This is my third test for the talented designer, Aneta Szydlak-Bleyer. All of her designs have great shoulder construction detail.

I’m always able to match stitch gauge, but seldom row gauge (if I match stitch gauge). With the tiny row gauge specified in this pattern, I tried to knit as tight as possible, but still fell short of the goal. The tight gauge slowed down my knitting quite a bit, as did the slight nubbiness of this tweedy yarn. After knitting this, my suggestion is to NOT use the same weight yarn for the garter stitch portions even though it’s given as an option in the pattern. I think it looks much nicer if the garter stitch stripes are worked in a weight equal to half of what is used for the stockinette portions. Alternatively, you could just use stockinette stitch for the entire sweater, if using the same weight yarn for MC and CC.

What I did differently:

• When picking up stitches around the neck, where the pattern said to “pick up 27 sts” I only picked up 19 (both sides on front of neckline). Otherwise, the neckline would have not laid flat on the body. This was perhaps due to my heavier weight yarn. All other pickup numbers around the neckline were per the pattern. My sweater turned out to have a V-neckline which is not what’s shown in the designer’s sample. Perhaps this is the result of my longer row gauge. Prior to adding the i-cord, the neckline had a very strange shape, so don’t be alarmed if this happens to you.

• Since my row gauge was a little long, I had to divide the body and sleeves about 6 rows sooner. Otherwise the armhole depth would have been too long. This worked out to my advantage because I wanted shorter sleeves. So when resuming work on the sleeves, I did two extra rounds with the main color before starting i-cord. I wish I had done two extra rounds on the bottom edge because I think it would have looked more balanced to have the main color stripe a little wider at the very bottom.

• I made shorter sleeves than what’s suggested in the pattern. If you want to do this, I suggest dividing the sleeves and body BEFORE starting the CC color.

• I did a 3-stitch i-cord instead of a 4-stitch because my yarn was a little heavier.

• I found that I had to do a bit of “sewing” on the wrong side of the bottom edge to prevent it from rolling. For some reason, this was not necessary around the neckline or sleeves.

• I used much smaller needles than what is suggested in the pattern to achieve stitch gauge (even though Aneta and I are both continental knitters).

Needles used:

Size 1.5 US - All i-cord

Size 2 US - Body and sleeves

Video Tutorial: LLI and RLI in garter and stockinette stitch

Video Tutorial: Double Twist Loop Cast On:

Video Tutoria for I-Cord Bind-Off