The Perfect Transitional Sweater – Hopefully

I started knitting this sweater forever and a half ago.

It was actually September 17, 2011, and luckily I’m still (more or less) the same size I was 3 years ago.

I didn’t use a pattern, but the sweater is a basic top down, raglan sleeve cardigan, with slight waist shaping, stripes, a hood, some last minute ribbing, and a bunch of ends hanging about.

I’m hoping it’ll be the perfect transitional sweater.

It’s knit on a US 9s, out of Cascade “Greenland.” I couldn’t tell you what the colors are, or even how many balls of yarn I used – the ball bands are long gone.

Interestingly, my gauge hasn’t changed all that much in 3 years, but my knitting has gotten noticeably more even.

I’m planning a metal zipper for the front. It’s unblocked, because I still need to knit the sleeves, and I’m guessing/hoping that blocking with give me the extra 2 inches I need to make the fronts meet easily.

I added the ribbing as an afterthought once the entire body was knit. The original plan was for an all stockinette sweater with turned hems, but the turned hem was too bulky. So I ripped out the bind off and using a crochet hook, dropped down and then picked up each column of purl stitches.

It’s 4×1 ribbing, with 2 purl stitches at the center back, to make the numbers work out evenly.

I did raglan sleeve shaping, and plan on keeping the sleeves short, maybe with a white/green stripe and some ribbing, to keep the edges from rolling.

Hopefully I can finish this sweater up in the next day or two, because sweater weather is here, and this time it feels like it’s here to stay.