Made with reclaimed yarn / ripped back from another project

• On paper, I only have enough yarn to make size 1 of (26st and 38R). Since my st gauge on US3 is slightly larger (25st), I should be able to get a bit more room out of the smallest size.

• Well, technically I’m short by a couple of hundred yards (according to the pattern) but when I reviewed pattern pages, there were a number of these sweaters made with about 1000-1100y. I may need to shorten the sleeves to 3/4 length but if I have to, I will… It will be interesting to see if this will work given the amount of yarn that I have at my access. (This yarn is discontinued.)

• I’ll use US3, which is recommended, given that this is the needle size at which I get closest to gauge. For ribbing I’ll use US2.5.

• This pattern is very clearly presented, efficiently constructed and it has some lovely details. I think it would make a good first contiguous style sweater. The design is simple and classic.

• I intend to follow the instructions without modification (except for the length of body and sleeves, which will be influenced by the quantity of yarn I have). OK, I also intend to just work 1x1 rib on the hem and cuffs, again to save yarn.

The Knitting

• About the Back Neck: I know I said I wasn’t going to alter anything but the back neck is rather underfinished, IMO. This design decision keeps the sweater construction easy, but the back neck is simply the initial long-tail cast on, with no finishing, and it rolls. With my yarn, it rolls substantively (but really, I hate stockinette roll to any degree). Others have noted this issue and have ameliorated it by working a full neckband icord or a crochet slip stitch chain on the back neck. I didn’t want to diminish the vneck depth by pulling it up with icord so I opted for the crochet.

• Quite relevantly, this also cinches in the back neck (which is drafted to be wide). Unless you have a wide upper back or wide shoulders, or if you have a narrow frame, you may wish to cinch it in somehow. Otherwise, the overall neck opening can become distorted (too wide). When one adds a roll-y unfinished back neck, it can pull on the back, lifting or shifting the sweater front).

• I first worked the chain into a variety of WS stitches (the top purl bumps that abut the unfinished edge, one row down from there, also into purl bumps). However, given that there’s nothing to stabilize or de-roll the cast on edge/back neck (such as ribbing above it), this didn’t really fix the issue.

• Eventually, I determined that it worked best to crochet chain from the wrong side, into each of the actual cast on stitches - specifically the single thread that sits closest to the WS, not both strands of the stitch. I also used a small crochet hook (2.25mm / B). After doing this, the back neck has a smidge of give but not much. Note that I may need to redo this neckline with a larger crochet hook because, pre-blocking, there’s a bit of a ripple at the back neck where it meets the crochet given that I’ve eased a larger circ (back neck) into a much smaller one (crochet chain). I’ll have to see how it blocks. Update: The neck blocked out really nicely and much more contained/less gapey than before the chain. It also blocked out totally flat and very neat.

• As of completion of the front neck join, my re-measured unblocked gauge was 27st and 35R in 4”. A larger row gauge worked to my advantage but it was strange that it was was off by 1.5st per 4”. When measured, the fabric was perhaps slightly scrunchy given the number of stitches on the needles - though I tried to measure accurately. Update: As of split for sleeves I measured again and I was back to my preblocked gauge of 25st and 36R… Sometimes it’s hard to determine gauge when things don’t lie completely flat.

• So then I had to reduce from the previously increased, by-8st, 230st (~37” at the accurate gauge), as of splitting for sleeves, to 218st (~35”) over 3, 4-st decrease rounds over the first 3”. I worked 9R, Dec R, 9R, Dec R, 9R, Dec R, at which point I was at an inch above underbust. I worked (ssk / k2tog)x2 with the decs happening one stitch in on either side of the side or BOR marker i.e dec was made 3st from the first marker and on the second and third stitches after the marker.

• I also opted to knit the armscye 4R deeper just given how this is fitting. As of the split for sleeves I had used 55g of my 255g so I’m fairly confident that I will have enough yarn.

• As of 5.5” below the split for sleeves, I still have 163g of the 255g I started with. So it’s taken me 92g to knit ~45% of this sweater. That’s wild.

• So I worked the sleeves before continuing the body, to determine how much yarn I would have left… (See Sleeves below for intel about those and how yarn was utilized on them.)

