• Held together, these 2 yarns give 955 yards (263g) - enough to make this sweater. I’m working at a slightly smaller gauge than recommended - 6.5st and 8.25R in 1” (which is 8.3% smaller horizontally and 3% smaller vertically than the instructed gauge). As I’m not swimming in yarn, based on how much yarn this pattern uses, I’m making the smallest size - which I will alter as necessary to ensure that the armscye is the correct depth and the upper arm circ works for my dimensions. The drop shoulder on my version will be minimal and the garment will not be oversized, though my expectation is that it will be relaxed/not fitted.

• This minimalist design is lovely. The construction is quite simple and very clever and I’ve not seen this specific drop shoulder method used before.

• Alas, the instructions don’t thrill. I’m not suggesting that there are errors, but there is no explanation of the construction and this design uses an unusual (new to me) drop shoulder method. A bit of context would have been helpful (and I’m not talking about pages, a sentence here or there would suffice). I find it strange that the sweater sizing is in inches but all of the measurements are indicated in cms. On the up side, the instructions are delightfully compact so there’s no extraneous info crowding the pages.

The Knitting

• I recommend inserting a marker when you divide the back from the front - on both the front and on the back. This intel is necessary when knitting the back and the fronts to know how long to work before joining the body in the round because the pattern doesn’t clearly indicate the total, pre-joing length of the front and back panels. Note that those lengths will be different. To know how long they should be, you’ll need to do the math. I don’t love schematics that don’t provide the information required to save the knitter from doing unnecessary math (which is why one buys a pattern in the first place).

• One of the things that makes this construction so interesting is the way in which the sleeve fabric biases in opposite directions on the front and back body. But this also makes the fabric more challenging to “read”.

• My current take is that, for the smallest size, the body join should happen when the back body, from the back neck (not incl the neckband), is 11.2” in length. For the fronts, from the interior shoulder (neck side), I believe that the length should be 9”.

• The construction is very interesting. I’ve not done M5 increases for this purpose before. I think it’s a very clever usage of the inc method and it produces tidy eyelets that sit right on the shoulder. Interestingly those eyelets are referred to as “the raglan”. Thus far, the only raglan shaping that I am familiar with refers to a diagonal armscye on each front and back body to delineate sleeves from the body. And this garment is definitely drop shoulder. But if you imagine rotating the back raglan to the top of the shoulder, I suppose that’s a variant of what this construction is.

• Body: As of the body join, I have 242st; the smallest size instructs 228st. Given that my gauge is smaller than the pattern’s, this will actually give me 37.25” of bust circ (vs the 38” that the smallest size has, when knitted to gauge). I think that will be fine because that’s my current full bust measurement so I’d have 0” of ease, something I’m comfortable with. This yarn has a lot of drape and it’s going to give with wear. Update: My row gauge relaxed to 6st per inch, which makes 242st equivalent to 40.3”. That’s more ease than I require so I’m going to remove 20 st at side body over 5 decrease rounds - one at 1” below join and one at 2” below and then the last 3 each 0.5” apart. This should save me a bit of yarn but also create a less boxy bodice i.e. 37” of circ below the underbust.

• G per round (Body): 1.2 (2 rounds = 2.4g / 3 rounds = 3.55g) Note that this math doesn’t take the reduced circ into account i.e. it’s based on 242st, not on 222st - which I’ll segue to over the first 4” of the body.

• Bodice Circ Math based on 242st: My row gauge is 8.25R in 1”. 1.2g x 8.25 = 9.9. So each inch of body knitted takes ~10g of yarn. To work 12” from the body join, the instructed length before working the hem ribbing, would require ~120g of yarn total. And then it will take another ~15-17g to work the ribbing. If we call that 135g that will leave me only 27g of yarn to knit both sleeves. So that isn’t gonna work. Instead, I’ll make the sleeves and body shorter than instructed. But I feel that these are drafted quite long. Hopefully I’ll find the sweet spot.

