Drops Swing Cardigan!!!

Voila, the Drops Swing Cardigan! I'm really happy with the way this came out. When I first tried it on I thought it was a bit big, but after seeing the photos I don't think it looks as tentlike as I feared.

Project Stats: Drops Swing Cardigan

Pattern: DROPS Jacket w/ A-line shape and 3/4 sleeves (103-1). I made the worsted weight version, not the bulky.

Yarn: Rowanspun Aran (sadly discontinued, but I have a lot in the stash), dusky blue (SH964). I used about four skeins (~800 meters). The yarn was purchased at Cucumberpatch UK (Ebay).

Size: Medium (36.4"). I was torn about this because I was between sizes, but I went with the larger size since this isn't really meant to be a fitted sweater. Plus my gauge was slightly off, so I think my finished sweater is a tad smaller than 36" and fits quite nicely.

Modifications: I didn't do as many sleeve increases as the pattern called for because the sleeves were already looking really wide. I was worried that would cause trouble when it came time to set in the sleeves, but it was fine. I should have made the sleeves shorter - I was going for the 3/4-length option but with them uncuffed they're to my wrists and just look like they're too short. But I like them better cuffed anyway, so it's fine.

Needles: Size 8 Clover bamboo.

Time on the Needles: September 11, 2007-January 18, 2008. I was actually pretty dedicated to this aside from when I had to deal with the Christmas knitting. There was probably a month in there where I didn't touch it at all, but when I was working on it, progress was fast.

Impressions: I'm really happy with this, my first completed sweater that wasn't made in one piece! I had to seam! I didn't screw it up! It doesn't look handmade in a bad way! I did a few things that aided a lot in my finishing of this project in a moderately timely fashion. First, I seamed the shoulders as soon as the back and both fronts were finished, to get it out of the way, and I joined them with the three-needle bind-off so they look perfect. Then, I knit both sleeves at the same time to avoid second-sleeve syndrome (sss). And, I didn't procrastinate on the seaming, I just leapt right into it as soon as the sleeves were finished. I had slipped the first stitch of every row on all the pieces, which made the seaming a piece of cake. I also think the slight slubbiness of the yarn aided in the sleeve-setting-in process because it hides some minor issues, but overall the seaming wasn't as bad as I feared. The blocking was easy, but I was stymied for a couple of days by a lack of buttons, and then by a lack of daylight, which is why this is just getting posted now even though I attached the buttons on Thursday.I call this one a great success!

Blocking!

The Drops Swing Cardigan is blocking! And I am afraid.

I tried to only get it damp and I was very careful not to allow it to put weight on itself so it wouldn't stretch out. It's already a tad big and I don't want to have to felt it into shape (although I bet that would be lovely)! This is the last time I don't wash my swatch - just saying (Remind me that I said that if need be, please.). If this grows I will have learned this lesson twice, but I think I'm safe. Laid out on the futon it looks about the same size as it did pre-blocking. The only reason it really needed to be blocked was to teach the bottom ribbing to be flat and to (hopefully) make my decent armhole seams even more presentable. And maybe to soften up the yarn a tad as it's pretty itchy on the neck. The stitches, however, were remarkably even. I procured buttons and will attach them as soon as the sweater is dry. You can see in the photo the the front center must not have gotten very wet as it's much lighter...That's some lazy blocking, that is!

The spring Interweave Knits preview is up! I adore Holly, the cover sweater, which reminds me a lot of this one, which I've had in my Ravelry queue for awhile now...

Technical Question

So I'm having some issues with my Drops Swing Cardigan. The issue is that the sleeves are ginormous. Huge. And my gauge is correct. Well, maybe a tad off, but not enough that it's the problem. Let me explain. I'm making the worsted weight version of the sweater, and so I cast on 50 stitches for the sleeve, and then I'm supposed to do a total of seven increase rounds (one stitch per side each time), for a total of 64 stitches, and then I would do the armpit decreases, which I bet have a more technical name. From the get-go I thought my sleeves (since I'm knitting them together) seemed a bit on the wide side. As I started the increases I became more nervous, so last night, after four increase rounds (58 stitches total), I broke out the measuring tape and concluded that my sleeve is currently 13.6" in circumference, which is already larger than my upper arm, and if I continue increasing in this fashion I'm going to have a sleeve in the range of 15.5" around by the top, and that is just way too big. So, here is the dilemma. I've decided to just forgo the rest of the increases and proceed with my 13.6" sleeve all the way up. The problem, of course, is that this is a set-in sleeve, and it needs to match the armhole shaping on the front and back of the sweater. That shaping is done as follows on the sleeves. The first decrease round involves casting off three stitches on each side one time, then two stitches twice, etc. I figure, since I'm skipping three increases and thus six total stitches, I'll just not do the first three stitch bind-off. This will be hidden in the armpit and so I'm hoping it won't be too obvious. Please let me know if you think this is exceedingly ill-advised before I get too far into it. Dave suggested (bless him - he sat through 10 minutes of math and analysis of this last night) starting over (gasp) with smaller needles, but I think that would mess up my row gauge and create even bigger armhole/sleeve matching issues. Any ideas? From examining at the pattern photos it appears the sleeves are fairly wide on the model, but no one on Ravelry seems to have such huge sleeves, nor has anyone mentioned it being a problem...

Promised Progress...

