Goldenrod - Finished!

Here it is, finally finished, and it fits perfectly.  I finished the second sleeve in two days (over the weekend) blocked it Sunday evening and sewed it in Monday evening and snapped this picture this morning before heading off to work (it is too dark when I get home to get any pictures during the week).  Hopefully my second one (Crimson Lake) will go a little bit faster.  The major modification that I did to the pattern was knit everything in the round - body and sleeves.  When I was working the decreases for the shaping on the neckline, armholes and tops of the sleeves I did ssk and k2tog 2 stitches in from the edge to give that nice line.  You can see it here in the neck shaping and catch a glimpse of it as well on the sleeve.  I'm planning on wearing it to work tomorrow (I am finally meeting my program manager).

Pattern:  Ladies Sweater - 1838 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino
Needles:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Goldenrod - One Sleeve Done

It seemed to take me forever to finish the first sleeve.  The lace pattern was easily memorized and I even took the sleeve with me when we went to Charlottesville last Sunday to watch Amy dance.  I even pulled it out a couple of times at dinner afterwards.  When it came to the decreases for the shoulder cap I improvised the adjustment of the lace pattern and had to rip back twice when I decided that I had made the wrong choice.

I did make some modifications to the sleeve.  I knit it in the round, which did pose some challenges when it came time to block it.  I also did not do any shaping of the sleeve until I reached the shoulder cap.  The pattern calls for decreases and increases in the lower half of the sleeve but I really did not want to mess with that because of the all over lace pattern.  The pattern called for casting on 50 stitches, which I did.  I did not join for knitting in the round right away - I worked 7 rows of garter (as called for by the pattern), and then did the increase row.  When figuring out the number of stitches to increase I took two things into consideration - how many stitches I needed to end up with (87), and the number of stitches in each repeat of the lace pattern (8).  I decided to go for 88 stitches (10 repeats of the lace pattern), which meant that I had to increase 38 stitches.  That is a lot of stitches.  I used my iPad App Knit Evenly Calculator by JAKRO SOFT LLC.  It is invaluable when you have to do increases, it will even step you through each increase, which is wonderful, because you know how easy it is to lose your place when you are doing a lot of increases.  To join the cuff I used the tail from my cast on and just did a couple of single crochets.

I was not able to get a really good picture of the sleeve blocking, this was the best that I could do.

I ran blocking wires up the side so I could spread it out and open up the lace pattern, but this left me with two pointy bumps near the bottom.  I'll spray those to get rid of the them when I spray the shoulder seam.  I was worried about the length of the sleeve and the shoulder cap so before I cut the yarn I pinned the sleeve into the body (and was happy when it went together perfectly with no bunching and no gapping) and then very carefully tried it on.  Sewing the sleeve was pretty straight forward.  I turned the body inside out, put the sleeve inside the body and pinned the sleeve to the armhole with the right sides together.  When sewing set-in sleeves I like to start at the top and work down one side and then the other.


Pattern:  Ladies Sweater - 1838 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino
Needles:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Goldenrod - Body Blocked and Neck Edging Done

Once the body was dried from being blocked I went ahead and did the neck edging.  I like to do my finishing as a I go along so I don't have a bunch of finishing to do at the end.  It also gives me a nice sense of accomplishment.  I have started the first sleeve.

Pattern:  Ladies Sweater - 1838 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino
Needles:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Goldenrod - Body Done

This is the sweater formally known as "Ladies Sweater - 1838" by SMC Select.  Using my typical naming convention I decided to rename it for the color, so I decided on "Goldenrod" as being slightly more poetic than "yellow".  I started this sweater 5 months ago and it has been languishing for far too long.  Part of my reluctance to work on it was due to the fact that I was worried about the fit, but I decided to persevere and resolved to finish it after I had finished up the Virgo Shawlette and before I started anything else.  I am becoming a monogamous knitter.  I think it may have something to do with my new job position, which requires a great deal of focus, and that focus seems to be carrying over into my home life and hence into my knitting.

Once I had split for working the front and back I was able to try it on and determine that it will not be too big on me.  This also provided motivation for finishing.  I really enjoyed working the top shaping for the arms and neck because it felt like I was finally making real progress.  My size selection was something of an experiment.  I have broad shoulders and often have issues getting a good fit with sweaters with set in sleeves, which is one reason why I like to knit raglans, but I also like the tailored appearance of set in sleeves.  The problem I run into is getting a fit in the shoulders that doesn't make the sweater too big everywhere else.  This pattern already called for a fair bit of positive ease in the fit, and the yarn is fairly light weight (labeled a sport weight in the Ravelry database) and I'm knitting on US 4 (3.5 mm) needles so the fabric is not heavy.  In fact, when you block the knitting it becomes very light and drapey and is easily distorted, so it requires a gently touch.

I modified the pattern to knit in the round - my usual method to avoid seaming.  I'll also knit the sleeves in the round.  They are done in an all over lace pattern, but the motif is only a 9 row, 8-stitch repeat that looks like it will be easy to memorize.  Once I finish this one, I have the same yarn in scarlet to do another.  When I ordered the yarn from Elann.com I bought the yellow because I thought it would show the lace pattern better than a darker yarn (the model is knit in dark purple, but unfortunately they didn't have that color on the Elann.com web site).  After I got the yellow I decided that I really wanted one in red, so I went back and ordered more yarn.  I also have the yarn for two more patterns from this pattern book.


Pattern:  Ladies Sweater - 1838 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino
Needles:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)