A spring twilight ride around the harbor is the perfect setting for this pullover. I gave him the finished Durrow and 15 minutes later he pulled me out of the office with a twinkle in his eye and a bottle of wine in his hand. Turned out he wanted help pulling up some crab pots, but I choose to focus on the more romantic elements :D.

The yarn is so soft and sturdy, a good match for this great pattern.

It took me nearly a year-- but most of that was spent procrastinating. Others mentioned neckline issues, plus I found the durrow cable pattern difficult the first time I tried. Now that I have a little more experience on the needles, it was a snap to finish it. I think for most it would be a fairly quick knit, though I recommend reading through the various projects for their cautions/recommendations regarding the neckline.

The pictures show the sweater quite a bit looser than it could be, due to hard blocking. Next time I wash it, I’ll let it dry without stretching the ribbing so much.

Mods
The lower arms were straight from the pattern, though I mirrored the cables. See ken’s Olympic Durrow for mirrored charts and a really good picture of the project-- :D.

I worked the body in the round and seamed up the sleeves so I could connect them at the armpit and continue knitting the whole thing as one piece. (Three knit stitches for the raglan decreases instead of 4.)

Shoulder/sleeve-top mods
I started modding at the shoulders, adding the bottom half of the large cable pattern instead of the final closing cable. I then fudged the resulting ribs together at the top of the shoulder so that I got this rib pattern at the top (from the front to back saddle) k3, p2, k4, p2, k2, p2, k4, p2, k2, p2, k4, p2, k3. The first stitch of the k3 is where you knit together the shoulder with the live front or back stitches. I used ribs on the shoulder because I knew he would be wearing the pullover during various physical activities-- cross country, sailing, boating, etc.-- and would want as much shoulder room as possible.

I didn’t have my books with me, so am grateful to Brooklyn Tweed for his description of the EZ seamless hybrid on his blog. Namely, you keep the stitches live everywhere and, when you begin the shoulder, start going back and forth on the shoulder stitches picking up a live stitch from the front and back, knitting it with the first stitch on each shoulder row. Talk about cool.

I added short rows in the back, before the saddle started, because I heard it helps to keep the back from riding up. Seems to be working.

Neck mods
Several ravelers mentioned the neck being too large. I decided to try to do EZs seamless hybrid with funnel neck. He likes warmth, but would be irritated by a close-fitting funnel, so I started it .75” away from his neck on the sides.

I kept all the neck stitches live, too and created corner gussets by decreasing there. I was a bit worried that the neck would start to stretch out without a neck seam, but it’s held up fine. Perhaps the bind-off on the inside of the neck hem keeps it from sagging.

At the top of the neck, I turned for the hem using soft angora from the stash. The first angora row is the purl row (turn row) and then I knit the inside on US6 needles for the first three rows, then US7 for the rest, so it would conform to the shape of the outside.

Yarn Report
Easy to knit with, not too many knots in skeins (most were knot-free), finished project doesn’t pill. The yarn washes up to a very soft, sturdy fabric. Highly recommended. Amazing value for the price.