Well, this post took me a bit later to get online than I intended, but I've had a difficult time finding the motivation to take sweater photos. This baby is tough to photograph with any accuracy whatsoever. Either the color is good or the pattern is good - I went with the latter: This is the back with the two completed fronts. I meant to take a close-up of the shoulder seams (three-needle bind-off is my friend), but that can wait. My concern is that it seems quite wide - I pinned it together before sewing the shoulder seams so that I could try it on, and the fit through the chest is fine, but it's a bit swingy through the back. I'm not sure if that was my rough pinning or an effect of the "swing" in the name. I think only time will tell, and as I'm about 1/3 finished with both sleeves (knitting them at the same time) hopefully it will tell soon. While I was off updating Ravelry, this bit of hilarity ensued: Apparently Oliver was curious about the sweater and when Dave removed him from it, the sweater came along for the ride. Dave called me in with the camera, and another great "Oliver with the knitting" shot was born.

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! I lounged around quite a bit over the last four days, accomplished a tiny bit of Christmas shopping, and watched many Netflix movies. I also cast on the final (I think) Christmas present on Friday and it's moving along nicely. I'm making Anastasia Socks for my grandmother, which I'll post photos of once they're past the mid-foot...

Making progress!

Back and left front complete!
Oliver pitched in for the pinning out of my Drops cardigan pieces - isn't he helpful? He loves circular needles. Sorry that the photo is so dark. As I have previously lamented, it's difficult to get good lighting in our apartment, and I wanted to take the photos without the flash because otherwise it's impossible to see the stitch definition. Speaking of stitch definition, my moss stitch (Double seed stitch? Whatever.) isn't as 'bubbly' as the other sweaters I've seen, and I think I can attribute that to my row gauge, which is way off, on the too-many-rows-per-inch side, and I think that is compressing the moss stitch. But, it's clearly not stockinette, so I'm carrying on. Will be casting on the right front tomorrow, and hopefully remembering to add in the buttonholes...

Blinders

When Anne-Marie and I saw Stephanie, aka the Yarn Harlot, last Friday, a woman was there with a gigantic sweater: It's difficult to get the full scale of the sweater (you should've seen the contorting that went into the photos Stephanie took), but this was clearly much larger than intended. Yet she had perservered and finished it up, all the way down to the sewing. Stephanie blogged about this today actually, so you can go over there for more details if you'd like. I'll wait. Anyway, I'm a bit concerned that I'm doing the same thing with my Drops Swing Cardigan, knitting blindly away whilst ignoring the fact that it seems way too big. Before you ask, yes, I checked my gauge, and yes, I've been comparing my piece to the schematic, and yes, it's the right size, pretty much. Mine is a tad wider in the armpits because my row gauge was off so it's wider a bit higher up than it should be, but I've added extra decreases in the armholes to compensate. Hopefully. Yet, it's just, well, large! The bottom of the back is 24" wide! That means the whole sweater will be 48" in circumference! It's meant to be swingy (hence the name), and it's hard to tell how much ease there is in the model photo, but still. However, as I suggested above, I am charging ahead blindly. Swingy cardigans are all the rage this fall (hell, I wore one today - nowhere near as wide (I compared), but within range), and I don't think I'll really be able to get a handle on whether this is working or not until I have the fronts and the back done so I can pin them together and determine the level of ridiculousness that is ensuing. Speaking of sewing up, can anyone think of a reason not to kitchener the shoulder seams?

Edited to add: I finished the back tonight - here's a shot, although it doesn't really show the sheer size of it:

By the way, the Yarn Harlot was hilarious as usual on Friday. Many others have blogged about it, so I'll not really go into it here. I didn't get any good photos of her speaking because the lighting was tough, and, as Jessica pointed out, she's not very tall behind the podium.

Sorry if this post is rambling, but I had a committee meeting today so I'm a bit loopy this evening. The meeting went very well but I was quite stressed about it beforehand and now I'm in relaxed babbling mode. That said, I'm off to watch the rest of the Hitchcock marathon on AMC. First we had Rear Window, now The Birds, and finally Rope. I doubt we'll make it through all three, but it's worth a shot!

Why?!?!

Drops Swing Cardigan - start
Originally uploaded by Emily E.M.

Just when I thought I had the knitting queue a bit under control, and I was charging towards the finish line with the linen towels, fate reached over and smacked me with this pattern. Actually, it's Lolly's fault, since I first sighted this beauty in her Ravelry queue last night. I loved it so much I went to bed contemplating whether I should abandon everything else and cast it on. This morning I was still obsessed with it so I hunted down the free pattern and contemplated the stash options. Now, part of the reason that I have so much yarn is that I find many projects I want to make, and I'm so disillusioned with my knitting speed that I buy the yarn for a lot of these projects, thinking that somehow they'll all get made, all the while finding newer and more exciting projects. The queue is endless. And I really think about the yarn choices, such that each project and yarn go together so strongly in my head that I can't fathom using the assigned yarn for a different project. However, this project, well, I love it so much that I'm using the Rowanspun Aran that was meant to be a Rogue sweater. Granted, I have enough of the yarn for both, so maybe it's not that much of a sacrifice, but still, I am using yarn from the stash. Anyway, I'm loving this project so far. The pattern is written for two weights of yarn, and I'm doing the aran weight version. My gauge is slightly off, on the too many stitches/inch side, but I think that will be okay because the size I'm making is a bit larger than ideal for me and I can always block it a tad bigger if necessary. The yarn is actually a lovely light dusky blue, but this was the best photo I could conjure up at 10:30pm.