Evening in the Village Turtleneck Review

Alright guys, let me walk you through my knitting process for this Evening in the Village Turtleneck pullover by Two of Wands. I believe this design is from Alexandra’s fall 2018 collection with LionBrand. I purchased this as a kit from LionBrand’s website in spring 2019, which means I purchased the yarn and pattern together. If LionBrand sounds familiar, I mentioned the company in my Advice for the Newbie Knitter blog post.

The sweater is available in three sizes and I chose to knit the middle size (M/L). This sweater is meant to be oversized with “extra long sleeves,“ and I thought oversized would be flattering and comfy, but honestly it turned out way too big. Moving forward, I learned I can’t just depend on the size that I usually identify with in the store, I have to actually look at the measurements of the sweater and compare to my own so I know how it will fit. Now I know I’m not a fan of such extreme amounts of ease. Also, this sweater is knit in pieces (back panel, front panel, two sleeves) so after completing each panel, you have to seam all of the pieces together. The drawback of this type of sweater, at least for me, is all of the seaming and the fact that you can’t try on the design until the sweater is complete. So those are the basics, let me walk you through the timeline of the design process.

Timeline of design

AUGUST 2019 Cast on size M/L sweater size / In the version of the pattern I received, the number of stitches was incorrect b

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2019 Knit about 6 inches of the back panel

SEPTEMBER 2019-JANUARY 2020 Got caught up working on Christmas orders and knits as well as moving so didn’t work on this sweater at all

FEBRUARY 2020 Finished the back panel of this sweater, but then put it down again after some frustrations and discouragement with shoulder shaping

MARCH 2020 Picked up this sweater again because I decided that during quarantine, I was finally going to finish this project

MARCH 31, 2020 Finished all of the panels of this sweater and seamed it together

APRIL 4, 2020 Tried on the sweater for the first time and oh, man…. it’s ginormous!

APRIL 5, 2020 Redoing the sleeves, making them significantly smaller both in length and width (about half the size). Originally the sleeves were 21 inches, but I learned I prefer 15in sleeves and made sure they would be more form fitting in the arms to offset the oversized body.

APRIL 7, 2020 Washed the garment, hoping it would shrink and it definitely did not. It actually grew and when I put it on, it reached my knees!

APRIL 8, 2020 Cut seven inches off the bottom of the front and pack of the sweater, redid the bottom ribbing and gave it a slight high-low hem with a side split

APRIL 10, 2020: After attaching the new sleeves, completing the hem and turtleneck, I washed the sweater again and this time it fits great! I finally weaved in all of the ends and I’m happy with this version of the sweater

What I’ve learned from this project:

• I’m not a huge fan of 10 inches of positive ease or such an oversized fit

• I need to pay more attention to my own measurements and how they correlate with the measurements of the size of the garment I’m knitting

• I prefer top down sweaters and the ability to try on a garment as I’m making it so I am confident in the fit of the pullover. I find this method much easier than knitting a sweater like this in pieces and seaming it together before trying it on

• I’m not scared of worsted weight yarn anymore! When I started knitting, I preferred the bulkiest of yarns (which I recommend for any beginner), but now I’m enjoying and seeing the benefits of working with thinner weights of yarn.

For anyone who’s made it this far, thank you for following along and hopefully it gave you more of a peak into the sweater-making process and if you’re thinking about making your own Evening in the Village Turtleneck, hopefully this was helpful!

My advice for anyone thinking of making this sweater:

• Pay attention to the measurements!!! I would definitely go down to the XS/S size if I were to knit this again and I definitely don’t usually wear a small in anything so look at the measurements and how they will fit on your body size.

• Other knitters comments, especially on Ravelry, were so helpful!

• If you love this design, go for it, especially if you’re a fan of an oversized fit. My favorite part was the stitch pattern, so I would recommend another design with a similar stitch, maybe.

You can also find detailed notes on my Ravelry project page.