After finishing the yoke, I divided for the sleeves and started working the body. It took me three tries to get the stitch gauge right. The first try I did not go down a needle size from the colorwork section (a rookie mistake) and my stitch gauge was way off and the body was way too large. Fortunately I realized before I got too far into things and I ripped back and went down a needle size (from the 3.25 mm to a 3.0 mm). It was better, but the stitch gauge was still off and it was still coming out too large. So I ripped back again and went down to a 2.75 mm needle (the smaller needle called for in the pattern). Finally, things were looking good. My row gauge is tighter than the pattern calls for, but that is easy to adjust. I did notice that my row gauge on the colorwork section was also off (less rows per four inches than called for), but that worked out okay. I have noticed that my stockinette gauge tends to be in the ratio of 3 to 4 (stitch gauge generally is 3/4 of the row gauge) but my colorwork gauge tends to be more square (stitch gauge and row gauge almost the same).
Once I finished up the plain stockinette section I tackled the set up for the colorwork hem. There are four charts that I have to work from for the hem for my size (charts 2, 3, 4 & 5), and charts 2 and 5 are repeated once. So the knitting order is: 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5 (front), then 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5 (back). I pulled out different colored stitch markers to help give me a visual cue for the chart switching, but found out that wasn’t quite enough to keep me on track, so I resorted to making some labels for each section attached to locking stitch markers. That seems to be working. Of course I am also using knitCompanion, which I absolutely love for working charts.
Pattern: Bunny Wishes Sweater by Sarah L. Kelly
Yarn: Fleece & Harmony Wildwinds
Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm) and US 2 (2.75 mm)
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