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.
I wonder if I could finish knitting two sweaters this week.
Each Wednesday I post little snippets about the projects I’m working on.
You can see all of the Wednesday posts here.
I finished the hood of my Versio sweater! That’s a close up of the three needle bind off. I just need to weave in all the ends, make some cording, and block it before it’s wearable.
My lace shawl knit out of Julie Asselin’s lovely “Merletto” is sailing along with a little help from rewatching Downton Abbey.
It’s definitely fall here. Crisp and cool, and desperately making me want a pair of jeans, and a pile of sweaters.
So, I picked up and started knitting an ancient unfinished sweater (from my pile of many). It got a hood, and an amazing number of ends, added to it this week.
Then I ripped out the bind off at the bottom hem, so I could add ribbing.
I’m adding a 4 x 1 ribbing, by dropping down the stitch that I want to make a purl stitch, and then picking it back up with a crochet hook. It’s not fast, but it’s faster than reknitting half a sweater.
It needs sleeves, a zipper, ends woven in, and a washing before it’s done.
Soon, hopefully. I wonder if I could finish knitting two sweaters this week…
The Versio Sweater – a body, sleeves, and a change of plans
The weather is (finally) cooling down again here in New York, and it’s starting to feel like fall (again), so I took the opportunity to finish up the sleeves of my Versio sweater.
The pattern is Versio by Ankestrick (here on Ravelry.)
I’m using a 4 different lace weight yarns:
1 skein of Julie Asselin’s “Merletto” – the blue
1 skein of Sweet Georgia’s “Merino Silk Lace” – the red
1 skein of Fiberspates’ “Scrumptious” – the gold
2 skeins of Cascade’s “Forest Hills” – the black
Holding 2 strands of yarn together throughout the entire thing, and knitting it on a US 8 (5.0 mm) needle.
I’m also adding the hood modification that Rililie on Ravelry wrote up.
The pattern is knit top down, seamlessly, and using the contiguous set in sleeve method. I had never head of this method for creating set in sleeves – but I might have fallen a little bit in love.
The armscyes are a little bit deep on me, so it does some funky pulling/puckering under the arm, but not badly enough to make it unwearable.
The striping sequence has evolved a bit during the knitting process.
The original idea was to just use the blue, the gold and the red, working the stripe sequence you see on the yoke, for the entire sweater.
Turns out, I was going to run out of yarn really quickly if I did that – so I added the black, and planned on working the stripe sequence you see in the middle section of the sweater, for the entirety of it.
But I was still probably going to run out of yarn – so I switched to solid black for the bottom portions, and reintroduced the gold for the hems.
I’m a little ambivalent about the project right now.
I like it, but I originally wanted this sweater to fill the role of an easy to throw on – but not boring – works with jeans or a skirt, sweatshirt type sweater, in my self-made wardrobe, and that’s not what this is anymore.
Now, I’m seeing it as more of a sweater to wear with heels and dark wash jeans, still casual, but a piece that needs a little more effort to wear (and not end up being worn being worn by.)
I’ll see how I feel once I add the hood. But this sweater has definitely morphed into a sweater that is different than the one I originally planned.
