Amber's Aphotic Adventure in Learning From Your Mistakes and Loving Them

My Aphotic sweater—with it's cosy colorwork yoke and gansey-textured glory—is finished, and I am absolutely in love with it!

Annie Haas' (This.Bird.Knits) pattern from the Autumn 2019 issue of Pom Pom, is a quick and engaging knit. I adore the high contrast, beautifully unexpected colors of the sample sweater, and wanted to do something similar. We didn't have the perfect dusty peach, so I chose an almost inverted palette. In Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Worsted, the deepest, darkest burgundy would be my main color, and mint as the contrast.



Read on for a few important tips I'll share about blocking colorwork with saturated hues, and to hear about my pattern modifications.

Pattern: Aphotic Pullover by This.Bird.Knits for Pom Pom Magazine Autumn 2019
Yarn: Neighborhood Fiber Co. Organic Studio Worsted, 5 skeins Ramblewood, 2 skein Rosemont
Size Made: 2 (43 1/4")
Modifications: Used single contrast color (instead of two contrast colors), shortened bodice, lengthened and tapered sleeves.

I consider myself a pretty great knitter, but I tend to be terrible at reading directions and just barrel through things. I had to pull out some of this sweater after I skipped over some colorwork directions (a mistake that was pointed out to me by a very kind instagram reader). A second mistake I didn't pull out—I shortened Chart E to three triangles high. I decided I wanted to live with it and was into the idea of a slightly more cropped sweater.



I continued my shortened version of the chart for the sleeve, but I wanted longer sleeves, so I repeated Charts E and D once more than the pattern called for. To narrow my sleeve, I decreasing 6 sts evenly before the final E Chart and again before the final D Chart. This tapered the end of my long sleeve, instead of the ever so slightly puffed 3/4 sleeve of the pattern.



Now for my biggest mistake—I mean...my biggest learning moment. You may have noticed a bit of a peachy undertone to the mint in my yoke? I finished this sweater at midnight and was anxious to wear it the next day. I got ready for my standard washing/blocking setup - warm water in the sink for a soak, spin dry, lay flat under a fan. As soon as I put my sweater in the warm water I knew I had made a mistake. The water instantly turned burgundy from the main color bleeding. With that saturated, deep color, of course it did! I pulled out my sweater as quickly as I could. I knew the warm water would set the dye into the colorwork, so I rinsed it with cold water to keep as much of the roaming dye off the sweater as possible.



As I decide whether to laugh or cry, some random thoughts/lessons:

• Next time, I'll block with cold water and a color catcher!
• I don't usually knit with reds, and they are the major culprits when it comes to bleeding. Proceed carefully.
• My swatch would have been helpful in testing the bleeding! I blocked my swatch much less aggressively with cold water, so I didn't notice bleeding on it. Next time, I'll be harder on my swatch than on my knitting.
• Another option, which would be smart for high contrast colorwork, would be to wash the danger yarn while still in a skein and hang to dry before winding into a ball.
• If you are deciding whether to laugh or cry, see how creative you can get with your cursing. Then laugh.
  
  All that learning aside, I am in love with this sweater so much. It's so comfortable and cozy, and I'm so into the texture and the wearable-without-being-neutral palette. The bleeding toned down the mint and now it matches my pants. That's cool! My Aphotic Adventure will be on display at the shop for a little while. Come see it before I can't stand to live without it anymore and bring it home!