Mesa Sweater: Final Wrap Up

This sweater has been finished for a while, and in fact I brought it to the Netherlands when I went in June. (We had unseasonably warm weather so I only wore it once!) Oh wait, I wore it twice because I got my mom to take some pictures of it for this very post on the beach on the island of Texel. But those pictures were on the camera that became lost. :(

But the weather has cooled down and I was able to face retaking some pictures, so it is time for a final wrap up.

I told you about ripping out the folded picot edging on the collar. I decided to go with a short roll over hem. That's a fancy-ish term for knitting a few rows of stockinette and letting it curl like it wants to:

The whole thing sits much better than the previous finish. I think the trick was to keep the edging very narrow.

The fit is much narrower on the body than the original pattern suggests, but I think it's one of the ways to keep this crazy design wearable in the regular world.

I really like wearing it, but it still is a little awkward. The sleeve joins are very low so any time I move my arms up even a little bit, the sweater rides up on my arms and I have to pull it back down. The shape of the stacked wedges makes it feel like the piece is falling off my one shoulder, but that is just something to get used to. I know some people only did four wedges instead of five but I decided I didn't want to go that far in taming the design.

I am still loving how the stripes lined up across the body and sleeves.

Speaking of sleeves, I finished them with a fold over hem:

Even though I reduced the number of stitches after the fold by 10% like Elizabeth Zimmermann tells me to, it's still a little bulky and bulges out a little. I still think it's a nice, neat finish. If memory serves, the pattern had you just end the sleeves and let them curl over (like my neck line) but I didn't want them to be "unfinished."

The bottom edge was finished with a garter band:

Since the whole bottom wedge is done in garter, it blends in nicely. I considered substituting stocking stitch (which I prefer) for the garter wedge, but couldn't face all the calculations of adjusting the short rows to account for the different row gauge. In the end I like it how it is.

All in all, a very satisfying knit.

Project Stats
Started: 12 Apr '14
Finished: 21 May '14
Pattern: Enchanted Mesa by Stephen West ($12 in ebook with 2 other patterns)
Materials: Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds DK (1.6 skeins in colour 780); Evilla Longad (444 yards yellow/purple/brown/green and 220 yards blue/brown); and a wee bit of Appletons Old English Crewel Wool (54 yards) (~$30)