FO: Gathered Pullover
I did it! I made myself weave in those ends even though I really can't see myself getting much wear out of this one now that spring is here. Mind you, I'm not complaining about Spring, don't get me wrong! I really am ridiculously excited for spring, actually. But my project timing kind of sucks, honestly.
I knit this sweater in about a week, sewed it up, and then got distracted. It took a month to make me weave in the ends and block it, but now it's done, and I love it!
Even though it looks pretty true to the original, I actually made lots of modifications on this one. Having seen many a Gathered Pullover on Ravelry (there are 363 of them in progress there as I type this), I had noticed an unfortunate side effect of that cable panel between the boobs: on several people's FOs, the panel fell too low between the girls, resulting in (for those of us who are well-endowed on top) was a general saggyness that clearly didn't reflect the person's body accurately. I, being an odd bra size and a total bra-freak because of it, knew there was no way I would wear a sweater that made it look like I forgot to put my bra on in the morning! So I had to address that problem before it cropped its ugly head.
I ended up starting the cable 1.5" higher than the pattern directs, which moved its center to about the height of the armholes. Which brought about an interesting challenge: the front was a good 4" narrower than the back at this point, because the cable pulls in A LOT. I, and I'm confident all women, am bigger in the front than the back (I happen to be significantly bigger in the front, actually). So I knew there was no way I would knit a sweater where the back was wider than the front. I ended up moving the armholes back, so that the front had 2" more stitches than the back, to make the width equal. This meant all kinds of changes had to happen to the armholes, so that the front armholes are shaped completely differently than the back ones.
Moving the cable up also meant I had to move the v-neck start up, which was fine with me. I also omitted that weird decrease/increase in the center of the cable because I knew I didn't want the sweater to pull tight over the girls (see, I told you I'm obsessed) and I couldn't see that it had any purpose whatsoever. In hindsight, I believe that row is meant to pull the cable pattern open more by distorting the neighboring stockinette . . . but I think you can see in the picture that the cable looks just fine without it.
I also changed the neckline decreases (had to since my v is shorter) and the neckline finishing. I tried to do the called-for edging but it looked dumb and made the v too shallow, so I went with one row of single crochet to finish the edge. Oh, I also added back neck shaping, although to be honest I didn't even read that part of the pattern since I knew I had to adapt it, so for all I know the pattern calls for it, too!
One modification I should have made but didn't was shortening the sleeves -- I can't explain why I didn't do it, since I knew they would be too long, but there you have it. They're too long. It's ok, I can roll them up like they are in the picture and it doesn't bother me one bit.
The yarn, Classic Elite Princess, is gorgeous by the way. It did grow a bit with blocking, so I would caution everyone to wash and block a swatch before they knit with it. I would absolutely knit with it again and am considering using it for a very big project I might take on after my wedding . . . and buying it from Webs makes it kind of a steal, so to me this is a win-win-win yarn. Soft, easy to knit, good stitch definition, amazing yardage, and not expensive! What's not to like?
I'm probably going to wear this sweater as a jacket this week, just so I can get some use out of it before summer hits! NYC springs are notoriously short, after all.
Project specs:
Pattern: Gathered Pullover from Winter 2007 Interweave Knits
Yarn: 7 skeins Classic Elite Princess, color 3403
Needles: US size 7
Started: March 24, 2008
Finished: April 27, 2008
Where have I been!?!
I got sucked into the post that ate my brain (Ravelry link), that's where. I spent almost all my free time this past week reading through the 4,000+ posts about the Mystical Creation Yarns debacle (summarized on this website if you don't have Ravelry access) -- I just couldn't tear myself away! After a few pages' worth of posts, when I realized just how many there were, I knew I had to pick up something to knit while reading. I had been half-heartedly knitting on a Gathered Pullover which happened to have been left near the computer . . .
4,000+ posts later:
Yup, almost an entire sweater. I can hardly believe it myself. Adam kept trying to pull me away from the thread and yet every time I updated him on the latest unbelievable turn of events, he had to admit he, too, wanted to know what happened. So I kept reading. And knitting. I finally finished the thread yesterday at about 1:30am, took this picture and posted it to the thread, and went to sleep. Got up this morning determined to actually finish this sweater, it's so close! It will forever be associated in my head as the MYC fiasco sweater! I am just about done with the sleeve cap on the first sleeve now, and intend to keep knitting and hopefully finish the sweater this week. We'll see how that works out.
Oh, you want project details? I'm using Classic Elite Princess in color 3403, a silvery grey heather. This yarn lasts forever! So far I am only on the 5th ball, and I'm more than 2/3rds done. It's kind of unbelievable, really. The yarn is quite nice, too, it's a funny dry texture that's somehow very cozy and soft at the same time. I am expecting it to bloom a lot with washing and it'll probably get even better. This is my first time using this yarn and I definitely see myself knitting with it in the future!
Over last weekend I also finished the first Vesper sock:
Toe up again, with a short row heel again, plus a small gusset. I know, apparently I've been converted to a toe-up sock knitter. Never say never, right?
I made these a bit longer than my usual socks because I figured there was no reason not to -- especially with self-striping yarns, it is so easy to figure out just how far you can knit, I decided it would be silly not to! All I did to find out was count the stripe repeats I had already knit, then rewind the remaining yarn while counting THOSE stripe repeats, then figure out where halfway was and knit till I got there. The second sock will hopefully be exactly the same. When I get around to making it, that is.
I really like this yarn and definitely see myself ordering it in the future. The thing you can't see online is the variegation in each stripe. I tried to capture it in daylight but my camera skills leave a lot to be desired, hopefully you can see what I mean in this shot:
See how each stripe is actually shades of the color? Not at all what I expected but so pretty and subtle!
