12-09-2016

Phase 1: Planning and Swatching

I don’t trust myself to knit 4 different cable patterns and intuitively keep track of which row I’m on for each pattern…at least not at the start. So I put my Excel skills to work and made a chart of the whole panel. That way, I can just follow along, row by row.

I expect I’ll have to make some adjustments for the slightly lighter gauge of this yarn. I guess we’ll see where we end up.

12-13-2016

Based on my gauge (using light worsted yarn) I’m sizing up to the L/XL size and should get a finished sweater that’s about 108 cm across the chest.

01-15-2017

Back panel complete. I’m blocking it now, so I can get a good feel for the overall size. Looks good so far.

02-10-2017

Front panel complete and blocking now.

The directions for the neck appears to have some errors and thus the stitch count was not adding up (at least that was the case for the XL size). I adjusted accordingly, essentially re-working that entire section. Visually, all looks well.

On to the sleeves!

02-18-2017

First sleeve complete.

02-28-2017

Second sleeve complete. I have both sleeves blocking now.

While those dry, I’m working on the seaming and the neckline. I’m using mattress stitch for the selvedge edges and crochet slip stitch seam for the shoulders (bind off edge).

03-01-2017

Finished! The blocked size was way too big for my husband so I re-washed and dried the sweater. It’s much closer to the expected size now (thank goodness). To be honest, I probably should have knit the S/M size. I compensated for my yarn type but I either knit looser than anticipated or I miscalculated my gauge during the swatching phase. It’s fine.

My only issue with the overall fit is in the shoulders. They run a bit wide. If I knit this again, I’d probably decrease a little more on the armholes (front and back panel) to compensate.