FO Parade: Three Sweaters in One Post!

by exercisebeforeknitting

Thank you all for your sweet comments on my striped socks! I had no idea striped socks would cause such a stir. I must say that the opposite striping was less of a design element and more of my inner cheapskate trying squeeze out as much sock as possible from two skeins. I’ll put together a tutorial on better striping in the coming weeks.

For now, I have not one but THREE finished objects for you! The Ivy League Vest is the only real FO, the others are December knits I haven’t yet blogged.

#1: The Good

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Pattern: Ivy League Vest by Eunny Jang, Interweave Knits Winter 2007

Yarn: Harrisville New England Shetland in Oatmeal, White, Sandalwood, Wedgwood and Midnight Blue

Needles: US 4

Modifications: I used blues instead of a teal/loden combination, omitted Pearl (gray) and sized up (37.5″) because my gauge was almost 8 sts/in instead of 7 sts/in. I also knit the ribbing on US 4s. When I cast on on 2s, it was too small so I did all of the ribbing on 4s.

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In this picture, the back view looks stretched out at the bottom but it’s not. I just didn’t notice the weird distortion until after I put the camera away.

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My only regret is that I didn’t make this longer. It fits fine and I’ll wear it but I would love a few more inches. I thought about extending it early on but decided that 14″ from underarm to bottom would be enough. I’ll know better next time.

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#2: The Bad

This next FO is a sweater that I started in September when I met Christy in Portland. I finished it in October but it required some fixing so I let it stew until December when I finished it up for good.

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Pattern: DROPS 91-8

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes

Needle: US 8

Modifications: I knit the medium size but since my gauge was off 1 st/4″, I should have gone down. The shoulders are too wide and while I can live with dropped shoulders, this made the arms WAY too long. I cut off both sleeves near the underarm and reknit them down to the cuff. I decided to reknit the sleeves completely to get the shaping to fit in the appropriate places.

I think the sweater is OK, although I probably wouldn’t knit this again unless I were using a very rigid yarn. Knit Picks WoTA is a little too drapey for my taste. The other problem is that I haven’t yet found a clasp to keep this closed so I haven’t worn it. I would like to wear it open but the fronts just flap around and look peculiar so this will be a closed bolero for me!

#3: The Ugly

Finally, the raglan from Hell. I’m calling it the Top Down-Bottom Up-Top Down Raglan. I knit this in December and never got around to blogging it because frankly, I hated this project. Nothing about it worked. I used Barbara Walker’s Classic Raglan Pullover pattern, knit a swatch, washed the swatch, measured, calculated stitch counts and knit from top to bottom. It should have been the perfect sweater because I did everything you’re supposed to do! Well, it wasn’t. Not even the FO pictures I took came out properly so this is all you get. This sweater is one for the closet.

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Pattern: Barbara Walker’s Classic Raglan Pullover from Knitting from the Top (with lots of guidance from Elizabeth Zimmermann)

Yarn: Beaverslide 90/10 Worsted Weight in Glacier Heather, about 4 skeins

Needles: US 8

The only redeeming aspect of this sweater was the yarn. Beaverslide is a dream to work with and it stands up to frogging like you wouldn’t believe! I will definitely be buying more. It’s just the perfect tweedy wool. It would be much better for cables too! I intend to wear this sweater in spite of my complaints about it. However, I will not rule out frogging it at a later date to reuse the yarn!