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Struggling with a Sweater

3/22/2017

 
I'm working on a sweater that's giving me nothing but trouble. It was originally intended to be for Izzy, and I had wanted to take her first pictures wearing a new outfit including that sweater.  But even at the beginning I was having so much trouble trying to figure out the stitch count for her size and the gauge for the thread thickness, that I had to unravel and start over three times. So I didn't bother waiting for Izzy photos, and thought maybe the sweater would be nice for Benny after she's painted. 

I wanted an Aran design, and chose white and light blue for the pattern colours. After knitting many rows in the pattern, I noticed that the section of the sweater body after I started knitting the  pattern was more than an inch narrower than the lower section, and that was with me trying to knit as loosely as possible. I didn't think the sweater would be wide enough anymore if I continued with it the way I was, and thought maybe if I unraveled the entire pattern, and inserted a bunch of extra stitches into the width just as I was starting the pattern, that the resulting 'tightness' would 'shrink' down to the actual wanted width of the sweater.

So I did, and it's working, but I lost two whole days worth of knitting in the process. Thankfully I started with the sweater body, since the sleeves will be a lot less work once I get to them. But I'm using rather short double pointed needles and the stitches kept sliding off the end. So I took two tiny elastics and wound a temporary  'knob' on the ends of the needles. Problem solved!
Picture
Once it's done, I'll see who the sweater will fit best - Benny or Izzy.
Susie Whittles link
3/23/2017 02:11:20 pm

Love the idea of using a variegated base colour for the Fair Isle and then picking out the other two highlight colours, very effective, I might use this idea. Susie x

Jane
3/27/2017 02:37:19 pm

Well I never! I am having just as much trouble with my Fair Isle knitting at the moment!
I am knitting socks for me though.....but I have ripped out my work twice now trying to get the stranded section correctly tensioned {{grr}}

Well done figuring out your work

Martha
3/27/2017 04:04:33 pm

I find it very frustrating having to come up with a sweater pattern while knitting. Way too many times having to unravel and start over. The sleeves - at least the first one - isn't crimping in so badly as the main body of the sweater was. I don't know if I'm just knitting looser, or it's looser because a sleeve isn't 'squished' onto the needle like the main body was, so threads are longer behind.


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    Author

    Martha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes.
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