15-03-2021

So, I’m at the point where I’ve joined the front an back and done the following purl/dec round. Tried it on and realized that I’ll need to knit 4” more (see below for update, this should be 3”), from this point, in garter stitch so that the garter finishes under the bust and not part way through it.

Note: at my gauge and given the proportions of my bust, if I didn’t modify, I’d have the garter switch to stockinette about 1/2’ below my full bust. To prevent this, I’ll work the purl rows 23 more times than the pattern instructed (and over the depth of 46 rounds).

I’ll do the first knit dec/purl round combo (243 st), followed by:

• a knit round with no decreases /purl round combo followed by
• a knit dec round / purl round combo (239 st) followed by
• a knit round with no decreases /purl round combo followed by
• a knit dec round / purl round combo (235 st) followed by
• a knit round with no decreases /purl round combo followed by
• a knit dec round / purl round combo (231 st) - at this point I’ve got through 1 inch of the 4 additional garter inches required
• From here on in - work as established K/P rounds (no decreases) K round followed by P round for the next 40 rounds (3” more inches at my gauge) - Update: I really only needed to work 20 of these rounds… Prob because of the weight and drape of the fabric, the amount I worked made the garter fall a good 2 inches under the under bust.

At this point, switch to stockinette for the Shape Body section. Note - I’m not going to do the hip increases (following the decreases at the waist) because this is already roomy enough (if I did, it would be shapeless on me). That means, my circ for the remainder of the project is 231st NOT 251st.

18-03-2021

From actual underarm to hem, I want to make this 15.5” long, not the 18.25” recommended within the pattern (given sweater armsyce starts 2 inches below the armpit, as this is a drop shoulder style and 16.25” + 2” = 18.25”). The hem is 3” so that will take up 3” of the length (though based on what I’ve read, I imagine that the hem will be more like 2” in length). Mind you, the pattern is well written so I’m going to trust in the process. It could be that the hem will hang long, given the weight and drape of the rest of the sweater and given that it’s knit on with horizontal stitches, which will hang and stretch. There is likely also a bit of length added at the join to the sweater and at the icord bind off edge.

As noted, since the sweater underarm hits 2” below my actual underarm, that takes up 2” of depth, meaning I only need to knit to 13.5” below the sweater armscye. And since 3 of those inches will be in hem, I need to start the hem at 10.5” below armscye, NOT at the pattern recommended 13.25”. That’s a pretty big difference and I’m really glad that I am checking routinely because I really want this thing to fit me well, given how much work I’m putting into it and the gorgeousness of the Tynd. The Tynd, for its fantasticness is a very drapey yarn. I’d consider knitting the smallest size were I to use this yarn with this pattern again OR I’d knit with the recommended needle sizes, which might actually be preferable because, even though I didn’t get gauge with those sizes, I wouldn’t mind a slightly firmer fabric given the excessive drape of the yarn.

I rarely knit non-fitted garments so I usually need to keep the instructed length (or even lengthen garments), not because I am tall or my waist is long (I’m short with a short waist) but because I have a proportionately large and projected bust. So I use the extra length as an alteration technique to get the sweater to my desired, non-cropped length. I also think, based on viewing the garment on the model and others, that this is a sweater with long vertical dimensions, well suited to a long body. Short people may well have to shorten it to achieve the same look.

Also, pre-blocking, and before the neckband is knitted on, the depth from the top of shoulder to vneck is 8.5”. This will become less deep and wide with the neckband but note (if you make other v necks) that this is the general depth to aim for.

20-03-2021

My vertical gauge is not fantastically accurate as the sweater grows - I suspect because of the drape of the yarn (which stretches given the weight of the sweater).

So, while I did the requisite number of rows (based on my gauge) to get to 10.5” (before starting the hem band), it ended up being 11” long. It’s ok because the hem band (at its deepest, 17 st, on the smaller needle) comes to about 2.25” in depth for me, not 3”.

About the Hem Band: A few people indicated that this is the one tricky part. Here’s what is not specifically explained - and I think I understand it but YMMV:

• You cable cast on the hem band stitches right at the start of the knitting process because you’re going to knit on the hem band, perpendicular to the direction of knitting the body.
• The way you’ll do this is to pick up one live body stitch at the end of each RS row of the band, which is K2toged with the first stitch of the band at the beginning of the WS. The impact of this is that the band is actually knitted on.
• You get the hem started by picking up where you do, at the faux seam purl just before the BOR marker because you are going to be knitting a curved hem that utilizes 18 of the sweater’s live stitches (one before the marker and 17 after), to create the increase side of the hem. This takes you from the cable cast on of 8 st to 17st in width.
• Conversely, on the decrease side of the hem, you begin decreases, the pattern instructs, 17 st before the marker and continue to 1 after the marker, to get from 17 st back to 8st.

Note that, when I worked it backwards, I needed to start the decrease curve, not 17 st from the next marker, but 15 st from it. 17st makes sense on paper but for me it didn’t quite work out (perhaps I misconstrued where to start the band in the first place?). As someone else suggested, just do the inverse of what you do on the increase section of the band and you’ll be fine.

To seam the hem, I did a riff on 3-needle bind off that looks fine to me - I knitted together the remaining live stitch with a pick up loop of the bound off side till I had 2 stitches on the right-hand needle and then I passed the first one over the second until all 8 st were bound off.

