Lace Collar Pullover - Finished

 

Finally finished this pullover.  I've only had it in the "works in progress" list for 4 months.  I knit this same pullover almost exactly a a year ago in Raspberry and at the time I thought how elegant it would look in onyx.  And I was right, it's very Audrey Hepburn (my ideal when it comes to elegance and beauty).

Lace Collar Pullover

I finally finished (mostly) the body for this pullover.  The pattern is from the Holiday 2007 Knit Simple Magazine, and the designer is Liz Nields.  The yarn is Knit One Crochet Too Merino Gold.  I knit this pullover in Raspberry two years ago (almost exactly) and after I was done I thought how elegant it would look in onyx,  so I bought the yarn and stashed it.  Now I just have to knit the sleeves, unfortunately I only have one pair of size 6 circular needles in the 12" length and they are otherwise occupied in a pretty yellow cabled sleeve.

Three-Quarter Sleeve Pullover - Finished

The original pattern for this pullover comes from the Winter 2008/09 issue of Knit Simple Magazine. The pattern was written to be knitted in the round, my preferred method. In the original the hem of the body was ribbed (2 x 2), as were the cuffs and the neckline. The cuffs were knitted separately and then stitches were picked up on one side to knit the sleeves. The neckline was also to be knitted separately and sewed on. I started out following the pattern, but didn't like the way the sleeves looked (see my previous post) so I decided to redesign the pattern somewhat.

I had already knit the body up to the shoulder shaping when I decided on the redesign. I started the redesign with the sleeves, knitting from the yarn in the body. When I re-knit the body I followed the same method as on the sleeves. I cast on (long-tail method) the 192 stitches the pattern called for and purled one row before joining. This allowed me to take advantage of the fact that one side of the long-tail cast on looks like a purl row. I then joined the round and knit 2 rows, continuing the purl 2 rows, knit 2 rows pattern until I had 4 purled ridges, including the cast on.

Once I reached the shoulder shaping I joined the sleeves and the body and proceeded with the raglan shaping as directed in the pattern. When I got to the neck shaping I used short-rows. After the shaping was finished I purled 2 rows and knit 2 rows twice. I continued the raglan shaping and also added decreases over the shoulder to get the collar to lay flat. To finish I purled one row and then cast off purl-wise on the second purl row.

After blocking the resulting fabric has a wonderful drape, and this pullover fits me perfectly. I love the belled sleeve and the open collar.

Three-Quarter Sleeve Pullover

The original pattern is from Knit Simple Winter 2008/2009. The yarn is Sublime Extra Fine Merino DK.

I started out knitting the body. The pattern is already written as a seamless, in the round, raglan, which is one of the things that attracted me in the first place.

I had worked my way through about 3/4 of the body when I discovered that my spit splices weren't holding that well. Yeah, I know that spit splicing is a bit of a cheat, but it means no ends to weave in. At this point I started knitting the sleeves from the body, unraveling as I went.

The pattern calls for you to knit a cuff in rib, joining the beginning and ending of the cuff, and then picking up stitches for the rest of the sleeve along one edge.

I did a provisional cast on and started ribbing. When I got to the end, I did a three-needle bind-off, picked up my stitches and started knitting on the sleeve. There was just one problem, I didn't like the silhouette.


The top piece is the sleeve according to the pattern. You can see way the seam splays out the knitting, and how there is a very distinct bump as you move into the decreases of the sleeve. The decreases are very close together (every other row), which just exacerbates the problem.

So, I decided to redesign the pattern. Using the long-tail method I cast on 106 stitches (the number of stitches that you pick up when you start knitting the main part of the sleeve). I purled one row, and then I placed a marker and joined the knitting. Continuing in the round I knit 2 rows, purled 2 rows until I had six purled ridges (not counting the cast on ridge). Then I continued in satin stitch. I also increased the number of rows between decreases, decreasing every 5 rows, starting at row 30 and continuing through row 100 (for 15 decreases or 30 stitches, 76 stitches remain).


The above image shows the resulting sleeve.