Not Done - Yet

As promised yesterday, I have knitting to show. While this sweater didn't get completed at the trailer, it is on it's way.

I started, as good knitters do, with a gauge swatch.

OK. The technically-correct term would be sleeves. (They look small!) Knitting this sweater EZ style, I guesstimated the stitch count to be 24 stitches over 4 inches making my 40 inch sweater have a key number of 240 stitches. At 25% of that, I started the sleeves with 60 stitches - pure EZ - and found them to be too big. I started again with 52 stitches - 22 % - and they are just right.

After a few false starts where I tried different needle sizes to get a tidy stitch, I was on my way. Both sleeves were finished and the body cast on before I left for home.

That gave me 12 hours of car knitting time - well minus the three hours that I drove - to get a good junk of body knit. This past weekend saw me make the great join. Sleeves are now attached to the body.

(It looks small !)

Reading Elizabeth's take on yoke sweaters, it seems she disliked deep yoke patterns. In fact her rule of thumb is the pattern portion should take up only 50% of the yoke depth. Hmmm. Comparing the look of a deep yoke to a shallow one, I think I have discovered why I am 'not normally a fan of yoke sweaters.' Being petite. short and previously a blind pattern follower meant yoke patterns often hit unattractively close to my belly button. Not a good look.

With Elizabeth's guidance, this time, I counted the yoke pattern rows. Knowing my row gauge, I translated the number of pattern rows into inches. Then, I measured those inches on me to decide whether or not if I wanted the pattern to come that low.

Looking at that tape measure against my 'front' I decided to eliminate some of the pattern rows and substitute them for plain rows beneath the pattern. Thanks Elizabeth.

Not actually genius thinking, but when following a pattern, most knitters I always presumed the designer to be right. To be above questioning.

Questioning or merely thinking is one of the knitting wonders Elizabeth has taught me this year. So far.