LK Knits

I am such a sucker for a big, thick turtleneck, especially when the weather is as cold as it has been lately. I would wear a big, cozy turtleneck every day of my life if I could, and I have been wearing all of my handmade and store-bought ones during this cold snap. So the timing of my order of Beaverslide 100% Montana wool in Mountain Mahogany was propitious! It's an aran weight yarn, and very thick and lanolin-y; the gauge is 4 st/inch but I am getting 3.5 st/inch on size 10.5 needles and it looks great and knits up fast. It's a delightful yarn, and on sale I got 5 skeins for under $34. Leanne provides great customer service, and the story of the ranch and sheep that she and her husband have is great.

I'm using it to make a top-down funnelneck raglan 4x4 rib; the pattern is my own, but is loosely based on the Patons Upside-Downers top-down pattern book; I am using it to check my math.

Here's the progress I've made in the week since the yarn arrived:

It just needs about another 9" of body and a couple of sleeves, and then it's done. I hope to have this sweater done in another week, so that I'll get some wear out of it before the weather warms up!

I actually finished this sweater before I finished Ariann, but haven't had time to take photos:

This is the top-down 4x4 ribbed funnelneck that I wrote about in early February. The Beaverslide wool is deliciously wooly and lanoliny. I've been wearing this sweater quite a bit in the past two weeks, particularly on days that it's cold and I don't want to leave the house! It certainly keeps the chill out.

I'm also happy with the fit. My husband is forever teasing me about my sleeves being too short, my sweater length being too short, and my turtleneck being too long. This sweater has none of those problems (I like my sleeves a little short!).

The only thing I'd change in these top-down funnelnecks is that I'd like some way to do front neck shaping. Intellectually I know there's a way to do it with short rows, but I haven't thought through how one would do short rows in a top-down sweater in the round. Or perhaps neck-centered decreases every other row for about 4 repeats? Just enough to take out that little buckle of fabric that sits against the clavicle.

Finished the reversible cable scarf (and a hat with the leftover yarn), so now the only WIPs are a pair of Jaywalker socks in Socks That Rock and this sweater:

Pattern: Poker, from Jaeger JM05
Yarn: Karabella Magrite, in a delicious off-black.

The pattern is great; the look is very Audrey/Jackie retro, and should go well with the light grey wide-leg trousers I just bought for spring! I love the standup turtleneck, and I hope I can replicate that look here. The textured zig-zag is almost rhythmic once you do a few repeats, and it's easy to catch errors in progress. The rolled hems keep it from being too stuffy, but it's still dressy enough (especially in a merino/cashmere blend!) for a variety of settings. The 3/4 sleeve is, of course, perfect.

This yarn is decadent, and I've been wanting to make this sweater for years. It took making a yarn inventory spreadsheet and spending a morning going through my pattern books with the spreadsheet open to see that I had a perfect yarn in my stash for the project! The benefits of organization ...

Of course, as is my wont, I've modified the pattern in several ways:

1. Body knit in the round

I like knitting in the round, both bottom-up and top-down. Notwithstanding how Bonne Marie rhapsodizes about mattress stitching, I don't enjoy it. It is fast and easy, but I'd rather just knit and incorporate shaping etc. with decreases and short rows.

2. Sleeves knit flat, but then attached to body at arm decreases

In making the Ariann I was uncomfortable with how stressed the sleeve stitches were when I attached the knit-in-the-round sleeves to the body to knit the yoke. The first few rows really bothered me, although of course they turned out fine. But I thought on this one that I would knit the sleeves flat (which also enabled me to knit them in parallel, since I only have one set of size 8 dpns!). That will mean some mattress stitching on the sleeves in addition to sewing up the underarm armholes, but I think it's worth it to avoid the stress I felt like I was putting on the stitches.

3. Knit yoke in the round

I really like this technique; I like raglan shaping, and I like knitting in the round, so this works well for me.

4. Shortening the armholes

As I mentioned with the Ariann, I am about an inch shorter than average from chest to shoulder. This means with raglan shaping that I have to redo the math for the decreases. Thus far I did a couple of rows of double decreases right under the arm (after doing the 5-stitch bind off on each side that the pattern required), then about 10 rows of single decreases on each row, and now I'm doing single decreases every other row. I figure that I have about 14-16 more rows on the yoke to get to the right measurement, and I should just about hit the decreases correctly.

Should be finished soon ...

5. Knit neck in the round

I prefer the smoothness of knitting the neck in the round without picking up stitches. Sometimes this costs me front neck shaping, and I end up with a pucker in the bottom of the front of my turtleneck. I'm not worried about that in this sweater, because the neck is wider, stands away from the neck, and has a folded-down knit lining.

I'm not getting the pattern to line up exactly on the row edge; I'd have to add 6 stitches, which I think would look awkward. So I may just live with it, although I'd prefer to have the pattern be seamless.

Should finish the neck tonight, and the seaming this weekend!

At long last, pictures of my finished Poker, which I have already worn several times:

I am delighted with this sweater. The neck does stand up as I hoped it would, the zigzag pattern is great, and the proportions are almost perfect. I say "almost" because I could have made the body about an inch longer and would feel more comfortable wearing it with some of my lower-waisted jeans and pants. The yarn is delicious.

I learned two important technique and design modification things in this project:

1. I am short from chest to shoulder. I did modify the length of the area over which I did the raglan decrease, as I mentioned before in my dissatisfaction with my lack of modification in the Ariann pattern. Shortening it by about an inch seems to be the right thing to do.

2. Knitting bottom-up in the round, but knitting the sleeves flat and attaching them at the underarm. I was much happier doing this, and sewing up the sleeves afterward, than doing the sleeves in the round.

All in all, a wonderful project!

My Brooks Farm Solana that I bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool has decided what it wants to be: Wisteria, by Kate Gilbert, in the first issue of Twist Collective. It's a lovely, organic, top-down cable yoke turtleneck, just the thing that I crave. I've got about 16 more rows to finish in the cable yoke pattern:

Love, love, love the pattern and the yarn. I am a little nervous that I won't have enough yarn, but so far, so good.