This is my first test for Michele (MADuNaier on Ravelry). The design caught my eye right away with its lovely circular lace yoke and easy fit. It’s my favorite top-down construction, so there’s nothing not to like about this project. It was a very fun and easy project.

The pattern calls for DK weight yarn. Although the yarn I’ve chosen calls itself “Aran”, I’ve found that British yarns are thinner than comparable American yarns with the same weight names. The label on this yarn calls for size 7 needles which is what is recommended in the pattern, so I think my yarn will be fine. I love the color and tweedy flecks. I had to go down in needle sizes to get gauge.

I cast on 114 sts instead of the 119 in the pattern because I wanted to make sure that bra straps would not show. Then on the first increase round, I increased to the number of sts specified in the pattern. This worked out well for me.

I matched stitch gauge of the pattern but I guess my row gauge must have been long because I was ready to divide body and sleeves midway through Lace Chart 3. I divided after chart round 5 which gave me the 340 yoke sts for the SM size. Even though the resulting body sts were not divisible by 20, it worked out fine. I just did stockinette stitch for the few odd sts under the arms. I did the same when I resumed the sleeves.

Needles Used:

Size 5 US - Neckline ribbing

Size 6 US - Entire yoke

Size 4 mm Addi - First 2 inches after dividing body and sleeves (Note that this is actually equivalent to 5.5 US.)

Size 4 US/3.5 mm Addi - remainder of body because my shoulders are more broad than my hips. I’m never quite sure who’ll get my hand knitted sweaters, so I make them to fit myself just in case there are no takers.

Sleeves: Picked up sts with size 6 US needle. After finishing the yoke Chart 3, I switched to 4mm Addi cable until the cuff.

Sleeve cuff: Size 2 US needle. Bound off with JSSBO and size 1 US needle.

Measurements:

Body length from underarm: 10” + 3” ribbing = 13”

Sleeve length from underarm: 16” + 3” cuff = 19”

Sleeve circumference = 15”

Cuff circumference: 6.5”

Ribbing:

I didn’t want the bottom ribbing to pull in. Therefore, I did the following set-up round before starting the ribbing:

^(K6, M1L) Repeat from ^ all around = 32 sts increased for a total of 226 sts.

Changed to size 2 US needle for the ribbing:

Rnd 1: Knit all stitches
Rnd 2: ^(K1, P1) - repeat from ^ all around
Alternate the above 2 rounds for 3”. Bind off in K1, P1 pattern. (Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off)

What I did differently:

Because the upper part of the sleeves were so large on my skinny arms, I decided to keep them full and then gather into cuffs. After knitting straight for 16” from underarm, I did K2tog all around to gather in = 42 sts.

I did the cuffs exactly like the bottom ribbing (3”).

M1P increase done on the right side of the work.

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