Tee hee, I wore this on Monday, even though I hadn't blogged it yet.
Yarn: Knit Picks Galileo, in Galactic
Needles: 3.75 mm / US 5
I started thinking I'd like to knit this back in October 2020 - picked up the yarn in a sale over at Knit Picks, but when it arrived I didn't cast on right away for reasons that I no longer remember. Probably relating to how futile a sport-weight sweater seems in the depths of Canadian Winter. But then my brain returned to the idea in March 2021, and I started making it so.
If you don't like working garter stitch, or long stretches of straight knitting, then this is not the project for you. Me? I like the flow of plain knitting, so I thought this project was pretty great. I was also rather intrigued by the unique construction - knit a great big T-shaped thing, sew some pieces into the corners of the T, then fold and sew some seams to transform it into a sweater-shaped thing. Felt like performing some sort of knitterly sleight-of-hand, and left me with that pleasant, satisfied feeling one gets after executing a clever plan, even if the plan wasn't mine. I did notice in wearing it that the fit is a bit close through the shoulders, because of the construction, so if you're someone who needs to reach up above your head a lot during a typical day, this sweater shape probably isn't for you, though you could always scoot the sleeves up so that the sleeve cap seams are closer to your actual shoulders. This would give you more of a shawl collar to the sweater, and shorter sleeves, but does restore the shoulder range of motion. (Of course, if you were planning on wearing it this way, you could compensate for the sleeve length thing by simply knitting longer sleeves - another knitter mentions on the Rav project page using provisional COs so that sleeve and hem length can be adjusted later, that's a clever strategy!) Me being me, I may have some plans to make myself another in a different colour - but those plans may never see the light of day. You know how it is.
The yarn I chose is not the pure bamboo rayon recommended by the designer, so my piece doesn't have the same slink to it that the sample does - also I didn't block it super severely, so the sleeves are not quite as long as in the sample images. But for a lightweight sweater to toss over a short-sleeved tee, this fits the bill nicely. I didn't use up all my available yarn either - I bought myself ten skeins, a little over 1300 yards, but I ended up only using a little less than eight, so I still have two full skeins plus some odds and ends. That's enough for a hat or small cowl, but another plan has begun percolating in my head.
Tech specs: I used a Chinese waitress CO for all CO stitches, and a double-chain BO for all BO stitches. I also slipped the first stitch of every row, to give me a super visible selvedge in order to simplify my life when it came time to seam the pieces together. This required some minor adjustment to the placement of the decreases on the sleeve caps - I just needed to move them over by one stitch. The pattern instructs you to whipstitch the seams, but I just used mattress stitch, because I don't know what whipstitch is and was too lazy to google it at the time. (Thinking back, I think there might even have been a link to a video right in the pattern, but I didn't click on it because I was too lazy and impatient to watch a video to learn a new technique!) It worked fine - from what I could see in the sample photos, there wasn't any decorative factor to the seaming, so I figured it would be fine.
Oh, also? These photos were taken back in July!
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