My good friend, Chip, donated a large amount to my Kickstarter project (Wonderlace!) and one of the gifts for donation was a knitted item. Chip chose a handknit sweater.

Unfortunately, he is 6’4” and a large man. So, the sweater is large. But, luckily, the yarn is lovely and the pattern, though sometimes confusing, is interesting and I love the unique design of it.

Looking forward to finishing it and hoping that he likes it - and it fits him well!

NOTES:

1. Definitely do a gauge swatch. Usually, I have to go down in needle size because I’m a loose knitter but, this time, I had to go UP a size. Very strange.

2. The lack of any stitch counts seriously threw me. I had no idea if I was on the right track or not (and I wasn’t). I had no idea how many stitches I was supposed to use for the shoulder seams and ended up knitting HUGE batwing arms as a result. I was forced to rip the arm back and figure out where to continue the shoulder seam to (which ended up being right where the increase stitch was) and I had to connect the two seams together. Pain in the you-know-what.

3. USE STITCH MARKERS! Even though I did use all of the stitch markers indicated, I was still a little lost (with no stitch counts) and I think I should have used more somehow.

4. Pay attention to the Broken Rib Pattern. When you separate for the yoke (putting 29 sts for the front of the sweater on stitches and have to work back and forth), make sure to continue with the Broken Rib pattern between the already established Broken Rib pattern and the increase section. It wasn’t clear to me (and on another page) that this was needed (you have to add more broken rib pattern as you get more stitches) and my section between the arm increases and established Broken Rib pattern is only in stockinette now. Even though I read through the pattern (5+ pages), it’s difficult to imagine and remember what you’ve read until you are at that exact spot.

5. Although I liked the way the sweater came out (especially the collar - very finished looking), it was a challenge to understand the pattern and I’m an experienced knitter.