animals | cheap stuff | knitting | my home | ttv photo
Like an Old Friend
I loved the bright color of my first Beatnik, but this one is a more familiar color. Like a sweater my husband used to have, the color of Fall leaves, or my tortoise shell cat. It’s like an old friend.
This friend approves.
This time around, I want to figure out how to create set in sleeves without seams. Picking up stitches around the arm hole didn’t work for me the first time around, so I’m following Stockinette’s notes for minimal sewing. Plus, I can always change my mind at the last minute, right?
When I knit Caramel, I learned that Patons Classic wool grows wider when washed, so I knit it with a 30.5″ bust instead of 34″. To do this I reduced the number of stitches I’d cast on by about 20. After washing and blocking, it was a nice size 34.
For this cabled sweater, I decided to knit the xs size and use smaller needles to get a 31″ or 32″ bust measurement before washing, and a 34″ – 36″ after. I bought size 2 needles so that I could knit in a more relaxed way. All of that tight knitting on size 5s was hard on my shoulders and neck. The only difference may be that all of the cables keep it from widening (or blooming) as much as anticipated. If that happens, then I’ll have a sweater the same size as my first one, and that’s no big deal because I really like the fitted version too.
Believe it or not there are even more ttv photos, knits, and cats on my Flickr. I know your hand is hovering over the mouse in anticipation.
