Oct 2: Started swatching with Holst Supersoft in Pussy Willow on 3.5mm, 3.75mm, 4.0mm. I personally liked the gauge best at 3.5mm but I wanted to a closer match to the written gauge.

I used a long tail cast on and Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Sewn bind off for the body border & sleeves. As there were so many stitches when binding off the body border I used two lengths of yarn (it was taking SO LONG to bind off with one super long length).

Yes, that meant extra ends to weave in but a standard bind off wasn’t nearly stretchy enough. Alternatively one could try binding off with a larger needle.

When blocking the swatch, I stretched and pinned it to match the required gauge (not quite as much as I would for a lace project but more than a sweater). When blocking the finished garment I did the same thing and stretched out the width in particular to match the measurements in the schematic on the body (56in) and for each sleeve (18.5 in).

My gauge changed between knitting each arm. One blocked out to schematic measurements and the other was 1in shorter and narrower at the cuff. As I’m 5ft 2in tall and have short arms, I ripped back the larger sleeve to just after the first decrease and reknit it tighter (on the same needle). After reblocking the sleeve, I was able to get two of a similar size that worked better for my shorter arms. These sleeves are 15in long.

This sweater has 12in of positive sleeve in the body (my bust measures 44in) and 2.5in for the sleeve (my bicep measures 15.5in).