An Italian Quokka sweater + a closer look at the pattern

An Italian Quokka sweater

Today I’m presenting two things in one post. On the one hand I would love to show more pictures of the brown Quokka sweater. It’s the version my mother made during the test. That’s right: my mother is part of the tester’s panel and she’s doing a great job. She’s the one that taught my how to knit. Every time she visits me, she takes her swatches with her. That’s so cute… She knits so incredibly fast. I think that’s really not fair! ;) But you don’t hear me complaining as she’s really helping me with testing my patterns!

I bought the brown wool she used for this version in Italy. It’s a souvenir from our trip to Lucca. It’s something I’m doing now every time we go on holiday: I buy wool. Most of the time it’s cheaper in the countries we travel to AND I don’t like classical souvenirs, so this is a good alternative.

Actually when I bought this wool, I was thinking of using it on my knitting machine, but my mother used two yarns with needle size 4,5. I love the result so much that I bought the same wool online for a future project! I couldn’t find this Sesia Dahu in Belgium and the shipping costs where rather high, but I just wanted to use the wool for a future project again. I choose an ink blue one and it’s gorgeous! I’m sure you’ll love it too…

For the pictures I took Nore to the woods. Her sweater matches so well with her 2nd hand Laredoute skirt. I love this autumn outfit a lot. So does Nore!

Don’t you think she looks so grown up already? She still needs to turn 7 in February!

Now let’s have a closer look at the pattern

After the pattern launch yesterday I was overwhelmed by super sweet comments. Apparently you are really enthusiastic about my custom fit pattern and you can tell that I put a lot of effort in the new system and the fit. That’s so important to me. Some of you had some questions about the pattern, that’s why I want to have a closer look at the instructions today.

As you already know, I don’t like basic instructions. That’s why I really wrote down the whole knitting process in detail. No difficult abbreviations, oh I hate those myself… And I added pictures, drawing and links to video’s that will help you towards a perfect sweater. Next to this information I give a clear overview on how many stitches you increase or decrease, the number of rows you have to work and how many stitches will remain at the end. This way you never have to guess whether you did a good job or not. If the number don’t match your work, it just can’t be right. ;) Oh I really don’t like it when instructions are unclear while knitting. With the Quokka instructions (that include 11 pages of text and pictures!!!) you can’t go wrong.

On the picture below you can see what stitches you have to know (or learn) to make the Quokka sweater. In my testers panel I have beginners and advances knitters. Everyone succeeded to knit my pattern. I think that’s a good indication. Once you know how to knit and purl, increase and decrease and know how to cast off, it’s super feasible to make this sweater.

Although the explanation of the pocket is super clear, I can imagine that for beginners it might seems to difficult. Just keep in mind that you can skip this part. If you don’t want a pocket, you can knit the front part till the raglan shaping just like you did at the back. Easy right? And just know, that’s I’m here to help when you do get stuck somewhere. I think that’s a service you can’t expect from a magazine. This is an extra service when you buy patterns from independent designers right?

Next week you can see more Quokka sweaters in the tour. But if you’re convinced yet, you can hop over to the shop and use our QUOKKA10 for a 10% reduction!

Thanks for all your support and see you tomorrow! Then I’ll show you the online pattern calculator.

Oh and if you ever wondered what Quokka means? I think once you saw the picture below, you will never forget this cute little marsupial anymore!