Friday, October 9, 2015

And another sweater!

I can't believe it, but I have entered the stage of knitting sweaters willingly. I've always knit them for charity, but rarely for myself.  Well that had to change. 

So here is my second winter pullover. Barbara Walker's book on knitting from the top down mysteriously reappeared from the netherworld of my knitting book library. I have no idea when I bought the book, but it has been several years ago. I must have looked at it, saw that it was nothing but text and, therefore, put it aside quickly. This German likes her charts. Give me a chart and I am ready to go. On the other hand give me text, and I'll avoid it like the plague.

Last winter (early 2014) I decided that I needed to conquer this short-coming of mine. I had a five-ball bag of Regia Hand-dye Effect sock yarn which I picked up for very little at Little Knits  and thus this sweater was born. It did end up in a corner for a good year, before I decided maybe I needed to continue with it since I wasn't going to knit socks with the yarn. About midway through, a skein of hand-dyed grass green sock yarn made it's appearance by peaking out of a pile of yarn. And thus the green stripes were born. I call it yarn doodling instead of doodling on paper during those long ago boring staff meetings in which I tried to emulate the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.

(I assume by now you have figured out that I am not the most organized person. I used to blame it on the cat, but, alas, he is no longer around. Sammy used to carry off yarn to his own special hiding place.)

The pullover is a dream to wear. It is light weight, warm and fits well.  I may just have to use Barbara Walker's instructions again, provided I remember where I put the book.

I added two things to the instructions. A series of short-rows right after I joined the front and back together to compensate for my slightly rounded back. I also added a few stitches on both sides of the front to accommodate my ample bosom. And finally, I finished with picot edgings around the neck, hem and sleeves.




 
 Knit on! Merrily.