A belated International Women’s Day post celebrating the phenomenal women behind this dream combo. Pattern and yarn are both from fellow Filipinas 🇵🇠and I couldn’t be more proud.
I’ve been dreaming to knit with Akara Yarns ‘Ube’ colorway for some time now and was excited when Jessie Mae released Cozy Classic Raglan. I knew I found the perfect pattern for it.
Ube (pronounced OO-BAE) is a purple yam/sweet potato that is common in the Philippines and other Asian countries, and is on every Titas’s (auntie’s) dessert table.
I have many fond memories growing up eating ube cake. Back then, you can only find it as a traditional cake like the photo above or as a roll. Nowadays, you can find ube in almost everything from donuts, to brownies.
If you’re local in the GTA, you have to try the Ube Mochi Cupcake by Tri Pas Bakes:
And! If you happen to be in SoCal, you must indulge in the most delicious ube cheesecake by TheMissingPieceOC:
My mouth is watering just looking at these photos.
What were we talking about again? Oh, that’s right, yarn!
Let’s get back to the knitting 🙂
The pattern calls for DK weight or fingering + mohair.
At first, I held ube with the silver mohair together, but eventually wound the two in a single ball.
It’s best to alternate skeins when knitting with hand-dyed yarn, and managing 2 instead of 4 cakes per row made the process smoother.
I love the simplicity of a raglan sweater and the fact that top-down construction lets me try it on as I go.
I knit a matching pair of socks to go with my sweater using Ube by itself:
I used Sugar Frost socks, a free pattern by Marianne Heikkinen. I find socks with a minimal texture more comfortable to wear than a plain stockinette stitch.
Some of my go-to patterns are: Blueberry Waffle socks and Hermoine’s Everyday socks. Both are free on Ravelry. A new one I recently finished and adding to my rotation is Andrea Mowry’s DRK Everyday socks. The heel construction is perfect for self-striping yarn.
