I wanted to try my first self-designed sweater, so I settled on a drop shoulder, v-neck construction. Using my gauge I created a basic pattern, which I deviated from pretty quickly.

I selected a lace pattern from my stitch dictionary that would go up the sides of the front and back panels, as well as the outside center of the sleeves.

When I completed the back panel and blocked it, I saw right away that it was going to be too small (not wide enough). I’m not sure what happened, as I did do a gauge swatch and calculated the pattern based on it, so I added an 8-stitch (about an inch) wide stockinette panel on each side of the back (on the outside of the lacework). I did this by attaching the panel on the go while I was knitting it. That was a brand new technique, which I enjoyed learning. I was also glad that I didn’t have to add an extra seam to a project that already had a lot of seaming to do.

I mirrored the 8-stitch panel on the each of the front pieces.

After I stitched the body and sleeves together, I picked up and knitted the button band and collar. I used the 3 st. to 4 rows ratio that is commonly recommended. However, I noticed that the band was too tight and the sweater was puckered, so I ripped out the band to start over with it. I figured that problem was caused by the fact that I was using US 1.5 needles for the band and 3 for the main body, so the gauge was much smaller. Sure enough, when I measured a section of the band on the sweater body, I found that the 1x1 ribbing gauge with the US 1.5 needle nearly matched the stockinette rows made with the size 3 needle. So I picked up 1 stitch for every row and picked up 3 stitches on the corner of the “V” (where the button band turns into the collar). This seemed to work well. Finally, when I bound off, though I bound off in ribbing, the bind-off edge was too tight, not stretch enough. So I backed that off and bound off again using a decrease bound off that I learned from a Roxanne video.

There are imperfections, but overall I’m happy with the design and the fit. This will be a nice warm sweater for late fall and winter here in Northern California.