A long overdue post, complete with sub-par photos. Well. At least I'm giving you something, right?
Pattern: Twinings, by Amy Herzog
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy, in Poma-Grenade
Needles: 5 mm / US 8
I feel pretty terrible about having not blogged this sweater for so long - I wanted to get modeled shots, but doing that is a bit awkward for sweaters, I have a really hard time managing to get a good pose with a decent shot. What would likely help me out immensely would be to just ask Someone Else to take some pictures of me wearing the sweater, but I have a feeling that he might find that a rather odd request, and so I'm too chicken to make it. If I had a decent full-length mirror at my disposal, I might have a better chance at getting good pics - but alas, no full-length mirror around these parts. These shots here were taken by me using the lower-quality front-facing camera on my iPhone. Like I said earlier, better than nothing, no?
The long delay in blogging this sweater, coupled with the admittedly pretty lousy photos, might lead one to suspect that I am less than thrilled with the result. This is absolutely false. I am beyond pleased with this sweater. I've only worn it twice since I finished seaming it up at the end of February, which doesn't seem like I'm wearing it a lot, but I have a strong desire to not become known around my workplace as 'that weirdo who always wears the same handknit sweater', and I guess I swung too far in the opposite direction.
Or maybe wearing it about once a month is just right. I can never tell with these things.
Truly, though, I am really happy about how this one turned out. The colour is beautiful. My futzing with gauge worked out - I was getting 20 sts to 4", rather than 18, and knitting for negative ease in sweaters always makes me worry about ending up looking like an overstuffed pasty with the fabric distorting all over the place in a wildly unattractive fashion, so I was aiming for zero ease by following the pattern directions for a larger size while maintaining my smaller gauge. I ended up with about an inch or so of positive ease, I think, but I'm happy - the sweater doesn't bag off me (does it?), and the fabric doesn't stretch out weirdly.
I thoroughly enjoyed knitting this sweater, which is good, because I believe my sister would like one as well. The pattern was clear, though not entirely correct in my interpretation - I had to fudge the placement of the cable panel to make it line up with the established cabling in the hem, and I think I started moving the cable panel across the front some rows later than the designer intended. This last alteration had the effect of raising the dip of the V-neck, which was just fine by me, since a lower cut might not be so appropriate for work wear. One thing that did trouble me was the knitting of the ribbing for the back of the collar. The pattern directs you to knit the ribbed panels until they reach the centre back, 'slightly stretched'. I really don't know how to interpret slightly stretched, it seems to me that slightly is open to a pretty wide range of interpretations. The version I went with was apparently less stretched than the designer's vision, because my collar sort of stands up at the back - the fabric isn't pulled taut enough for it to lie flat. I could have ripped it back and fixed it, but it doesn't bother me the way it is, so I left it.
Besides. I'd already knit the back twice.
Also, seaming it together at the end was a fair bit of work, and took a lot of time, but wow did I ever feel clever once it was done. I know some folks avoid seaming at all costs, but I don't think I'll ever be one of them.
Pattern: Twinings, by Amy Herzog
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy, in Poma-Grenade
Needles: 5 mm / US 8
I feel pretty terrible about having not blogged this sweater for so long - I wanted to get modeled shots, but doing that is a bit awkward for sweaters, I have a really hard time managing to get a good pose with a decent shot. What would likely help me out immensely would be to just ask Someone Else to take some pictures of me wearing the sweater, but I have a feeling that he might find that a rather odd request, and so I'm too chicken to make it. If I had a decent full-length mirror at my disposal, I might have a better chance at getting good pics - but alas, no full-length mirror around these parts. These shots here were taken by me using the lower-quality front-facing camera on my iPhone. Like I said earlier, better than nothing, no?
The long delay in blogging this sweater, coupled with the admittedly pretty lousy photos, might lead one to suspect that I am less than thrilled with the result. This is absolutely false. I am beyond pleased with this sweater. I've only worn it twice since I finished seaming it up at the end of February, which doesn't seem like I'm wearing it a lot, but I have a strong desire to not become known around my workplace as 'that weirdo who always wears the same handknit sweater', and I guess I swung too far in the opposite direction.
Or maybe wearing it about once a month is just right. I can never tell with these things.
Truly, though, I am really happy about how this one turned out. The colour is beautiful. My futzing with gauge worked out - I was getting 20 sts to 4", rather than 18, and knitting for negative ease in sweaters always makes me worry about ending up looking like an overstuffed pasty with the fabric distorting all over the place in a wildly unattractive fashion, so I was aiming for zero ease by following the pattern directions for a larger size while maintaining my smaller gauge. I ended up with about an inch or so of positive ease, I think, but I'm happy - the sweater doesn't bag off me (does it?), and the fabric doesn't stretch out weirdly.
I thoroughly enjoyed knitting this sweater, which is good, because I believe my sister would like one as well. The pattern was clear, though not entirely correct in my interpretation - I had to fudge the placement of the cable panel to make it line up with the established cabling in the hem, and I think I started moving the cable panel across the front some rows later than the designer intended. This last alteration had the effect of raising the dip of the V-neck, which was just fine by me, since a lower cut might not be so appropriate for work wear. One thing that did trouble me was the knitting of the ribbing for the back of the collar. The pattern directs you to knit the ribbed panels until they reach the centre back, 'slightly stretched'. I really don't know how to interpret slightly stretched, it seems to me that slightly is open to a pretty wide range of interpretations. The version I went with was apparently less stretched than the designer's vision, because my collar sort of stands up at the back - the fabric isn't pulled taut enough for it to lie flat. I could have ripped it back and fixed it, but it doesn't bother me the way it is, so I left it.
Besides. I'd already knit the back twice.
Also, seaming it together at the end was a fair bit of work, and took a lot of time, but wow did I ever feel clever once it was done. I know some folks avoid seaming at all costs, but I don't think I'll ever be one of them.
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