Saturday 29 June 2013

"Mystic" sweater: reknitting sleeves

To my immense surprise, the sleeves turned out to be too long - actually, having long arms was a main reason for me to start modifying patterns. (Small/medium chest, medium/large shoulders, large/xl arm length... What was a poor, disproportionate guy to do? Develop his knitting skills, of course!)

Knitting sleeves top-down is a major advantage in cases like this: I only had to rip back and reknit a few inches, and only the shortest rows too. I think the new, shorter version looks better: the net starts in the centre of the panel and blends with the ribbing. (I often write "blend with", don't I? Something of an obsession, I guess.)




Sewing the shoulder strap in place took some time, but wasn't as tricky as I expected. It helps having a nice patch of garden to sit in - and the neighbours came for a cackling visit.

good neighbours

I always block sweaters inside out as I think it makes it easier to get the seams straight. Many instructions tell you to do the seaming after blocking the pieces, but I prefer having the boring bits over and done with as soon as possible.

blocking

And here is what the finished sweater looks like. I just can't capture the colour (no 4009), but here is a good photo.


Diana asked about whether the shawl pattern "Leaves Dancing" is available in English. Not that I know, I'm afraid - but at least lace charts are international. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a beautiful sweater. I never would have thought of blocking something inside out. Very interesting.

Lovely photo of your garden (?) with the yellow wall, and hens!

Unknown said...

A wonderful knit, again !

ron in mexico said...

Thanks for the tip about blocking inside out. It makes so much sense.
Ron in Mexico

AnnaF said...

Helt otroligt vacker tröja! Jag har länge suktat efter att sticka Alice Starmores tröjor, men jag är inte riktigt där än med min stickning. Just nu behöver min själ vanlig, hederlig slätstickning på rundsticka. När jag frisknat till står Alice designer högt upp på önskelistan!

Liisa said...

Very nice! A pic of you wearing it (on a colder day), perhaps? ;)