I have been knitting a lot lately, and getting more comfortable understanding what the different stitches look like and how to fix mistakes. I am really confident making socks and I’ve been successful in the couple of blankets that I’ve made, but I wanted to try something a little more “difficult”. I found a free pattern from Tin Can Knits and bought everything I needed to make the Flax Light Pullover for my niece. That sweater was so much fun to make; it wasn’t perfect, but it got me excited to try another one for myself.
Since I’d decided to make a sweater for myself, I spent a lot of time looking for the perfect yarn. There is a lot to choose from in the yarn world, and it was a little overwhelming trying to find that perfect yarn to commit to. The Tin Can Knits Flax Pullover (not the “light” version), pattern calls for Worsted/Aran Weight Yarn, but all the “cutest” yarn seemed to be fingering weight. I prefer my yarn to have multiple colors (like when I knit my socks) to keep it interesting while I knit, but I wasn’t really finding what I was looking for in the worsted weight category. I finally came across the most beautiful yarn on instagram from @sweetnesting. She custom hand dyes her yarn in the prettiest, most exciting colors, and she offers a DK weight yarn. I knew this was the yarn for me, so I messaged her my color request! I received this gorgeous yarn about two weeks later, and I was ready to start knitting!
Tin Can Knits Flax Pullover Experience
Gauge
Since the pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, I knew I might run into an issue with the gauge since I was using DK weight yarn. With my other projects, I’d never knit a swatch to check gauge, but since I was using this beautiful yarn and I want my sweater to actually fit, I did. I wanted this sweater to be a bit oversized but comfortable, so I ordered enough yarn to make the medium/large size, but that didn’t leave me with much extra to do full 4-inch swatches (or so I thought).
I happened to have the size 8 needles that the pattern calls for and I knit a small swatch, but left it connected to my yarn ball so I could re-use the yarn for the actual project. This yarn is so pretty! I have a little measuring card that helps you see gauge for a 2×2″ square, so that’s what I used to check my gauge. Like I suspected, my gauge was off by one stitch both ways. I thought I would need to order the next needle size up to adjust for the yarn, but I decided to first try my size 10 needles. I didn’t wash or block this swatch, but my gauge was perfect with the size 10 needles!
Getting Everything Ready
So, since I knew that size 10 would be my larger needles, I figured that size 8 would then be my smaller needles to be consistent with the pattern. This was great news since I already had a couple pairs of size 8 circular needles. I did have to order DPNs in size 8 and size 10, and also a 24″ size 10 circular needle (since it shipped fastest with Prime, and I thought I would be fine if my stitches crowded a little).
I did take some time to prepare my pattern by highlighting the measurements meant for my size, and making little notes for myself. I don’t have a printer, so I just used the markup on my iPad right on the pattern itself. This was really handy for me to easily see where I was in the pattern and what my next steps were at a glance. Plus, you can move or erase notes super easily, so I could do whatever notes I wanted.
One thing I really wanted to be mindful of when making my sweater is the color fade. I ordered this yarn in this specific colorway so it could fade from lighter pinky orange to darker purple, top to bottom. So I knew I would need to knit the sleeves along the way (instead of after the body was complete) in order to keep the color fade through the sleeves consistent with the body.
Yoke
Casting on is my least favorite part of knitting. I hate counting those stitches and I just want to get into making my project. I did a cable cast-on for the 90 stitches my pattern calls for. I like to place a knitting marker every ten stitches to help me keep count.
This yarn is so pretty! I knit my 1.5″ of ribbing on my size 8 12-inch needles which got a little crowded, but I didn’t want to buy the 16-inch pair that the pattern called for.
I had to wait a couple of days for my size 10 needles to arrive so I could continue knitting the yoke. Those were long days since I was so excited to continue my project. I took that time to wrap my skeins into balls.
While knitting the increases for my yoke, I messed up somewhere and restarted my entire project. When I got back to that point in the yoke again, I made sure to differentiate the colors for the raglan sleeve markers, and the markers for the garter panel. Since my yarn is mostly pink, I used pink markers to show the garter section and bright blue or yellow markers for the increase/raglan section.
