Thrift Shop Yarn Sweater

Sometimes when one is planning a knitting project, one starts with a pattern one wants to make, and sometimes one starts with a yarn one wants to use. This project was one of the latter. I bought the yarn you see above at Value Village in 2012 for $4. It is Nuvoletta by Filatura Di Crosa, it is 70% mohair and 30% acrylic, and from what Google tells me, this brand of yarn has been discontinued since the early nineties so this yarn is over 20 years old. There were five 50g skeins of it. The colour didn't photograph accurately for some reason and the yarn is actually a rich warm teal, not the electric blue you see here.

I assessed this yarn to be between a worsted and a DK weight, and thought there might not be quite enough of it to make a sweater. This has usually been the case when I've bought a lot of yarn from thrift shops and I've had to do things like adding cuffs and collar in a coordinating yarn to get the resulting project done. You get a small lot and there is no possibility of buying any more of the same kind.

After some searching on Ravelry, I chose this pattern for the Nuvoletta. This is the Pull Me Over pattern, designed by Andrea Black. It's available for $5.50(USD). It appeared to be just the right tension and, even better, it had both a cap sleeve and a long sleeve option and a top-down construction that was perfect for a project for which I might have insufficient yarn. I could make the body and see how my yarn was holding out before deciding which sleeve length to go with. Moreover, how cute is this sweater?

Here's the result. This project was a total pleasure to work on. The yarn was lovely to work with, the pattern was one I enjoyed making, and the project proceeded smoothly with no mistakes. Finishing was a snap as there was no seaming to be done and only maybe ten ends to be darned in. I was done in three weeks and never got tired of it nor took a break to work on something else as I usually do. Moreover, not only did I have enough yarn to make the whole sweater with the long sleeves, I also have nearly an entire skein left over, which should easily be enough to make a hat. Mohair does tend to go far because it's so light. That was $4 well spent.