27.03.2016

Made a large swatch to see how the colours worked together, and added in other colours to test if they would work better, but in the end I decided to go with the colours I got in the yarn sale. The pattern calls for a swatch in stockinette, but I don’t see the point in that. Slip stitch pattern pulls the fabric in both in width and length, so I made the swatch in slip stitch.

I’ll obviously need to resize. I’ll aim for a finished bust circumference of 36 inches and lengthen the jumper so it measures 13.5 inches from hem to armscye, and 7.5 inches from armscye to shoulder.

07.04.2016

I’ve started on the second colour repeat (I’m using 5 colours) and I’m very pleased with how it comes out. I think this will be a lovely jumper, and it will match all my hand knitted cardigans as well as a number of skirts :)

I’m not cutting the yarn at the end of each colour, but doing it the Norwegian way, which is to say I carry the yarn from each colour up the jumper, and wrap the working yarn around the strands being carried every 4 row or so, making sure the tension of the yarn being carried is OK. So far it seems to work well. I’m knitting the jumper in the round. I’ve added a picture of the inside of one of the sleeves for reference.

28.04.2016

Progress has slowed down on this jumper due to work. I found I had to stop knitting for a while as I got tendinitis in my wrist due to computer heavy days at work. It’s better now and I’m slowly easing back into knitting again.

05.05.2016

4 more inches to go before I start on the armscyes. It’s slow work as I’m only knitting about 30 minutes in the evenings after work, but that’s all right :) My contract ends in two weeks time, if it’s not extended further I’ll be able to knit for hours on end again. I’d prefer to continue working but I suppose being between jobs has its perks too.

19.05.2016

Started on the armscye decreases. Still carrying the yarn along, and I must admit to being a tad worried about it making the armscye too tight at the bottom. We’ll see.

26.06.2016

Started the sleeves today. Will knit them separate but parallel, knitting some 2-3 inches on one sleeve then move on to the other. There are just too many colours to work both at the same time as I usually do.

11.07.2016

Finished the first sleeve today, still have the sleeve cap of the second sleeve left to do. When I cast off the stitches for the sleeve I knit the slipped stitch together with the following stitch to avoid the edge ending up too wide and buckling. Worked well :)

13.07.2016

I finished the last sleeve today and weighed the remaining yarn to see just how much yarn I ended up using. 1600 meters, that’s quite a lot. The stripes took some 350 grammes of yarn, which means that I’d have to use a total of 7 colours if I were to use just one skein of each colour apart from the main one. That would be too many in my opinion. Oh well, the rest of the yarn will just have to go into the stash. Perhaps I’ll knit matching socks :)

I’ve stitched up the jumper and I have a few thoughts on what I would have done differently if I were to knit it again. The only beef I have is with the sleeve caps. I added length to it to correspond (more or less) with the extra length of the yoke, but I think it would have worked better if I had added one inch more.

When you cast off the sleeves you have to gather the cast off edge when stitching the sleeve in place, this gives a puff sleeve effect and an extra inch would have given more height to them. I’ll wear it as it is (as I can’t face unpicking the sleeve seams) and if it it annoys me I might add sleeve rolls later on.

09.10.2021 - update on sizing

This fabric grows with wear, and the bust measures now 42 inches. The true tension is thus 6.8 sts per inch.