St Brigid: FO

jody

alternatively entitled, the post that took 3 years to write

st brigid: fo

It’s finally done, and I find myself at a loss for words. I’ve been done for a full week now, and I still can’t quite believe that it’s true.
I knit St. Brigid
There were many false starts (including one I never documented). I’m not quite sure why this time did the trick. The color? Maybe. The deadline? Maybe. The encouraging comments? Most definitely.
I have so many people to thank, and I’m positive I’m going to forget some of them. Thanks to Katy for hosting the KAL, Vicki for finishing hers almost 3 years ago and being an awesome cheerleader for my own, Marnie for encouraging me to consider retaining the saddle shoulder, Christy for knowing the right amount of good-natured ribbing to keep me on course (because she knows how fickle I can be!), Jessica and Kristy for enduring our Thursday night get togethers with endless whining about my boredom, EZ because without her I may not have had the courage to consider modifying this sweater as much as I did, and to Maggie Righetti because her chapter on sleeve shapes kicks ass.
I knit this sweater in under 10 weeks, and I don’t recommend it. My hands hurt. I was bored. I was hyper-focused every weekend and I was up until 2am the Sunday of Rhinebeck just so I could wear it in 75° heat. In my ideal world I would have taken a break after the body was done, but maybe in my ideal world I never would have finished at all.
specs
pattern St. Brigid by Alice Starmore from Aran Knitting
yarn Cascade 220 Aporto. 9.5 skeins
needles Knit Picks options size 6
mods tons, read my archive for a full list
sleeves and hood
The sleeves came out rather nicely and pretty much as planned (thankyouverymuch Maggie Righetti). There’s a lot to share on the sleeves so I’ll write that up as a separate post. The quick scoop is that I changed them to a set-in style (but retained the saddles) and knit them 2 at a time because I was afraid I wouldn’t take good enough notes to knit them individually.
The hood worked out pretty well too. I knit 4 repeats of the chart up each side and then grafted the 2 sides together (they’re mirror images of each other so they grafted together perfectly). My grafting is a bit tight in a couple places so I may go back and loosen that up a tad.
thoughts on the sweater
I never expected this to be a shapely sweater. Having said that, it’s still a bit more bulk-adding than I expected. I probably could have gone down an inch or two more in the body and still have been OK, but I wasn’t sure because bulkier sweaters need more circumference to fit right.
I love wearing it and love the fact that I finally made it. I’ve hit a milestone in my knitting that I thought I might never hit, and in doing so I’ve learned a few new things about why I knit and what it means to me. It’s going to take some time to gather my thoughts, so I’ll leave that to my next post.
For now, will you excuse me while I pop around town in my new sweater!

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140 thoughts on “St Brigid: FO”

  3. You’re a genius! The sleeves mods look great and the hood is a work of art! At least it’s finally cooling off in NJ so you can enjoy wearing it.

  4. Congrats! The sweater is spectacular and the color is divine. My DD is looking over my shoulder, and she says “wow.” If you can inspire a 10 yo knitter, you’ve accomplished something great :-).

  7. Beautiful! I have half of a Brigid somewhere in storage. Yours *almost* makes me want to dig it up and give it a second (or third) chance.

  8. Wooooo! It is sOoOo pretty! I love the hoopd, love the color, love the texture of the cables, and the blue looks stunning with your hair color. Total success. =)

  15. It is absolutely fantastic–something to be really really proud of, not just in terms of the actual sweater, but also the perseverance and design skills needed to pull off a modified version in under 10 weeks! So, so great.

  16. Congrats, Jody. It’s an awesome (and awe inspiring) sweater and it looks great on you. I think the extra ease is nice because it makes it cozy. And look at all those beautiful cables!

  17. Well done! I can’t wait to hear more about how you did the sleeves. That sweater is absolutely gorgeous and today is the perfect sweater day – I hope your enjoying it.

  20. Wow, it came out just stunning and while I can see why you might want a little less ease, I still think it is quite flattering as is.
    Really really beautiful I’m inspired.

  23. Congratulations. I’ve been waiting all these years for you to finally finish it…ahem…now, maybe I’ll consider working on mine. The color really works for yah!

  24. Fabulous!Congratulations, this is one of the most lovely St Brigids I’ve ever seen. And it scores pretty high on cabled sweaters I’ve seen too. Really, really lovely.

  25. It’s a gorgeous color on you… A.S. has a way with balancing cables, and this sweater is a prime example. Gorgeous! Did you ever consider having the cables emerge from ribbed cuffs/hem?

  27. It looks so amazing on you! The sleeves look spectacular, and the hood, too…wow. And the color! I’m making a sweater for my husband in that color of Cascade right now, and it’s just so gorgeous.
    Beautiful work, congratulations!

  28. Congrats on a job well done! It looks absolutely gorgeous on you – one of those perfect combinations of yarn, color and pattern. Enjoy it!

  29. Holy Sh!t. Seriously strut your stuff! I finally finished my Perfect Sweater, which took me 1 year and it’s just miles and miles of SS!
    It is gorgeous and there is no better color for you. Wear it with major pride. :)

  30. So proud of you! And really glad I got to see it in person. It looks AMAZING. You should definitely feel like a rock star!

  31. It’s gorgeous. I don’t think I have anything in my sights right now that is my St Brigid, but I know I will some day and I hope I can conquer it as well as you’ve conquered St Brigid!

  33. It’s spectacular. And congratulations for all that hard work and the changes you made. You’ve inspired me to at least make an effort to tackle a design I’ve got in my head.

  34. It looks absolutely fabulous! You should be so proud of yourself.
    And–not that it compares because it was so much a simpler sweater–I finished my sweater with Cascade 220 in Aporto today. Man, I loved that color….

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