Once the increases were done, I added a piece of scrap yarn as a life line and also so I could try on my sweater so far and make sure it was seeming right. This yarn is so pretty and trying it on made me really excited for the finished product.
Somewhere along the line, my gauge was too tight because I had to knit two more rows to get to 9.5 inches from the cast-on. I was starting to wonder if I was going to actually get to use all of my yarn since It looked like I had knit so much and had only just begun the second skein.
Separating the Body and Sleeves
Separating the body and the sleeves was really easy and I really felt like my sweater was coming together. I tied off the sleeves, the raglan markers, and my garter stitch markers onto waste yarn.
Body
When I started knitting just the body, I started to add in my third skein of color. I was nervous that with my larger needles, I wasn’t going to get to use all my yarn. Even though this yarn fades on its own as you move to the next skein, I saw someone on Youtube “layer” their colors together so I gave it a try. I think this might be the normal way to fade yarn together anyway, but I’d never heard of it before — you just slowly incorporate a row of the new color in between the original color. So I did 3 rows of color A and 1 of color B, then 2 of A and 1 of B, then 1 of A and 1 of B, and then the reverse to build in to more of color B. I guess it just helps the transition look more natural. It was fun to have the challenge of another color, and managing the yarn until the transition was complete.
I started to get a little sad as I finished the body because I was having so much fun knitting my sweater, and I didn’t want it to end. I love how the color gradient looks on the body. Also, I was really mindful to bind off loosely on the body since I had done it a little too tight on the one I made for my niece, but it still ended up being a little tight for me. I may end up trying to re-do it later, but for now it’s fine.
I re-did the bind-off in Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off, using my size 10 needles. I wasn’t in love with my original bind-off since it wasn’t very loose/stretchy. It could have been ok, but why settle for ok when it can be perfect?! I used a darning needle to create a life line right above the ribbing and then I frogged the entire rib. It was a little dicey for a while, but I was able to pick right back up and complete the end. This bind-off is great, and makes my edge as wide as my fabric which I love because it give the sweater a more comfortable fit.
Sleeves
When I first knit my niece’s sweater, I followed the pattern, but was left with a lot of holes under the arm. This time, I planned on picking up a few more stitches than the pattern calls for, and just knitting them together on the next round.
Also, last time I used DPNs for the first time ever, and I didn’t know why at the time, but I had to purl all of the stitches instead of knit to keep the pattern. I realize now that I was basically working the “wrong side” of my work (knitting while looking from the bottom up, towards the neck). This time, I knew to be sure to keep my work on the “right side” and knit the sleeves with the collar side towards me, and the bottom…at the bottom, like the pattern says.
I felt like my backwards cast-on looked a little weird, and maybe that’s what creates the holes under the sleeves?
I picked up double the number of stitches that the pattern called for when joining the sleeves together. For me, that meant 8 stitches on either side of the BOR marker. Then I did SSK and K2TOG on either side of the marker until I had the required number of stitches.
I knit my sleeves along the way since I was trying to keep the color gradient the same with the body. It was nice to see the sweater really coming together right away.
In between colors, I would tie off the sleeves on waste yarn — with a separate piece for each DPN. It made it a lot easier to try on my sweater and really see how things were coming together. Knitting with DPNs is actually really fun for me and I enjoyed the special garter panel to keep things interesting.
Tin Can Knits Flax Pullover Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed this free pattern. I was really impressed with the level of detail which is super helpful for someone like me who is new to reading patterns. I loved the diagrams and the side notes of explanation. It’s inspired me to re-do the sock pattern that I adapted.
I think that picking up extra stitches under the arms when joining together was a good move (I doubled the number the pattern says), and I would do that again next time I knit this sweater. And, I also think the Jeny’s Bind-Off is a game changer; I’ll definitely use that again. Other than that, I think this pattern was really great to work.
I am in love with my sweater! It feels so special with this gorgeous yarn I chose and that I made it myself! I ended up with more yarn left over than I thought I would have, so I am thinking that I will make an outfit for my dog. 😊I had enough yarn to make another sweater for my niece! I love matching with her!
Have you made the Flax Pullover by Tin Can Knits? Let me know how it went for you and share what projects you’re working on now! 🙂