• It takes ~1.25g of yarn to knit each row of the body (at the final circ).

• As of 8” below the split for sleeves, I have 70g of yarn remaining, enough to knit 56R more (including ribbing). That’s 6” worth of depth. This means that the bodice will be 14” - and that’s with no extra yarn remaining to lengthen the sleeves, which I’m pretty sure I’d like to be able to do.

• While my preferred body length is 15” (based on my recent Reboot Top), the armscye of that top is higher than this one (which is 8” in depth because I added 4 rows over the instructed number). I’m hoping that the lower armscye adds to the overall depth of this garment in the bodice. Update: Unblocked, this yarn has the same armscye depth as the blocked Reboot Top. While technically my row gauge should shrink, using the Canopy, the sweater will naturally stretch because of its weight, even if it’s not particularly heavy. The yarn will also relax.

Sleeves:

• Decided not to do the faux seam on the sleeves. I just don’t love the outcome enough to bother. And, inasmuch as the faux seam on the body won’t be discernible to most, I feel that a fake seam on the sleeve might well be.

• My preferred underarm to cuff length is 18” (as instructed). 17” is my to-wrist length. I also feel that 9” of circ at the point at which one starts the ribbing is too big esp since I will be working straight 1x1 ribbing. My wrist is 6” in circ and, even going down a needle size or twisting the rib will likely not cinch the unstretched cuff adequately. The designer photos do show a very wide cuff.

• The Plan: I will dec from 74st at the sleeve pick up to 50st at the cuff over a span of 12”. The first 3” (74st) of the sleeve (over bicep) are worked straight as is the 2” cuff (50st). 17”-2”-3”=12”. So I’ll rework the decrease rate to reflect the removal of 24st (over 12dec rounds) across the span of 12”. That’s one dec round every 9th round at my post blocked row gauge of ~9.5R per inch. Update: As is often the case, I changed this rate while trying things on as I worked. The gist is, I had fewer rounds to work with than I originally imagined (even accounting for the amount of shrinkage on blocking). Instead of working 114 rows to get to the cuff, I worked 90 - many fewer than expected. Even if shrinkage occurs, I can lengthen the ribbing to get to my desired length, post-blocking. Update 2: In retrospect, I probably should have knitted one inch more in stockinette before starting the ribbing.

• Stupidly, I didn’t weigh my yarn before starting the first sleeve. So I can’t readily determine my yarn situation. I won’t bind off the sleeve till after blocking in the unlikely event that I’ll need to reclaim some of the yarn to lengthen the body. Waiting to bind off will also facilitate making the sleeve cuffs longer, if the sleeve shrinks and I have the yarn avail.

• As of finishing the first sleeve, which I may need to add an additional inch of ribbing to, I have 115g of yarn remaining to work sleeve 2 and the rest of the bodice (I’m at 6” below split for sleeves and I want to make it 15” long, including ribbing, so let’s say I have 10” left to work on the body). I’m past the decreases so now I’ll work straight in the round for that entire time. I can determine, within 4 rows, how many grams are used per round and, at my gauge, how many more rows I’ll need to add to the ribbing.

• Given that I’ve only used 140g of the 255g thus far, I sense that I will have enough yarn to knit the other sleeve and body as long as I’d like. But I’ll continue to weigh the yarn. Figuring out sleeve yardage is tricky because of the numerous decreases that occur over most of the length of the sleeve.

• Blocking: Following blocking, and as of the point at which I am ready to bind off each sleeve and the body hem, I have 23g of yarn remaining. I feel that both body and sleeve lengths are good and the fabric has blocked beautifully. I estimate I’ll have about 20g left after binding off - so this garment is doable in under 1000y, presuming you make the first size and work the cuff and hem in 1x1 rib.

Final Thoughts:

• Hilariously, after I finished weaving in ends I found an extra 13g of this yarn. When I add this to my remainder, I have 34g remaining. Another weird fact is that, when I weighed the final sweater, it’s 252g. Something is not right here, as I thought I was starting with 255g. Even in the absence of that new found 13g, something is up. At any rate, the sweater is a fabulous light-weight and I still have enough of this yarn to apply in remnant fashion to something else (perhaps another stripe of a Saturday Shrug?).