Sleeves: Effectively, I’m going to go from the 2nd size cast on numbers (73 st) to the first size cast on number (69 st) over the first 4 rounds (2 rounds of decreases over 4 rounds). At that point knit 19 rounds straight, as instructed, and then do the next decrease round (67 st). Then, over the next 48 rounds, decrease every 10th round (2 st per round) till you get to 55 st. Then knit 28 more rounds even before beginning the cuff. This makes the sleeve bracelet length for me - but it’s about 4’ shorter than the pattern recommends. (See pink book with dot for details).

Seaming the cuff: I found this trickier than I thought I would because you’re not seaming in such a way that you can mattress stitch (You’re working from 2 cast on/off edges, not 2 side seams. The stitches are going in the “wrong” direction. It would have been helpful to have instructions here…

What I did - and I really don’t know if this was the best way to go (though it looks adequately finished) - is, from right side, picked up the V (between visible right side bumps) such that, on each side, the V was pointing away from the join/seam being created. I did find that I had to be prudent about how I picked up on each side because somehow one side of the cuff was more stretched than the other on each sleeve. It might have worked better to pick up Vs going in the same direction (towards seam on one side, away from seam on the other), but after doing this 4 times, when I found a method that looked good, I was done experimenting.

21-03-2021

If you make this again:

• See your notes in the red note book (now retired in the sewga room secondary yarn box) and in the new pink dot notebook which provide details on how you increased and decreased in the hem section.
• Knit the body stockinette section per notes above.
• See notebook for information about how the sleeves have been modified.
• See notes above on how you should modify the length of the garment (but first wear the one you’re making now to see how much / if it continues to grow).
• Make it smaller - Kristin from 18-months in the future is hoping she has enough of this yarn left to tighten up the neck. I’m half inclined to reknit the entire thing in the small (unravel the current version). I would have more than enough yarn were I to do that. But not sure this yarn will like being frogged. It’s very soft and inclined to felt.

26-03-2021

I’m starting the final cuff with 55g of yarn remaining. I did have to break into a new ball just to do the cuff - but hey, I had that ball, which is all that matters. I estimate I will have used just over 5 balls to make this sweater, far less than instructed for size 2 but I did knit the vertical proportions much less long than instructed, given that I’m short.

I started this project with 6.22 skeins (because the 6 skeins I ordered were happily overweight!). I ended up with 48g left, though I used 4 g of the 52g final ball. As such, the cuff took 7g of yarn, more than I would have bet on. I thought it would take 5g…

Preblocked Dimensions:

Neck Depth from the shoulder height: (1” higher than the actual back neck cast on edge) - 6.5” (started at 8.5” depth before knitting on the neckline. From the back neck cast on it’s more like 5.75” deep

“Underarm” to hem: 11.5” - block this to 12.5”

Hem Circumference: 38”

Circumference at “underarm”: (also full bust circumference): 42”

Back neck to “underarm”: 9.5” (if this were a set in construction, the fabric would conform to the actual underarm but in this instance the underarm is 2.5” lower that my actual underarm)

Length from sleeve cuff to back neck where it meets the top of the shoulder: 24”

Length of sleeve cuff: 2.33”

Length of hem band: 2.33”

Length of sleeve from cast on for sleeve to cuff edge: 14.75”

The thing I forgot to measure, before blocking, was the sleeve circumference. Oh well…

29-03-2021

This yarn, in particular, has a lot of drape so I’d recommend that anyone who makes this jumper with this yarn consider shortening the vertical measurements. I’d shorten them even were I to use another yarn…

I like the end result. My mods did the trick and I like the fit all around - the neckline, the sleeves (going from one size to another quickly and then revising the rate of decrease AND overall length), the hem length. The stitch pattern is so simple but so elegant, and pivoting the garter on the hem and cuff is a great design element. If I had done the increases on the body (after the “waist shaping”) this would have been too big. I would make the smaller size were I to make this again. I appreciate the loose fit of this one, but I wonder if the small would work just as well (if differently) given how expansive the yarn is.

• As mentioned above - Kristin from 2022/23 is going to have to make the neckline tighter (by a reasonable amount) because this yarn has grown quite a bit and now the sweater falls off my shoulder in a very irritating Flashdance way that is not attractive given that it shows my bra strap.

• While I love this yarn, and it’s not fragile, it is unpredictable in terms of its drape. It works more like alpaca than like wool. If I were to make another sweater with it, I’d go down a size (even if I were to get gauge) because the yarn grows a lot both vertically and horizontally. In retrospect, I think its sweet spot it a shawl or accessory.

How I Made the Neckline Snugger:

• The original version had ~150st picked up on the needles at the neckline - as I picked up 4 for every 5 CO stitches (80% ratio), as instructed. I had to cut at least an inch of depth from the V and also bring the neckline in at the shoulders (because it became too wide after wearing the garment only a few times).

• To correct the issue, I ripped back the original neckband and CO 2 for every 3 CO stitches. (66%) all the way around - even along the diagonal V (where 1:1 is indicated). This gave me 117st. So I diminished ~33st to raise the neckline. That’s approx 23% reduction in number of stitches.

• Then I did 2 more rounds (one purl, one knit) before BO purlwise. I didn’t want to from a design perspective - my fave part of this garment is the elegant neck finishing - but I’m not going to wear this if it’s too open at the neck. Not only do I hate things that don’t stay put, for a sweater that’s made of very warm yarn, to be worn in a cold climate, it’s counterproductive to have a neck that’s so open that my neck and upper chest are completely exposed.

• This fix raised the neckline by almost 2” and the shoulders now sit where they should. Having said this, I do prefer the BO when there is only 1 garter ridge on the neckband. Depending, I may rip back the 2 extra rounds.