03-08-2021

YARN ORDER
I ordered the forest nymph men’s XL sweater kit but I subbed out the contrast color for the contrast color in the succubus sweater kit. My husband didn’t like the flecks of pink and yellow in the kit color ans wanted something a bit more neutral. The oatmeal-ish yarn looks amazing with the green! I received my yarn on March 1st. The test knit kit ended up being just shy (14g) of what I needed to knit the sweater to Eric’s measurements and TsukiKnits was kind enough to send me the extra Yardage to finishi the test knit!

SWATCH:
I know that I have been a historically tight knitter so I decided to move up a needle size for my initial attempt at my gauge swatch. When I finished the dice bag I was still knitting too small and had a gauge of 26stitches x 26rows with too tight of tension in the areas between the motifs. I could tell that it was going to be a problem because of working in magic loop, I was tightening up too hard trying to avoid laddering at the transition from the back needle to the front needle.
Before I made any decisions about changing needle size I decided to block the dice bag and remeasure. The yarn relaxed easily with blocking and I obtained the desired 20stiches x 26rows gauge!

CAST ON:
I cast on using a stretchy tubular cast on.

Neck Ribbing
I then worked 1x1 rib stitch for 4 rows until I reached 3/4”. I then worked one row of straight knit stitches before I started doing the set up section. I saw it listed in the pattern as an option if you had worked the collar in contrasted color so I thought it would be fine to do here as well. I wanted to start my increases off of a clean slate row instead of trying to increase into the rib stitches. After finishing the whole sweater we decided that the neck hole was too wide for my hubby’s taste (21” circumference). It showed too much of his undershirts so I frogged the collar, knit a round of all knit stitches, then knit around of (k2, k2tog)x20 to decrease 20 stitches evenly around the collar. I then did 6 rows of k1p1 ribbing and cast off using an Icelandic stretchy bind off. This left me with a pre-blocked circumference of 15.5” which ended up too small to fit around his head. I frogged it again and decreased 10 stitches instead. (K6, k2tog). This worked and left me with a nice result.

SETUP:
I followed the emailed setup round instructions and able to follow them and end up with the correct number of stitches. These were tricky to keep track of. I found placing a stitch marker after every section helpful. I also think it would have helped me if the instructions included how many stitches we should end up with after the increase rounds. Ive seen it in other patterns where at the end of the instruction with increases or decreases they have the finished rows stitch count in parentheses.
The final number of stitches is listed in the pattern but it appears 3 pages later in the start of the yoke instructions. for example

Size 5) K3, (M1, K5) 8 times, (M1, K6) 3 times, (M1, K5) 8 times, M1, K3. (124 Stitches)
Knit one complete row of knit stitches.Then complete a third increase,K3, (M1, K7) 2 times, (M1, K6) 15 times, (M1, K7) 2 times, M1, K3. (144 stitches)

SHORT ROW SHAPING:
I used a wrap and turn method for my short rows. I found instructions to be clear and easy to follow.

YOKE
I found both the instructions and the charts to be clear and easy to follow. After the first row of color work, I attached a second main color skein and started rotating with skein I used every 2-3 rows. For these and for the spaces between dice I left the unused yarn attached and then carried it vertically when I needed it to be in use again. Having finished the yoke I regret not having circular needles with a longer cable. My stitches ended up a bit bunched on the needles which worked fine, but made me worried that my floats would end up being too tight. This resulted in me over compensating and the loosening my overall tension for the D20. I think it still looks good enough that I’m not going to frog it, but they aren’t as crisp as my D4s or my D12s.

SLEEVE & BODY SEPARATION
I knit one row of solid green after the colorwork chart and then measured to find I was already at 10.5”. I immediately separated the sleeves and the body. I found instructions clear and easy to follow. After knitting a few rounds of the body to reinforce the new cast on stitches, my husband tried it on. It definitely fit fine, the armpits were maybe a hair on the snug side but not uncomfortably so and I’m predicting that blocking will loosen that up a bit more anyway.

BODY
The suggested length for the men’s XL (size 5) body was 18” from underarm to hem. My husband who is quite tall and his sweaters measure 21” from underarm to hem. I checked in with the test knit group and it was suggested that the sweater would probably grow about 10% so I should knit 19” of body before blocking. I am electing to do the additional color work at the hem so I knit 14 inches of body before knitting the colorwork. After blocking the sweater gained a lot of length and looks a bit too long when worn. I definitely didn’t need to add an extra inch.

OPTIONAL BOTTOM COLORWORK
For the Adjustment Row: size 5. The instructions “KFB, knit the rest of the round (increased 1 stitch)” was adjusted to a make one increase as to match earlier changes in the pattern.
The bottom color work ended up measuring 4” pre-blocked

BOTTOM RIBBING
Because my colorwork ended up being 4”, I only did 1” of ribbing bound off with Jenny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off. Update. This was a bad idea and the ribbing is curling up. I frogged the bind off and added more rib stitching.

SLEEVES
I did 7 decrease rounds before starting the sleeves color work. The sleeves seem tight in contrast to the yolk pre-blocking. I found that with the colorwork 1 or 2 rows of MC after the colorwork help make it more visible/legible before doing the row with the 10 decreases.

03-17-2021

Yardage Calculations
Men’s XL size 5
Kit Recieved:

• Succubus Oatmeal: 212g, 2 hanks, ~492 yards
• Forest Nymph Green: 646g, 6 hanks ~1,230 yards

Kit Remaining after FO

• Succubus Oatmeal: 69g
• Forest Nymph Green: 98g

FO yarn usage

• Weight of FO: 670g
• Weight of Dice Bag: 25g + 2g of I cord
• Calculated Succubus Oatmeal: 131g,~322.26yrd
• Calculated Forest Nymph: 528g, ~1,299yrd

Pre Blocked FO measurements
A Yolk: 12 1/4”
B Body Width: 23”
C Body Length: 19”
D Sleeve Length: 18.25”

Blocked Measurements:
A Yolk: 15”
B Body Width: 22”
C Body Length: 22”
D Sleeve Length 21”

• Arm Circumference at armpit: 11.25”
• Arm Circumference at wrist: 8.5”