So, I Made a Sweater

Or shall I call it a pullover? I understand those across the pond associate the word sweater with sweat, which does make sense if you think about it.

Anyway, here 'tis:The yarn is recycled from a beige 80s alpaca crewneck, which I dyed using Koolaid (some green and blue with a tiny touch of red to tone it down).

This was a painful venture. First of all, having the chest I do, I needed more space in the bust. Enter short row shaping. Well, then the pattern gets fiddled with and a little playing by ear happens.

Not to mention the fact that I liked my yarn knitted up in a different gauge than the one called for, so, beginner that I am, I did all the mathy stuff and basically rewrote the pattern to fit my gauge. Only, between the short rows and the rewritten pattern and the ear playing, I ended up with...

The Big Fuzzy

So I knitted an i-cord to thread through the empire waist, and that helped some, but the bodice was still too big, too long, and it made everything droop. I don't have to tell you that I was not going for droopy.

I took out the i-cord, used it to lace up the back and take in the overall circumference, took it out; then I picked out the stitches in the shoulder seams and took in a good inch or so from the neckline. I rethreaded the i-cord about an inch higher than I originally had it, and these pictures are the end result.

What a learning experience! I didn't change the sleeves one bit. The pattern called for bell sleeves, but I closed them up again at the bottom and added an attached i-cord.


Pattern: Hanna from Cocoknits
I love this pattern and will probably make it again for The Fashionista (I haven't told you about realizing I had the wrong gauge when I was all the way up to the shoulders and seeing the thing fit The Fashionista perfectly! Talk about demoralizing! I also haven't mentioned my funky looking short rows, but alas, this is not an epic).