A sweet little sweater with clear, well-written instructions. I learned a LOT from knitting this, my very first steeked project. Ann Kingstone’s book is a great resource for the stranded knitting newbie. I made a lot of mistakes but won’t point any of them out, as the finished product is simply delightful!

Because this is slippery superwash wool, I recruited my friend Sara to machine-reinforce the steeks before cutting. After perusing the stranded knitting thread on Wollmeiseholics Anonymous, we decided on 2 straight passes with teeny tiny stitches and one pass with zigzag, all in one steek column. It seems very firmly secured. Cutting was a blast!! It worked!! We were both ridiculously thrilled. There was definitely some shrieking and maybe even a little dancing around the knitting. The dogs were concerned.

I wet blocked before reinforcing and cutting the steeks, then wet blocked again after knitting the trim but before stitching down the edges (remember, this is superwash wool). I used blanket stitch on the edges, mostly because I like the look of it. It would have benefited from another wet block or at least a steam pressing after the blanket stitch, but I ran out of time!

I added an extra row of trim to armholes and neck opening. Because this is the largest size, it just seemed necessary to make the bands look as bold and stripey as I wanted. Binding off was a challenge! I did the neck three times (yes, three!) before I was able to get it loose enough but still looking tidy. One of the armholes required two attempts. I got the last one right on the first try :)

I couldn’t be happier with this project! I finished it on Christmas morning, just before going out for Christmas dinner with the family of the recipient. 2-year-old Frank was unimpressed, but his parents really liked it!

start with
163g of Ruby Thursday
162g of QED
141g of Jeton
144g Clementine