Fall Colour Hahn Sweater
Ever since I made my “I See Spring” sweater using Julie Asselin’s Fino, I wanted to make another sweater using Fino again.
Fino is a blend of 75% merino wool, 15% cashmere, and 10% silk, and it feels like a dream! It’s so soft and because of the silk blend it doesn’t overheat. It take a little longer to knit a sweater with a fingering weight yarn, but I love the fabric created by finer yarn. It doesn’t look and feel bulky and really comfortable.
When my LYS, River City Yarns, had a special colourway dyed for them by Julie Asselin on their Fino base, I was sure I had to get some!
This unique colourway dyed exclusively for River City Yarns is called Fervent. It was a part of their limited collection released in 2021. It was inspired by the fall foliage scenery and I think they captured the colour perfectly!
I knew this special yarn had to be turned into something I can enjoy for a long time, something classic.
So I chose Hahn pattern by Shibui.
Hahn is knit with two strands of yarns: one Shibui Pebble (silk, merino, cashmere blend) and one Shibui Silk Cloud (mohair and silk blend).
Fino is a merino, cashmere, silk blend too, but the percentage of the content are quite different. Plus the pattern calls for mohair blend yarn to knit with, which would result in much different fabric.
Knowing that my fabric would look and feel very different from Shibui’s sample sweaters, I did a swatch with my yarn. I was happy with it, so I went ahead with the project!
Hahn uses grass stitch to create a unique texture—it’s simple and subtle yet distinctive. When I first saw the actual sample of Hahn at a store a few years ago, I thought it looked like a RTW garment in a good way, as in it looked so polished and stylish!
I used hand-dyed yarn that has speckles rather than solid colours like the store sample I saw, so mine might look more “handmade” but that’s okay. I think this pattern still helps to make a hand-knit sweater looks more sophisticated.
Pattern: Hahn by Shibui Knits (Julie Hoover design) (Hahn on Ravelry)
Yarn: Four skeins of Fino by Julie Asselin in Fervent colourway (limited colourway dyed for River City Yarns in 2021)
Needles: 2.75 mm and 3.00 mm
Modifications I made:
Neckband—I was worried that the neck opening is a little too big for my preference, so I picked up a smaller number of stitches. And then, I followed the neck band instruction from another pattern: Charles V-Neck by Joji Locatelli (Charles V-Neck on Ravelry) to create a wider neck band.
Hem—I suspected that I might run out of yarn so I made the front length shorter than the back piece (it was the right decision! I used up most of the yarn). As a result, the lengths of the front piece and the back piece were different. I didn't sew up the hem together to leave it as split hem. I think the split hem looks better with high and low look.
Hahn isn’t a seamless construction but instead, knit by pieces: front, back, and two sleeves. After you sew the pieces together, you add the neck band.
I usually prefer the top-down seamless construction, but since this sweater is an oversized style, this construction makes more sense.
When a garment is oversized (and especially has the dropped shoulders), it has more risk of stretching out over time. Binding off at the end of each piece and the seams where the pieces are sewn together, help garments to keep the shape and avoid stretching out.
This was my first time trying out the grass stitch and I love it! It’s just a combination of slip stitch and yarn over, so once you learn how to do it, it’s not complicated at all. It’s fairly easy to memorize the stitch as well.
But I’m still surprised that I didn’t miss a stitch or make any mistakes! ( I guess I was paying attention!)
It creates such a beautiful texture, I think I’d use this stitch pattern again.
This picture above was taken with a phone, if the colour looks off, that’s why.
I had four skeins of yarn and thought I had plenty. Turned out, I had just enough!
This is all I had left after finishing the sweater: a small swatch, a small yarn ball, and a bunch of end bits I cut off after I wove in.
After I washed the sweater, it stretched out a bit. I added a couple of rows to the neck band to make the neck open smaller—so I ended up using most of that small yarn ball too!
All yarn behaves differently but generally speaking, both cashmere and silk tends to grow after a wash (because the fabric relaxes in the process). I highly recommend doing a swatch and wash (block) the swatch before starting a sweater. I’m lazy in many ways, but this is something I’d never skip when making a garment.
This is an oversized sweater, it fits quite loosely. If you prefer a closer fit, I’d recommend considering going a size down.
I didn’t, and I like how roomy and comfy it is, but I probably could have gone down a size too. I think it would have had enough ease even then.
But because I made the neck opening smaller, I feel pretty comfortable in it!
I really love the colour of this yarn. I’d say it’s an orange-brown colour, sort of like terracotta.
You can see the splash of black well but if you look even closer, you’d see speckles of red. It’s so pretty.
Terracotta is a popular colour for clothing but I feel like we don’t really see it in yarn. I hope more dyers would consider making it, because I love it!
Mar 23, 2022
