hesitate to share your best tips. Together, we can tame the knitting Karens. 😆
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#stopswatchandblockit #handsoccupied #knitting #knittersofinstagram
A big issue I've had in the last year is putting t A big issue I've had in the last year is putting together new design work but not doing any independent releases of them. Chalk it up to anxiety, burn out, or whatever but here we are. 
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Last week I turned 35, so in honor of that here’s 3 things: 
❤️ a picture of me at my most stylish 
💛 a little glimpse at some of the design things I've recently been working on
💙a promise that I will be releasing some of the pictured designs this year. Getting back in the swing of things after taking it easy is hard 😆 - wish me luck!
Like a riding a bike! June guarded the neighborhoo Like a riding a bike! June guarded the neighborhood while I shot a new crochet tutorial today. With any luck, editing will go smoothly & I’ll be posting new videos to YouTube regularly soon! Got any requests for tutorial topics? 
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#handsoccupied #crochet #studiodog #crochettutorial
This yoke deserved a mid-blocking closeup, don’t This yoke deserved a mid-blocking closeup, don’t you think? ❤️💛💙
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Pattern: modified #soldotnacrop sweater / yarn: various from my stash
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