• After determining that I’ll need 35g of yarn per sleeve (see section below), this will leave me with 102g to knit the body from the join in the round to knit the entire length - incl the ribbing. I hope that each round will take 1g (vs 1.2g), given that I’m going to decrease the body circ (see above). If that’s the case, I can knit the body to about 100R total which, at my gauge, will give me 12” of length total - including the ribbing. I think, given that the “armscye” is low because this is a drop shoulder design, that will afford me adequate length. I gotta hope. Update: Even after reducing 20st, with 222 st on needles, it takes an average of 1.1g per round. Apparently 20st per round doesn’t save you that much yarn. :-) And note to self: If you make this garment again, start the decreases immediately after joining the body. You don’t need the extra circ at the bust and it would look more intentional, and less of a bubble at the bust area, to just start the decs immediately - as you did for the sleeve decs, which worked very well…

• Pre-blocking, the depth of the body from the join in the round was a scant 12” - shorter than I’d prefer, esp if I lift my arms (the reason why so many drop shoulder designs are very long in the bodice). I managed to block it to 13” with no issues once I removed it from the water. This yarn is very drapey, given its fibre composition. I also anticipate that it will lengthen with wear, over time, though the yarn is extremely light-weight.

• Sleeves: I’m likely going to knit these to 3/4 length to save yarn and because I like that length on a drop sleeve.

• G per round (Sleeves): ~0.34g per round.

• I’ve estimated that, if I knit it to 13.5” from the sleeve CO, each sleeve will use 35g of yarn.**

• How I CO the sleeve, given that I’m working off-gauge: In terms of picking up stitches, I CO 78 - or 2 out of every 3 st. While the pattern doesn’t give you a ratio, it does indicate stitch number to pick up. That number wasn’t specifically helpful as I’d gone off road in terms of sizing.

• I didn’t keep the shoulder stitch on a holder (as instructed) so I just picked it up like all of the other stitches when I casted on for the sleeve and it looks entirely tidy and intentional. My sleeve CO is aligned with size 3 but my row gauge is diff (and my st gauge was too, until it relaxed).

• Because my stitch gauge has relaxed, I’m now getting instructed 6st per inch. This means that the 13” of circ (78st) I’ve picked up at the sleeve CO is too large - my bicep at its fullest is 11”. So I’ve opted to decrease from 78 to 70st over the first 7 rounds:

CO 78st
R1 Dec 2 st (76st)
R2 Knit plain
R3 Dec 2 st (74st)
R3 Knit plain
R5 Dec 2 st (72st)
R6 Knit Plain
R7 Dec 2 st (70st) 11.7” of circ but below the fullest part of my bicep

• I’m going to have to firmly block the seam where the sleeve joins the body to ensure that it lies completely flat, given how quickly I decreased below the CO. I do not feel that casting on more stitches than 78 would have been helpful - it would just have made the initial circ that much larger and I’d had to have decreased that much more.

• I’ve determined that I will knit the sleeve to be 13.5” from the CO (at the longest - esp given my yarn sitch) vs the 16” instructed. (Note the instructions don’t tell you the length, nor does the schematic.) 1” of ribbing on smaller needles is instructed at the cuff, which I’ll work. But this means I have ~12” (I did the initial decreases over 0.75”) to work the remaining decreases. Update: I actually did make it to 16” from sleeve cast on because I found a few grams of the KFO cashmere that wasn’t used as yet so I got another inch of length from using this as a stripe, just before beginning the cuff ribbing. It looks cohesive. I also got more rounds of ribbing than I thought I would from the 3.5g of yarn I alotted to that function. So this was a win.

• To get from 70st to 54st is 16st decreased, or 8 decrease rounds. I need to work those over the next 92R (12” at 8R gauge, I’m rounding down from 8.25” for ease of math). This comes to one dec round every 11.5 rounds - interestingly, pretty much the rate instructed, though I frontloaded the first 8st of decreases which is not factored into the 92R. I’ll work each of the 8 decrease rounds every 12th round until the final decrease, which will be 8R from the penultimate decrease round, and the round before I start the ribbing.

• If the 2 sleeves take 70g, I have 102g of yarn to work the body.

