This sweater is so much fun!!! Just what the doctor ordered!

Unfortunately I am very unhappy with the quailty of the yarn. So far 80% of the skeins had knots in them!

08/06/23

I am knitting this sweater top-down with a circular yoke and am only using the elephant colorwork chart from the pattern. For the calculations I am using Elizabeth Zimmermann’s percentage system specific for circular yokes. The sweater she describes is worked from the bottom up, so her yoke has a series of decreases. Since for various reasons I prefer to knit my sweaters top-down, I had to reverse her steps and make a series of yoke increases instead. Very simple.

Using size 8 needle for the plain knitting and size 9 for colorwork.

My key number is 230 stitches. This is the full bust measurement with slight ease 46” x gauge:
46 x 5 = 230 stitches.

For the neck cast-on I need 40% of the key number:
40% of 230 is 92, rounded down to 90 stitches.

Each sleeve needs 33% of the key number:
33% of 230 is 76 stitches.

The underarm stitches consist of 8% of the key number:
8% of 230 is 18.4, rounded down to 18 stitches.
Thus, when it comes to separating the body and sleeves I will put 58 stitches on hold for each sleeve and cast on 18 stitches for the body underarm. Another 18 stitches will be added to each sleeve underarm when the sleeves are ready to be worked on.
76-18 =58 stitches to be put on hold for each sleeve

The entire yoke at the widest part, that is after the final row in increases should be about 134% of the key number:
134% of 230 is 308 stitches!

The yoke depth- measuring form the neckline down to where the stitches are split for the body and sleeves - should be about 25% of the key measurement:
25% of 46” is 11.5”. This number seems to be a bit too large, therefore i rounded it down to 11”. My existing sweaters have yokes measuring between 10” and 10.5”, but I want a bit more underarm ease in this one.

The last row of yoke increases should fall more or less half way down the yoke leaving the bottom half plain:
1/2 of 11” is 5.5”.

Is that awesome or what?!?! now, the above calculations can be adjusted as needed. The method is meant to serve as a guide, not a set in stone formula.

I have to mention that in addition to the above calculations I also followed much more complicated instructions found in the book titled “The Fit of Circular Yokes” by Kerry Bagert. Her method is much more sophisticated and, if calculated property, it results with a perfectly fitted yoke sweater.
After comparing the two sets of numbers I concluded that E. Zimmermann’s percentage method is much easier to figure and it gives very similar results.
Kerry’s method is very sophisticated and precise and I will most likely use it in the future for some finer gauge garment with a perfect fit.
However, the elephant sweater does not have to fit perfectly. I will be very happy with a slight ease around the bust and slightly tapered body.
Lets just hope that all of this will work out for me.

This is what I have done so far:

• Using size 8 needles provisionally cast on 90 stitches for the neck. I am not sure yet what kind of neck treatment I am going to use.
• Knitted 3 rows plain
• Made 5 sets of short rows for the back neck. Started the first wrap at the shoulder line. Afterward each turn was extended by additional 2 stitches (not counting the wrapped stitch). This way I raised the back of the neck by roughly 1.25”. If this ends up not being enough, I can do more magic later, when applying the neck treatment.
• Knitted plain for additional 6 rows. This brought the total row count in the front (where the short rows did not reach) to 9 rows.
• Made 1-st row of increases by k2, m1. I increased by lifting up the rt leg of the stitch 1 row below the stitch on the left needle. This increased the total number of stitches by 1/3 , that is 33% In overall, I ended with 67 stitches for the front and 68 for the back. Increased 1 more stitch in the front later on to have 136 stitches.
• Knitted plain for another 2.25”
• Made 2-nd increase in the same manner by k2, m1. Ended up with 204 stitches.

Now I have to make a decision if I want my elephant parade to be between the 2nd- and 3-rd round of increases, or after the 3rd one. The elephant pattern repeat is 26 stitches. 8 elephants need 208 stitches. 12 elephants need 312 stitches. Either number will require minor tweaking - increase of 4 stitches from my existing 204 to 208 to fit 8 elephants, or increase by 6 from 306 (number of stitches I will have after the last round of increases) to 312 to fit 12 elephants

08/07/23
I have decided to insert the elephant parade between the second and the third round of increases.

