The Lighthouse Sweater Kit by We Are Knitters – A Knitting Pattern Review
Way back in August, I had some birthday money to spend and, since I was at a lovely ‘in between knitting projects’ time in my life, I decided to have a browse at a We Are Knitters 30% off Sale they were holding back in the summertime.
I’m not usually a knitting kit kind of girl. I usually prefer to choose a pattern and then choose my yarn according to what I fancy at the time but something about receiving everything I needed, all neatly packaged up in a pretty, recyclable, paper bag appealed to me at that time and I ended up adding not one but two knitting kits to my basket. The Lighthouse Sweater and The Thread Sweater. I was having an extravagant moment you could say and after all 30% is quite a discount so I decided to check out.
I’m a sucker for anything with stripes, particularly in white and navy, so I loved the look of the Lighthouse Sweater and I was taken with how simple a project it looked too. I also love a lace knit – you could say I’d gone from one extreme to the other in terms of skill level with these choices!!
My kits arrived within a week and I have to say, I absolutely loved how everything was packaged. Not only do you receive the yarn required for the size of the pattern you have selected but you also receive a printed pattern (written in various different languages), a darning needle, a woven fabric label to add to your garment when you’re finished and some cute stickers too. I found the kit really inspired me to get on with knitting up the project. It’s worth noting that you do have the option on purchasing to remove the cost of the knitting needles if you already own the correct size. I did and removing them reduced the cost of my kit a little so that was nice.
At this point I really wish I had taken a photo of the kit contents before starting but alas I was too eager and didn’t think so I’ve included this one from the WAK website instead.
I chose to knit the smallest size of the jumper as my measurements most closely matched that size. I also made sure to knit up a tension gauge before casting on my garment using the instructions in the booklet and luckily my square was a pretty spot on match so I was good to go.
The back and fronts of the sweater are knit exactly the same with a repeating stripe pattern of six rows in navy and eight rows in cream. I knit the stripes by leaving all yarn connected and loosely lifting up to my next stripe when it was time to change colour – saves weaving in approximately one million ends that way and it was recommended to do that in the instructions.
Working with the yarn does take a little bit of getting used to since it does feel quite thin at first, almost as if it is too thin for the needle size you are using, that is of course what gives the sweater that loose knit effect, but I found I soon got used to this it was fine after a little while.
I quickly got into the swing of things with this project and found that the stripe pattern allowed the back to knit up super quickly. I couldn’t allow myself to stop mid stripe so that’s possibly another reason this one grew so fast.
Once at the arm holes the decreasing is simply done every alternate knit row making it very easy to keep track of and at the neckline the stitches are then held on a stitch holder to pick up when you come to join the neck.
The sleeves are knit similarly with raglan decreasing from armhole to neck and if I thought the back and front were speedy these were even faster. The stitches on both sleeves are held on a stitch holder at the neck ready to join too when you’re done.
So once I had all my pieces together, I simply then had to pick up my stitches from my stitch holders onto a circular knitting needle and knit up the neckline rib. This was a lovely way to knit the neckband since no sewing was involved at this stage, but I did find I had to pull the yarn tight at each join to avoid any holes.
Once your neckband is knitted you seam up your raglans, then your side seams and you’re done!
I seamed up my sweater whilst watching tv and although sewing up knitting projects will never be my favourite; I actually enjoyed this one.
I chose to sew up using the cream yarn since I thought that would show through less against the navy than the navy would against the cream (if that makes sense) 😉
I am so thrilled with my finished sweater. In the past I’ve favoured cardigan knitting projects but overall, I wear jumpers more. I can tell already that I’m going to get a lot of wear out of this one. It’s super cosy and I feel relaxed wearing it, it’s a very ‘me’ style jumper and definitely a style I’d be drawn to if I saw it on the High Street.
I often get asked about suitable patterns for beginner knitters and I think this one would be perfect since it’s a simple stocking stitch knit and there’s not much shaping at all in there. I’d highly recommend if you are a starter knitter looking for a new or even your first project.
I hope you like my finished knit. If you fancy trying out the Lighthouse Sweater or anything else on the We Are Knitters website, you can use my code MGM9LRFVH at checkout to claim £10 off of your first order.
Have you tried any We Are Knitters kits? I’m always on the lookout for inspiration…
Thank you for reading – until next time!
Sally x
