One request we often hear is the sharing of more recently finished projects, or more widely known as HOTN - Hot Off The Needles! We thought this would be a great space to share more finished projects from me and the team!
I just finished Ankestrick's Big Love and I am in big love! I wore it while working in the shop on Monday and it was just so comfortable. I knit the sweater in Biches et Buches Le Gros Lambswool and I am so impressed. For me, this is the perfect paring of pattern and yarn.
I knit the M2 (50.25-inch) size, giving me about 12 inches of positive ease. Yes, that does seem like a lot to me too, but it fits perfectly. (I also have to account for fairly square shoulders when I select a size to knit.) I hit my gauge perfectly with the US6 needle, after blocking, of course.
Before I cast on a sweater, I always take a look through the other projects on Ravelry. I filter the projects with “all helpful notes” and take a quick read through some of the comments. I usually don't make major changes based on other's information but you can get some good hints on a project.
I did make one modification to the sweater after checking out Iv2knit's post on Ravelry. She wanted to improve the fit a bit because as she describes, “Because there is no neck shaping the shoulder line is pushed toward the back.”
To remedy this, she simply knit the back armhole 2 inches shorter than the front – such an easy fix! For example, in my size, the pattern instructions were to knit the “back” to 7.25 inches. Per Susan’s instructions, I knit the back of my sweater to 5.25 inches, then put my stitches on a holder and cut the yarn. For the right and left fronts instead of knitting to 7.25 inches I knit to 9.25 inches. Don’t worry, the size of the armhole is not changed, this just modifies where the shoulder “seam” hits.
If you are interested in making the modification or are not quite getting it, check out the details on her blog post. Her diagrams and detailed explanation make so much sense.
After that it was just knit, knit, knit. Other than the shoulder line modification, I knit the pattern as written and to the detailed measurements. And, yes, it is worth it to do the Tubular Bind Off!
I liked the sweater well enough when I was done and then I blocked it. Stop the presses…..now, I LOVE IT. The magic elixir for Le Gros Lambswool is a lovely bath in luke-warm water with wool wash. I squished the water out, laid it on my blocking board and pat the sweater out to the measurements on the schematic. Not one pin was needed. It held its shape beautifully.
I am so happy with my sweater, that I am thinking of knitting her Great Love. Same sweater just longer and with pockets. Help! My sweater queue is too long!