She’s finally done. I actually “finished” my Willa sweater a few weeks ago, but realized I’d somehow made the yoke way too tall. It was doing that awkward bunching-at-the-armpits thing that really looks pretty terrible, so I had to frog the whole thing down to where the sleeves and body were joined. But now it’s done for real, washed and with buttons. Willa may not be much of a showstopper; oatmeal-colored, woolly, miles and miles of stockinette stitch, big enough to be worn over a light sweater (so not enormously flattering on me). But I love her so much it hurts. It’s taking an awful lot of willpower to not wear her every single day. She’s warm and comfortable and cozy; just what I need on cold, dreary days like these. Here’s the breakdown:
Yarn: Marr Haven Farms Mule Spun Sport: less than one cone in light gray. It’s heavenly, especially after a good washing.
Needles: US3 circular (magic looped the sleeves)
Pattern: My own, sort of. I started with pictures of Melissa LaBarre’s Garter Yoke Cardigan, but I wanted this to be bottom up, rather than top down. I also didn’t want to have to purl every other row, because I’m lazy. I knit the stockinette portion in the round instead, then steeked it and added a garter rib button band. I kindasorta used Elizabeth Zimmermann’s percentage system to do the math, but diverged significantly, especially when I got to the yoke: I made raglan decreases every other (not every third) round until 1/3 of my stitches had been decreased, and only then did I begin the garter yoke shaping. In the end I used 3 more decrease rounds, rather than the standard 2, because I wanted a nice high neckline. I also did some huge waist shaping; I wanted about an inch of ease around my bust, but beacuse of my rather unusual measurements, that would have made for a good 10″ of ease in the waist, which is a little bit over the top. As I can see now, I should have done some shaping above the bust, because there’s a bit too much fabric at the lower portion of the yoke. I the future I will try using this amazing tutorial on how to use horizontal and vertical bust darts in knitting – it looks incredibly detailed, and like it would actually work. Nevertheless, this sweater makes me 10 kinds of happy.
The plan, post-Willa, was to finish my hedgerow socks before casting on for anything else. This has not happened. I’m more than halfway done with sock number two, but last night I got pretty stir-crazy and decided to cast on for my guilt-scarf (I swear, I will eventually get around to telling the story behind this one). I’m modifying the pattern for the Plaited Cable Scarf, and using some knitpicks Swish. It’s pretty, and soft, and I really do love cables.I think my socks are starting to get jealous.
