Friday, April 15, 2011

Finished: Mars

Just in time for the first day of pool season, I finished my turtleneck sweater which my sister has helped me to name Mars. The lovely rust-colored yarn pooled in areas and it reminds us of the spots on Mars.

(blocking)

Anyway, this sweater took me WAY longer than it should mainly because I just haven't been knitting very much. This is my first pattern from Wendy Bernard's Custom Knits and I can tell you that I love her topdown, seamless approach to sweater knitting. I loved the technique for picking up sleeve stitches and using short rows to create the sleeve cap. It did take me a few tries to get the stitch ratio just right, but I feel like any future projects will be much faster because I have a better understanding of the technique now.

My only other roadblock was the turtleneck itself. First, I was doing knit 3, purl 1 for the ribbing for about an inch and a half before I realized that when I turned the turtleneck down the wrong side of the ribbing would be showing--so then I had to frog the turtleneck and redo it as purl 3, knit 1. Then I rushed to bindoff and just did a typical bindoff which was NOT stretchy and thus the turtleneck did not fit over my head. Finally, I didn't measure correctly and the turtleneck was too short so I had to add another inch before doing the final stretchy bindoff of *P2tog, put stitch back on left needle* and repeat.

I really like the simple shape of this sweater and think I will wear it a lot next winter.

(It's a little windy today. Thought I might just blow away.)

Pattern: Tang by Wendy Bernard
Yarn: 4 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool in Color 26 (100% Wool/ 100gr/ 220m/ 240.59 yd)--I was worried about this yarn being too stiff, but it softened up a lot with a quick Eucalan bath. Thanks, Jill at the Woolie Ewe!
Needles: Size 7 (for everything except second half of turtleneck); Size 8 (for second half of turtleneck)
Size: Smallest
Modifications: I adjusted the waist shaping slightly by doing one extra decrease and one extra increase. I also did both slightly closer together than called for in the pattern.

On Ravelry, here.

5 comments:

sophanne said...

That looks GREAT on you! What a treat it will be next year. I'm working on one that will be useless as well.

Nicole said...

looks great!!

Jodi said...

Looks great! I wish I had the patience to make something larger scale like that. I tend to stick to simple scarves and a few too small beanies. :-)

PS - Loved your obstacle course! Great idea!

Haley said...

Jodi--I used to only make scarves for a long time. When you're ready, you'll decide to try something larger. Until then, enjoy your scarves and beanies!

Lydee said...

the sweater looks great! ugh. take a trip to the southern hemisphere. they're getting ready for winter; you'll get to wear your sweater sooner. or, go to minnesota, they're still having snow!