Here’s another project that’s been hanging around for too long, without a very good reason to do so. This sweater was stuck on Sleeve Island because I was too lazy to cake up another skein of yarn for the second sleeve. The cakes I had didn’t start at the right point in the stripe sequence to match.
Finally, I got out my swift, caked the yarn and got back to knitting.
Here’s the finished sweater:
The pattern is Andrea Mowry’s STRIPES!, (that’s a Ravelry link, although you can buy it directly from her website, too.) Instead of knitting it in a multitude of colours and creating stripes, I knit mine in a self-striping yarn. The yarn is Sugar Bush Motley in Peppered Teal. (That’s a Ravelry link, too – here’s one for Yarnspirations.) Of course, a self-striping yarn has a fixed repeat, which means that as the number of stitches in each row changes, so does the width of the stripes. I kind of like how this one came out anyway.
I first posted about this sweater in March.
Of course, I had my usual panic moment of being convinced I didn’t have enough yarn, and raced back to get another skein in the same dye lot. There were only two left so I bought them both, and (you saw this one coming) I didn’t need either of them, so I have a lot leftover.
Motley is a soft yarn made of an alpaca and merino blend. It runs thick and thin, which I always like better in the skein than when it’s knitted up. It’s a little bit itchy, so I’ll need to wear a t-shirt underneath.
I have this sweater which I knit of Rowan Colourspun a few years ago, which is a bit big for me and looks dumpy as a result. I never do the waist shaping because it always ends up in the wrong place, but this sweater would have benefitted from a bit of that. I do like the long ribbing on the cuffs and the collar. The yarn is soft and has a lot of other colours in the grey, which is pretty.
I wanted this new one to fit a little more snugly and it does. Here they are, dancing together:
It’s good to compare them, because it shows other differences. I think the sleeves are a bit skinny on this new one – which happened with my Comfort Fade Cardigan from the same designer, too, so I should have kept that in mind – and it feels a bit short. Just an inch! My bind-off is a bit tight, so I may pick that back and add an inch of ribbing at the waist. maybe another inch on each sleeve, too. I don’t love the round yoke – it has a bit of a ripple in it still – but then, round yokes fit me so seldom. I really should concentrate on sweaters with set-in sleeves.
Another one off the needles!
Edited to Add – I picked out the hem last night and added another inch and a half. That extra length makes me much happier. 🙂
I’ve worn this a fair bit. It is odd that it doesn’t have a front fastening, although I’m sure I could add one. I do think I mucked up the sleeve decreases as they’re narrow – fine for wearing but less fine for pushing up to the elbow as I’m inclined to do with my sweaters. They’re also a bit long for me. And I know that I somehow did too many short rows on the collar: it’s quite substantial! That makes it snuggly, though – and is one of the hazards of knitting anything other than plain rows while watching tv.
I picked up the stitches to do the neck next (before the sleeves) to manage my yarn. I didn’t have enough of all the colourways, so decided to do the neck, then use half of whatever was left for each sleeve.
I did decide to frog and reverse the order of the colourways on the collar, picking up with my last colour, which is the brown. It blends in better and looks neater. See?
For this project, I raided my stash and chose my leftovers of Rowan Colourspun. I had knitted Mr. Math a vest in this yarn, then bought more to make myself a sweater when it was discontinued. Here’s 
Here’s the cardigan as of last Sunday. I’d just divided for the arms. You can see that the ribbing for the neckline has a good bit of space to fill – this sweater is designed to be worn open, so the fronts with the ribbing will just meet. It’s also designed so that the purl side is worn out, which makes it look even more blended.
Alive & Knitting 