Beware The Mighty Septopus

This was a challenging project, but I think this pattern gets an unfairly bad rap online. I followed the instructions for the L size as written and other than some minor confusion over neck shaping didn’t run into any wrong stitch counts. I found the schematic and charts to be clear and helpful. Most of my challenges were brought on by myself mostly because of yarn/size constraints:

• I didn’t want to use bulky yarn since I was afraid that would make the sweater too heavy even for Colorado
• My recipient wanted a sweater she could machine wash, so that ruled out non-superwash wool

We settled on Cascade Pacific yarn, which is a worsted weight superwash wool/acrylic blend. My hope is that the acrylic content will prevent the superwash from stretching.

My plan was to knit the size L in the lighter yarn at a tighter gauge in order to end up with a sweater with the about size M dimensions. But the difficulties re-gauging this pattern are that 1) it is a graphic design so it can’t be modified willy nilly without breaking the image, 2) the pattern wants it knit bottom-up (not as easy to knit to length), and 3) the pattern gauge of 15x17 is already unusually square, so I expected row gauge to be an issue. I noticed several completed projects on ravelry complained about the shallow yoke, for example, which will only be worse trying to go down a yarn weight.

I swatched on both 5.5mm and 5.0mm (US9 and US8) needles. My goal gauge was 17x18 in 4”x4” to arrive at the size I wanted following the L pattern charts. What I got:

5.5mm dry: 18.8x19 (90% x 95% of goal size)
5.0mm dry: 21.3x21 (80% x 86% of goal size)

I liked the fabric on the 5.0mm needles better, but there was no way the resulting sweater would have been big enough (without redrawing much of the chart).
So I went with the 5.5mm needles for a gauge too-loose for the yarn but too tight for the pattern, in superwash yarn, for a graphic-design colorwork sweater. What could go wrong?

When I washed the 5.0mm swatch it actually got quite square:

5.5mm washed: 18 x 18 (94% x 100% of goal size)

So I was wrong about row gauge being an issue! Except as I knitted, my actual gauge was more like 18x19 (after blocking) so I did have to do some extra rows.

Here’s how I planned to get something wearable for my recipient without needing to artistically alter the color carts:

• Add a column at the start and end of the front, back, and each sleeve. For these I just duplicated the start/end column of the chart… since it is under the arms I don’t think it will be very noticeable.
• After starting the body I was afraid it was too small, so I chose 2 more columns on the front and the back (4 total) to duplicate as I knit to add extra width. The distortion in the graphic is not very noticeable.
• Every 10 rounds or so duplicate one of the rounds to add more length throughout the pattern.
• Provisional cast on for the sleeves so I could knit them to length (as you can see in the photos I still managed to make these too short -- I might undo the bindoff and redo them some day)

I did the construction as written (bottom-up in the round). For the colorwork I used the ladder-back jacquard technique to carry long floats. This solved some problems and introduced some of its own. I created a ladder every 5 columns in large areas of a single color. It successfully held the strands to the back of the work, but there is still some puckering and noticeable dimples where I started some ladders. I think with a more elastic (non-superwash/acrylic) yarn this technique would have been more successful.

The people who do this pattern flat as intarsia and seam it together probably do it the smart way.

I did all ribbing 1x1 (instead of 2x2). Tubular cast on for the hem and sewn bindoff for the cuffs and collar. For the collar I first cast off all the neck stitches, then picked them back up to add some structure.

Yarn used:
MC: 371g (723m)
CC: 159g (310m)

That’s 2 1/3 times more MC than CC.

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Log

December 3: began swatching! This yarn is much smoother and splittier (fairly loosely plied) than I had hoped.

December 5: Wow, I was wrong: I’m getting perfectly square gauge after washing the swatch, so if anything it is stitch gauge and not row gauge that will be the issue! I think I can add a column to the beginning and end of the front and back without distorting the image much and end up with a sweater that fits, so I’m going with that plan.

Jan 20: finally casting on! Decided not to do provisional cast on for body, which I’m pretty sure will be long enough (but probably will do so for sleeves).

Hem:
Tubular on 172+4=176 stitches in MC: US7 for double knit rows, then US8 needles for 2.5” of ribbing.

Body:
Switch to US9. K for 9 rows.

Jan 22: Decided to “block” (soak and dry) what I have so far to check gauge. I think stitch gauge is good, but I’m afraid row gauge is significantly tighter than my swatch.

While that is drying I’m going to start the right sleeve to get an even better idea of gauge. Provisional cast on 34+2=36 (will pick up and do ribbing to length at end). (Knit 5 rounds and increase before beginning D3 as per instructions)

Sleeve:
I’m marking both repeated rows and placement of lbj ladders on printed chart.

Repeated rows: 5,16,25,36,45,56,66,75,78

Jan 30: Finished right sleeve. Washing and drying it so I can measure gauge. That should give me enough info so I know how many extra rows I need to do in the body/yoke to make sure it fits.

R Sleeve (the one with tentacles) color chart only (haven’t picked up to knit cuff yet):
CC: 27g
MC: 53g

The gauge on the sleeve is closer to 20x20 than 18x18. I’m not too worried about the row gauge, but if the body is 20 rows/4” then it will be too small! I think I need to choose 4 more columns to duplicate in the Body

Jan 31, back to the body. After 3 rows of the color chart I decided to add 4 extra stitches (at columns 11 and 82 on front and back chart each) to get more width (180 total body stitches should give ~38” circumference). My plan is to simply duplicate the color chart at those columns (similar to how I’m duplicating every 10th row to stretch the row gauge).

Feb 13: I’m on row 58 and just noticed that back at row 49 column 21 I accidentally turned a ladder-back jaquard column into an extra stitch. I decreased it out; I don’t think it will be noticeable.

Feb 14: finished body! It took almost an entire skein of white (cc). I’m pretty sure I have enough white for the rest of the sweater! Now starting on blue sleeve.

Feb 17: finished 2nd sleeve

Feb 22: the graphic really comes together as the head and eye are completed!

Feb 23: Neck shaping, the most confusing bit of the pattern:

• I think it is supposed to start on round 23 rather than round 22.
• Doing wrap-and turn at the short rows to keep gaps together; after finishing the shaping, I cast off all the way around the neck and then picked the stitches up for the collar to add some structure

Feb 24: grafted underarms.
collar: pick up 84 stitches with US8. Knit 2 rounds, 1.5” of 1x1 ribbing, sewn bindoff
sleeves: picked up provisional cast on, knit 7 rows plain, switch to us8 and knit 1x1 rib for 4 rows

Feb 25: finished knitting, will block tomorrow!