08/23/23
So far everything is going very well. I want this sweater to have lot of positive ease, so I am increasing 2 stitches on each side every 11th row. I will have another elephant family parading on the bottom edge in reverse color combo. Each elephant repeat is 26 stitches. Round it down to 24 (divisible by 4) and 6 sets of increases will give me one extra elephant. I hope this will be enough, since I do not have a whole lot of this yarn.
I will soon put the body on hold and make the sleeves. This way I will have a better idea of how much yarn will be available for the rest of the body and neck edging after the sleeves are done.

I am about 1/3 way down the body. At this point each skein of yarn gives me about 1 5/8”. So far I have used 2 skeins of yellow and 6 skeins of blue. 3 out of 6 blue ones had knots in them. That’s horrible! The skeins are very small, only 70 meters to begin with. That is a lot of ends to weave. The knots are creating even more ends to weave!!! Perhaps this is why this yarn was on clearance.

08/24/23
So far I have used - even if only partially - 8 skeins of blue. 6 of of these had knots in them!!!! I am outraged! this had happened to me once before with Elsbeth Lavold’s yarn made in Brazil. The yarn I am using for this project was made in Italy. I think many will agree with me that Italy enjoys reputation of a country producing high quality products, textiles included. To produce this presumably high-end yarn with significant percentage of cashmere in it and have knots in 80% of the skeins?!?! This is unacceptable. I will finish this sweater, because I am already almost half way done with it. And, even though I bought the yarn on clearance - $5.25/skein, I still spend significant amount of money on it. All together I had 25 skeins, which adds up to about $150 with tax.
I don’t see how to prevent this from ever happening in the future. When you look at the skeins you can’t see the knots. And clearance items are not returnable. I am angry.

08/28/23
1st sleeve is finished. This is what I have done:

• Picked up 18 stitches for underarm - 58 from hold + 18 picked up = 76 stitches total.
• Knitted without decreasing till elbow
• Starting at the elbow gradually decreased at various rates till 54 stitches were left
• Started colorwork - did not change the needle size. Still used size 8. Knitted 2 elephants, each 26 stitches. this means I had 2 extra stitches, which were decreased few rows later
• Once the elephants were done switched to size 7 12” circular needles and knitted plain in yellow. Made 2 more decrease sets before the ribbing. I intended to use a smaller size needles for the ribbing, but somehow things got messed up. I ended up using size 5 for the first row of k,p and then size 7 for several rows (till I realized!). I used s slipped stitch method, working with only one color at the time and slipping the other. It took a little longer, but it was much easier for me. The last 2 rows (4 passes) were done using size 5 needle, then 1 row in all knit in blue in size 7 and bind off in size 6.
• Ribbing done in 2 colors. the set-up row done in all knits alternating colors.

09/07/23

I am half way down the second sleeve. Had to rip out about an inch because of knots in the yarn. Again! This times there were 3 knots in just a few yards of yarn! I am very upset. Rewinding every new ball by hand now to make sure there are no knots. If I hadn’t already spend so much time on this sweater I would have thrown the whole damn thing out!

Later the same day.

finished the second sleeve today.

Neck edging:
Similar to sleeve cuffs. At first used size 5 needles for several rows. Switched to 6 for the last 2 rows (4 passes) and the very last plain knit row. Size 7 dpn for binding off in my favorite twisted bind-off.

I am back to the body of this sweater. I should finish this no later than this coming weekend.

09/15/23
I am working on several project at the same time. This sweater is almost done. I am approaching the color-work section on the bottom.

09/17/23
I am about to finish this sweater. working on the bottom 2-color ribbing now. Again, knitting the ribbing 1 color at the time, slipping the other color. I find it much easier, although it takes little longer. Using size 9 needless. I also used size 9 for the bottom colorwork section and size 8 for the plain body.

I have decided to do folded hem with lining. After purling the last row in blue i knitted several rows in yellow. I unplied the yarn and used only 2 strands out of 3. Correction - each of the 3 strands consist of 2 very thin twisted strands, so theoretically I used 4 strands. I then attached the live stitches to the body using just s single strand of yellow yarn. Finally, I crocheted a simple chain on top to give the lining a nice finish.