All this time

Knitter's Regrets

• All this time, since last January, the blue yarn and partially completed sweater have lain idle in a knitting bag.  
• All this time I have kept the bag near a chair in the living room where I can see it when I knit (and where I have to pick it up if/when I decide to vacuum.)  
• All this time, it's only needed a bit of finishing on the yoke and one sleeve to be completed.  
• All this time I could have been wearing this lovely blue item.

• Couldn't stand it any longer.  
• Couldn't really justify -- even to my knitting self -- that I could plan a new project and purchase new yarn.
• Couldn't any longer imagine a partially completed sweater when I wanted to wear this sweater.

Finishing it this weekend.  It's lovely.

Body of the sweater is the blue of the I-cord trim
around the neck.  The plan is to replace the shawl pin
with three special buttons.
Yarn:  Cascade 220 paints.

The yarn was purchased at Yorkshire Yarns in Lakewood (solid blue) and at Yellow House Yarns in Puyallup (Paints).  The pattern is from New England Knits and it's the one shown on the cover, though with modifications -- of course.

Two things moved me to make changes --

1. I wasn't sure I'd have enough of the solid blue and decided an entire sweater of that color just might be a bit too startling to the eyes.
2. I was absolutely sure I did not like the hem at the hip-line of the original sweater pattern.  Don't mind where it was intended to land, just prefer the flexible fitting of ribbing.
3. Also did not like the position of the buttons, right over the shoulder, so I moved the placket to left front over the ribbing.  Seems more cohesive to me, design-wise.   I'm knitting it for me, not for them.  (That's my sassy voice!)

So the yoke became the variegated yarn.  The ribbing at the base became variegated.  And just to accent the sleeves I added a few rows of purl in the variegated, so the stitch and the color would connect to the yoke.

Used a different setting on the camera.  This is closer to the
actual color.  You can see the yoke with the shawl pin in
the upper left.  Then the ribbing of the sleeve with the
accent of variegated purl stitches.
The markets indicate every 10 rows (dark purple)
and decreases (orange.)

The pattern is knit from the top down, which means the only finishing is the weaving in of yarn ends.  There's no underarm seam, no side seam.  Yoke begins at the knit row right below the ribbing; yoke ribbing is picked up and knit after the body is knit.  Short rows raise the back neck a bit.  

The attached I-cord is my idea.  I wanted something to seal off all the colors and look good around the neck.  Not sure a simple bind-off would do; can be sloppy sometimes, IMO.

The sleeves are knit from the yoke down, either on DPN's or on a long circular using Magic Loop.  This time the Magic Loop method is working for me.  After the length is established and a few decrease cycles, I'll add 4 rows of purl in the variegated.  Then a switch to a smaller needle, US7, and finish off the ribbing.

Yarn, needles, sleeve stitches -- add Knitter, stir gently while
listening to a good book and . . .

Meanwhile, I'll be spending a bit of time to finalize the notebook to send to TKGA.  Really ready for that project to be in the mail.  It counts as a massive UFO, with not enough knitting to compensate for the other work that has to be done.  Groan.

The sun has gone the way the sun does in the Pacific Northwest (west side.)  Gray clouds have returned.  Good day for knitting (and working on the notebook.)

PS  I added a new tag/label -- SWEATER! Hurrah!