Tuesday, October 19, 2010

SOOOO much better

As difficult as it was to rip out an entire sweater, this Rowan Yorkshire Tweed is soooo much better in this incarnation.
The sweater is my own design, made up as I went along, with, unfortunately, very few notes. It's a top down raglan, with open eyelet increases on either side of two stitches. It's v-necked, but the front increases are different, and create almost princess seaming.



This shaping really fits the girls well. (in these photos, the "girls" are being represented by two cakes of yarn...) I'd like to say it was a well planned out design element, but to be honest, I made the increases this way without really knowing what the outcome would be, and, well, I love the result.

All the edgings and finishes are garter stitch - this was planned, as the yarn has a rustic feel, and I didn't want anything too fancy or fussy. I knitted in the button holes as I went along, and had the perfect buttons in my button stash - I didn't have to go far to find them!
I put in some waist shaping - I wanted this sweater to really fit, and I'm really happy with the result - this will be well worn.

Right now, it's laid out flat to dry, after a good long soak in Eucalan - the yarn bloomed a bit, and really softened, and I can't wait to wear it. I'm so happy with it, you may even get modeled shots of it again!

13 comments:

Sel and Poivre said...

I sure hope we get modeled shots!

They eyelet increases are so perfect! Just that little bit of perforation is just the perfect touch with the tweed yarn.

The fact you made it up as you went along...well that is just plain wow!

Unknown said...

Looks great - knitting something that you feel good about is so much happier.
Looking forward to modeled pics!!

Anonymous said...

Looks fantastic! I always think that when you have to rip something out and redo it (or completely restart something else), the project tends to really fly along.

Saren Johnson said...

Nice!!

Needles said...

I am absolutely blown away by the way you did those increases. They make a fantastic design element!

TracyKM said...

It looks great! Almost like you did a FBA as you were knitting. I've often thought it strange that sewers adjust just about every aspect of a pattern to make it fit well, but knitters are happy to think that they're just a circle split in two (I'm definitely a D shape--bird's eye view)...a 42" sweater with front and back the same looks terrible on me, but a sweater with a 20" back and 22" front looks nice. I can't wait to see a modelled picture of your new sweater; it's inspired me to give top-down another try!

TracyKM said...

It looks great! Almost like you did a FBA as you were knitting. I've often thought it strange that sewers adjust just about every aspect of a pattern to make it fit well, but knitters are happy to think that they're just a circle split in two (I'm definitely a D shape--bird's eye view)...a 42" sweater with front and back the same looks terrible on me, but a sweater with a 20" back and 22" front looks nice. I can't wait to see a modelled picture of your new sweater; it's inspired me to give top-down another try!

Crazy Knitting Fool said...

Very nice. Although the ripping sucks it is so much better to have something you enjoy than something languishing in the back of the closet.

Brendaknits said...

I love the shaping. The girls were evident at first glance. What a great idea. I also love 'rustic' sweaters. My faves.

Anonymous said...

Great design, a classic simple sweater. The eyelet raglan is a good balance somehow with the garter stitch edgings. And I really hope you manage to write up how you did the nice shaping. Like TracyKM, I'm more of a D shape and your technique would be useful for my next cardi.

You must post photos of it on you!

CatBookMom

deirdre said...

i love it!!! Well worth the agony of ripping out...

Carol said...

This looks like a very succssful knit!

Carol said...

This looks like a very succssful knit!