Blogged here, with many New Orleans tips as well!

To answer some questions I had about exactly how I converted this from flat to in-the-round: I reduced 4 sts in the cast-on total to “remove” the seams. I left 2 sts “blank” on each side to hide the jog, and re-started the centered pattern on front and back so it was symmetrical (meaning I didn’t just keep going with the pattern after one side, but stopped at the side seam and re-started). When I got to the small part that gets decreased like a raglan before joining the yoke, I knit back and forth. This was 10-12 rows, if I remember. Then I simply connected the fronts, backs and sleeves like a regular yoke and moved the round start to the center back (as per the pattern, because the yoke is actually in the round in the original pattern). My blog post gives a tutorial on the technique I chose to avoid jogging the 1-row stripes, which are a challenge.

December 25, 2013: This ended up being the perfect Christmas sweater, unbeknownst to me. Look at those poinsettias in that one band!

All photos are in New Orleans: The Garden District, The Warehouse District and Lafayette Cemetery #1.

December 15, 2013:So this weekend was crazy! I was desperate to finish my Anatolia (including wet blocking, takes ~48 hours!) in time for my trip to New Orleans on December 17. Luckily my husband left on Friday, giving me 48 hours of non-stop sleeve knitting and end weaving. I never left the house and only ate instant or very FAST food! What a marathon!

Because it’s circular, I soaked it in the tub with Eucalan. I freaked OUT when I saw that the water was a light red purple color when I squeezed… it’s impossible to tell if anything has changed right now. I’m hoping the camel color survived. :o

3Nov2013: The body is done! I picked up my provisional cast-on and knit downwards, mirroring the yoke motifs in the opposite direction. In all, I added 3 color bands to the length. I also replaced the light colored Camel with the red Rage I used for the collar. I’ll be doing the same with the sleeves.

I guess that means that I need to find something to make with all the extra Camel color I bought!

I had to frog the ribbing once as I thought that just using the same needle size (US 3) would be ok, but it was too wide and floppy. I went down to US 1 and it was much better (no change in stitch number). I knit one row in stockinette and then 15 rows in 1x1 rib. I used a regular bind-off (not stretchy).

Honestly, the fit is odd. There is a lot of extra material below the yoke and in the waist, and because each motif uses a different amount of colors, the tension is different in each band. Blocking will help, but for sure, not completely.

20Oct2013: Once I connected everything to the yoke, things sped up enormously. For the neckline, I did NOT switch to smaller needles and did NOT do the last increase row. After the first row in red I began a 1x1 rib for 6 rows, then bound off using a mildly stretchy method (k2, *insert left needle into front of 2 sts, k2tog, k1*).

I think I will have to add a ribbon for softness at the neckline, this yarn is itchy. Also, it is quite tight at the upper arms. I might have to add some cotton fabric to help with perspiration, sigh!

Now for some major lengthening of the arms and body… more 4-color fair-isle, here I come!

21Sept2013: For the sleeves before yoke attachment: provisional cast-on and addition of the ‘ribbon motif’ as in the body. Used 32-34 numbers to start and increased steadily to 36-38 by the yoke. The sleeve doesn’t even reach past my elbow! That would be too much ribbing. I will certainly have to lengthen with more fair-isle motifs.

I’m stalling on the project. I never do magic loop/2 circs with stranded sleeves, the yarn carrying over the joins is so messy. So, I use 12” circulars, which are fine except when you start going back and forth for the raglan decreases (no longer in the round). Ouch, really painful with 3 color stranding.

14July2013: My first love from the new Rowan Magazine 54.

Note 1: This is not for the faint of heart. It strands using 3 colors most of the time, and 4 colors some of the time!! I am contemplating whether to intarsia the 4th color, as 3 colors makes an extremely thick fabric, already.

Note 2: The colors are off in the magazine picture. What looks like red, is actually a rusty orange. The pink looks like raspberry Peony, but it is actually a lilac purple, Damask.

I didn’t want pink or purple, so I changed the Damask to Rage, a bright red. This makes it relatively closer to the rusty orange Ginger, but I like the subtle difference more than having a purple option.

I wanted to knit this in the round.

I began with a provisional cast-on above the ribbing, because I wasn’t really sure if I wanted that long of ribbing, or if I wanted to add more stranding. I added the green ‘ribbon’ motif seen at the top of the sweater before the actual start of the sweater. To do this, I ‘subtracted’ 8 rows from the waist shaping and cast-on 250 stitches, going down to 246 on the 2nd row. 6 more rows and I was to the actual ‘start’ as in the pattern.

To prevent jogging at the start of the round, and any mish mashing of motifs because of waist shaping, I knit the two stitches flanking the side seam in the main color of the current motif. This really diluted the effect of knitting in the round nicely. There’s a pic of that!

CHART ERRATA: Row 56 - There should be a solid Watery stitch at the bottom of each diamond, not an empty Camel stitch. Row 59 - There should be a triangle Cinnamon stitch at the bottom of the small diamond motif, not a empty Camel stitch.

intswemodo2013#12 I DID IT FOR THE FIRST TIME!!