Thundering [and Hailing] Thursday

I did finally manage to get some photos of The Sweater.

I wasn’t planning on knitting a sweater. I had a shawl and socks on the needles, which was more than enough for me. I don’t really care to have more than three things going at once otherwise it feels like too much pressure to get stuff done. But I was wandering about the blogs I normally read and Aija from sockpr0n offered up a sweater’s worth of wool for shipping, saying she was never going to knit that sweater.

I pounced, sending an e-mail and leaving a comment. By the end of the week, 14 balls of Knit Picks Sierra in cranberry were winging their way to me. I was ecstatic. But wait- did I have a pattern I could knit?

Ravelry saved the day. I love their feature where you can search by yarn weight. Pam Allen’s Tailored Scallops popped up, and I just happened to have borrowed the book from the library. Kismet.

I had classes, so I said I would just swatch. Didn’t get gauge with the called for needles, so I went down a size. I got gauge. That never happens. Ok, well maybe I’ll just cast on for the back, and knit a repeat. Maybe another repeat. When I finally put the sweater down that night I was at the arm hole shaping for the back. I considered what work I really had to do that week and decided that only after I had done my reading could I knit on My First Sweater.

I knit the two fronts next, attached the shoulders, basted the sides together with some slippery cotton and tried it on. The arm holes were huge! The pattern stretched out A LOT when gravity was actually pulling on it. I wanted a 7 1/2 inch arm hole for a closer fitting sweater. I had something around 11 inches. I put the sweater aside until the next morning where I ripped back and retried. One repeat too many. Finally got it to where I wanted it, and blocked.

I knit the sleeves at the same time so that they would be done. That worked until I got to the shaping for the shoulders, then I knit them separately because I just couldn’t take it anymore. I left out the last decrease for the shaping.

I put everything together, knit the collar, and then realized that the collar was supposed to be GARTER STITCH, not follow the pattern. I looked at it and decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle to fix it. I’m still happy with it.

The only thing that I would have done differently was decrease more for the arm shaping so that the shoulder seam actually hits my shoulder and not just below. I can go back and fix it, but I really don’t want to do that.

I love my sweater. Sierra is 70/30 wool/alpaca, and is so warm. I’ve been wearing that and a windbreaker for the past few weeks and have been quite toasty. The colour is nice, and I know I’m going to get a lot of use out of it. I’m already looking to knit more sweaters, now that I’ve completed one and know they are not That Scary.

Specs:

Pattern: Tailored Scallops by Pam Allen, found in Lace Style by Interweave Press.

Yarn: 9 balls of Knit Picks Sierra, in cranberry

Needles: US 8 / 5.0 mm; US 9 / 5.5 mm

Size: 39″ chest, 20″ sleeves, 7 1/2″ arm holes.

Lest ye think I’m a super fast knitter- I’m not. I plod along at my decent pace, but I have large chunks of time where I can just sit and knit/read/do homework, etc. I try to schedule my day so that I get all the things I have to get done FIRST, so that I can sit and knit until I’m done for the day. It’s working out well so far.

I am so happy with this sweater.