It’s still winter! I can still wear sweaters! As I was finishing up the seams on my Hot Chocolate pullover my husband said “Don’t you have enough sweaters?” Riiiiiight. Like a girl could every have “enough” of any clothes. I kid, I kid…
This is the third sweater I’ve knitted. The first was done top-down, in the round. The second was done bottom-up in the round. This one was done in pieces, then seamed. I hate seaming, but I saw this pattern in a magazine and it was cute so I thought I’d give it a try. First I knit the back.
Then I knit the front.
Then the sleeves (and forgot to take a picture of them).
I gave each piece a good rinse in cool water, then I pinned them to some blocking mats so they would be easier to sew together.
Yeah, my “blocking mats” are really some floor pads I found in the hardware section of Kmart. Like I’m going to pay $20 plus shipping for four little pads from a knitting web site when I can get six big ones for $12 across the street! I’m cheap like that.
After the pieces were dry I sewed the shoulder seams together and added the neckband.
Seaming the sleeves to the shoulders was a bit easier than I thought it would be, but it still took me a few false starts before I felt as though I did it right. Even then, it’s still a bit wrinkly. And you can tell in my side seams where I started (meh) to where I finished (smooth).
Before I started I took really good measurements and did a few gauge swatches because I really wanted it to fit well. Accurate, careful measuring and a good swatch will pretty much guarantee your garment will fit. I’m very pleased with this sweater.
With matching mittens
The yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes. It’s really inexpensive which is always a plus in my book (see above reference to my cheapness). I was surprised at how soft it was. I can wear the sweater right next to my skin and it’s not scratchy or irritating at all, which is unusual for 100% wool. It’s also lightweight and pretty warm. It was a few degrees below zero when my husband took pictures of me outside and I was quite comfortable for the ten minutes or so I was tromping around in the snow.
The pattern is a freebie from Cascade Yarn’s web site, and is very poorly written. It was only published a few months ago, and not very many people have attempted it yet so I can’t be too irritated with the quality of the pattern, but it was pretty annoying nonetheless. I found the following errors:
1. Though the photo included in the pattern clearly shows a few inches of ribbing at the bottom of the pullover, the pattern only tells you to knit one row of ribbing. I believe this should say to continue the rib pattern for 2 1/2 – 3 inches. I did 3 inches.
2. Under Shape Armholes for front and back the final stitch count is off by one stitch. I believe it should read (corrections in bold): BO 3 (5, 6, 7, 8, 9) sts at beg of next two rows, BO 2 (2, 3, 3, 4, 4) sts at beg of next tworows, then dec 1 st each side every row 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 2) times, then every other row 4(4, 4, 5, 5, 5) times—50 (52, 54, 56, 58, 58) sts rem.
3. Because of this, the Shape Neck section of the front is off by one stitch. I believe it should read (corrections in bold): Work across first 19 (20, 21, 22, 23, 23) sts, join second ball of yarn and BO middle 12sts, work across to end row.
4. The rest of the Shape Neck section is a little too vague. I did it like this:
Work both sides at once with separate balls of yarn.
Row 1. Purl across right side, BO 3 sts at neck edge of left side, purl to end.
Row 2. Knit across left side, BO 3 sts at neck edge of right side, knit to end.
Row 3. Purl across right side, BO 2 sts at neck edge of left side, purl to end.
Row 4. Knit across left side, BO 2 sts at neck edge of right side, knit to end.
Row 5. Purl across right side to last two sts, p2tog, p2tog at neck edge of left side, purl to end
Row 6. Knit across left side to last two sts, k2tog, k2tog at neck edge of right side, knit to end.
12 (13, 14, 15, 16,16) sts rem each side.
5. Under the Shape Cap section of the sleeves they have WAY too many rows listed for the gauge they say you should be knitting at. You will hit 18 1/2 inches long before you complete those shaping rows. Measure often!
6. Under the Finishing section the pattern just stops after you knit the neckband. It gives no instructions at all for seaming the shoulders, sleeves and sides. I had to look around other blogs and YouTube for tutorials to help me figure this one out. Of course, if you’ve done set-in sleeves before this isn’t a problem.
I hope those notes can be helpful to any other knitters who want to attempt this one in the future! But really, I would just suggest finding another pattern and just using the colorwork section of this one. I’m sure there are much better ones out there that won’t be as much of a headache.