• Neckband: I opted to work this right after joining the fronts so that I could ensure that I liked the depth. I went 4 rows longer, when knitting the front and back body, than stipulated for the smallest size, to give a bit of extra width and depth, given that my gauge is smaller than instructed. I feel that, in project photos, the v neck looks a bit shallower than I prefer. With my extra rows, the vneck depth is 8” once the neck edging is added - though this doesn’t take into account a bit of extra length that might occur on completion of the sweater - when the weight of the body comes into play. Based on the schematic, the final neck depth at my size is 8.5” and that’s likely what mine will end up being in the end.

• I casted on the ratio/number of stitches recommended for the smallest size. I worked 2 fewer rounds than instructed, because I didn’t want the neck to be any higher, and I worked an Italian bind off. Not sure why I landed on that bind off - the extra stretch is not necessary given the neckline’s circumference. And the pattern recommends BO in pattern. But I think it will allow the neckline to relax instead of very slightly pulling up (as sometimes binding off rib in pattern, on neck edging, when the construction is drop shoulder, can lead to).

• In terms of the neckband V decrease instructions - they left something to be desired. I just worked from another v neck sweater pattern that is clearer. For starters, these instructions don’t clarify that the centre V stitch needs to be a knit stitch (or things are going to look weird).

Final Thoughts:

• I really like the construction of this garment and I totally enjoyed making it. I find the eyelets on the top of the shoulder to be rather elegant and feminine. But one should be careful to ensure that the eyelets are all worked evenly and firmly or the shoulder line might look messy. I don’t think a bra will show if it’s skin coloured.

• This yarn worked really well with the design. Not sure I have it in me - or if the yarn does - to be ripped back for a 3rd time (or 4th time in the case of the Cima) so I do hope I love and wear this sweater. If not, I think I’ll be giving it away. While both yarns have held up very well, they’re rather delicate and lace-weight in each instance. And they have started to felt togther.

• I recommend using a drapey yarn to make this sweater. I find that, with drop shoulders, drape is key. Something bouncy or springy will necessitate more yarn to get to the same dimensions (because it recovers so easily).

• This combo of yarns (admittedly bought years ago, and prices have only gone up), cost me $175 CDN. That’s expensive but given the fibre composition it’s not unreasonable. If I’d worked with a fingering weight cashmere yarn, I sense the cost would have been higher. Given how much entertainment I’ve got from knitting, unknitting, reprocessing and re-knitting this yarn, I think I’ve got my money’s worth :-)

Post-blocked Dimensions:

Bust circ: 41”
Hip circ: 35.5” (pre-BO, which I’ll work aft blocking)
Cuff circ: 6”
Depth of arm where it meets the body: 7”
Arm circ at bicep: 14”
Length from sleeve cast on to cuff: 16”
Body length from sleeve cast on: 13”
Depth of V neck incl edging: 8.5”
Width of neck incl edging incl neck edging: 6”
Length from neckline to sleeve cast on: 8”

Patterns Considered:

Find something that will optimize this beautiful drape… Use US4 needle to get the same stockinette fabric you got with the Daily Pullover. 6.4st and 8.5R per inch / 25.6st and 34R in 4”

Comfy Slipover - Daniela Mühlbauer 28st and 36R - you’d need to swatch and see if you like the fabric… I think that this gauge is just too small for the yarn and fabric I’m looking to create. It also takes too much yarn (even while I’m trying to find ways to minimize the amount of yarn that is required). I found another pattern, the Jinshi, that’s quite similar in vibe but with a larger gauge.

Slightly Sassy V - Aimee Sher - 24st and 32R in 4”. It’ll be 7% smaller in circ and 6% shorter in length. Update - I started knitting this project with this yarn and ended up casting on on 3x. Instructions are good, my brain wasn’t really on board though. Then, when I started looking through all of the project pages, I realized how wide in the neck this garment is - seems too wide on most and my version was also feeling wide. Given that I’m already narrow in the shoulders, I’ve opted not to continue with this pattern.