• I really don’t know why I said I wasn’t going to make any alterations to the pattern given that I “finished” the back neck, opted to work body decreases, opted not to work the faux seam on the sleeves, made the sleeves shorter and didn’t work the instructed ribbing. Oh, and I made the armscye slightly longer (which may not have been necessary given my “gauge error” (which turned out not to be an error but I lengthened like it was). Goes to show that, when you’re fitting something to your body, there are mods to be made, even if they’re fairly standard.

• An unavoidable (and suboptimal) element was that the pre-used yarn (reclaimed from another project) had been frequently cut during the making of its previous project . How that happened, I don’t know cuz that previous project was a shawl?! At any rate, I knitted the largest unbroken quantities of yarn first because the yarn does not splice (given its bamboo content) and it isn’t overly forgiving re: weaving in on stockinette.

• What I’ve found re: contiguous sleeves is that they come together in such a way that there seems to be “excess” fabric where the underarm meets the side body. It almost looks like there should be a gusset. But, when worn that fabric sits comfortably, and flat, at the underarm and it feeds into the ease at the full bust circ.

• As some others have said, this knit seems to fly by. It’s not complicated once you’ve finished the yoke, and even the yoke isn’t difficult, just fussy. I find knitting fingering on a US3 to be very pleasant, esp when the yarn has drape and isn’t overspun. This yarn fits that bill.

• Cost of yarn: $125C in 2019 and it’s now discontinued.

• I likely wouldn’t buy this yarn again, even if I could, just because had the experience, having knitted with it 2x. Sometimes I feel that this fuchsia colour is just hovering on the right side of garish and it’s dyed unevenly, with a dark undertone surfacing in certain places. The knitted fabric is truly vibrant though, and cool pink looks good on me. Can’t understate that the finished fabric is beautifully drapey because of the alpaca and bamboo blend (with just enough wool to mantain structural integrity). The hand is quite soft, a terrific combo of fine merino and softly rustic alpaca.

• This pattern is very stylish, well explained and easily modifiable. The instuction is to the point but provides enough detail. I highly recommend it with one proviso. The back neck, as instructed, is both too wide and under finished, to my eye. I realize that this is a design feature, but I’m really glad that, after the fact, it was so easily narrowed, uncurled and “finished”, if only minimally with a simple crochet chain. If I hadn’t been able to make this change, I probably wouldn’t recommended the pattern because I really didn’t like how it sat or looked before the mod

Pre-blocked Dimensions:

Back neck width (including crochet chain): 7”
I estimate that, without the chain, this would be more like 11” wide which is rather wide for a back neck…
Shoulder top (neck to tip of shoulder) length: 3”
V Neck depth: 6.75”
Length from back neck to hem: 23”
Length from underarm to hem: 15.5”
Length from underarm to cuff: 16.5”
Body hem ribbing depth: 2.3” (not yet bound off)
Cuff ribbing depth: 2.75” (not yet bound off)
Armscye depth: 8”
Upper arm circ: 12”
Cuff circ: 5.5”
Full bust circ: 38”
Hip circ: 27” unstretched

Post-blocked Dimensions:

Back neck width (including crochet chain): 6.5”
Shoulder top (neck to tip of shoulder) length: 3”
V Neck depth: 7”
Length from back neck to hem: 23”
Length from underarm to hem: 14” (knit another 0.5”?)
Length from underarm to cuff: 17”
Body hem ribbing depth: 2.0” (not yet bound off - this shrank so maybe knit the ribbing 0.5” longer, try on again to confirm…)
Cuff ribbing depth: 2.75”
Armscye depth: 7.75”
Upper arm circ: 11.75”
Cuff circ: 6” unstretched
Full bust circ: 39”
Hip circ: 33” unstretched

Gauge Swatching:

Preblocked Gauge US3: 25.5st and 36R in 4”
Postblocked Gauge US3: 25st and 38R in 4”

St gauge grows by 2% when blocked / Row gauge shrinks by 5% on blocking, but I get gauge, which is key for the contiguous method…

Preblocked Gauge US4: 25st and 34R in 4”
Postblocked Gauge US4: 24st and 36R in 4”