Back to the regular order of things, here’s John’s Christmas present. It is a Big Deal, because John does not wear knitted clothing. Not ever, unless you’re counting hats and scarves and the like. But he asked me to make him a sweater, and played a large role in the designing of said sweater. And now that he has it, he actually wears it. This makes me enormously happy. Enough that I’ve offered to make him another at some point in the next year, now that we both know what modifications should be made to this pattern to make it even nicer.
FO: Zippered Raglan Pullover
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Seamless Raglan Pullover from Knitting Without Tears
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish DK in Moss (12 skeins)
Needles: US4
Size: 40″
For: John
Mods: This pattern is all mod, so to explain, I cast on for a 40″ tube, knitted it in stockinette as long as John wanted it, knitted two sleeves according to EZ’s proportions, then joined them all (minus armpit stitches) on one long needle, working raglan decreases every other row until I’d worked about 2″. I then split the sweater up the front, working back and forth, continuing with the raglan decreases. Once I had a narrow enough neck, I stopped decreasing and worked a 2″ collar, purled one row to create a fold line, then worked another 2″ straight. For the hems, I picked up 9 stitches for every 10 in a contrasting color, worked about 1.5″ and sewed the live stitches to the inside of the garment. I grafted the armpit stitches and sewed in a zipper (with my mom’s help). Easy as that.
Results: Now that this is done, I’ve learned a few things:
- John likes to wear looser clothing than he claims
- John likes his shirts longer than he claims
- John likes green less than he claims (though he does like it well enough)
- Raglan decreases really need to be done every 3rd round, in the round (the yoke is a bit too shallow, making the sweater tight around the armpits and shoulders)
- To do the above, it would be best to use a steek for the front so that it can be worked in the round. Superwash would still work, as the zipper has to be sewn in anyway
- Swish grows like crazy when it is handwashed – particularly in length. This is good thing, as the sweater ended up a couple inches shorter than John wanted (it grew four inches when blocked).
In spite of all these things, John likes it, and it looks good on him. He wore it to work the other day, voluntarily. When I told him “you don’t have to wear it out if you’d rather not – I won’t be offended” he said that he really likes wearing it and showing off. I’m thrilled. In fact, when one of his co-workers said she liked it, he told her I made it, and she asked if I would make her a scarf. It just so happens that I owe her a favor. Or two. Or maybe more like my firstborn (more on the circumstances behind this later). So I’m making a scarf next: yarn is on the way.
I’m most of the way done with the body on Willa. Because the cone of yarn I’m working off is so huge, it’s a strictly at-home project. Fortunately I’m home all the time now that school’s done. I’m getting cabin fever like crazy though, so I think I’m going to start volunteering at the neighborhood center down the street so I don’t go completely insane. But for now, I have a wild amound of knitting time on my hands, so I think things should be moving along quickly.
Looks fantastic!