Sweater for Wool-Aid

Here's a project I've been working on in the background. I had a good quantity of wool raveled from a sweater. I believe I purchased it from someone on Ravelry, but I can't find any record of it.

If that memory is correct, what I actually purchased was a half-finished project. I raveled it and ended up with a lot of different balls (about 25) from large (182 grams) to small (7 grams).

It was a nice colour of red and quite a bit of yarn so I thought I would make a garment for myself with it. But after a few years of not doing anything with it, I let that idea go. It was enough that I could make a sweater (or two?) for Wool-Aid.

In February I finished my last vest for Wool-Aid and when I went to post it in the group (we all like to share finished projects), I saw their posted theme for February:

We have a special request from the Kyegu Monastery in Gamrau, India, for turtleneck or high mock-turtleneck sweaters for next winter (maroon, brown, red, and gold items are appropriate). The young monks in Gamrau are between 12 and 18 years old (I’m figuring sizes 32” to 40”). Perhaps we can get a good start on this special request, so we have enough sweaters in their sizes to ship by early fall.

This seemed like a good way to use this red yarn--it was the right colour, I had plenty for a sweater, I like doing the larger sizes, and my favourite shawl colour Vneck style would work great.

So I cast it on and worked on it for the following three months. Then it sat waiting for buttons until the week before the fair. (I entered it in the Pullover-Child category.)

Since they asked for high necks, I adjusted the shawl colour so that it didn't angle in from the lower point. The collar was worked straight until I increased for the upper collar portion.

I had thought I might be able to put a button near the top so that it could be a full turtleneck if the top button was done up,

but decided it was too tight around the neck to actually wear that way.

I also thought about putting the top button further up (see finger below) and spacing three buttons from there to the bottom of the collar. (The top button would not be done up most of the time.)

But in the end, I went with just two. You can still pull the collar up if more warmth is needed on the back of the neck.

Once I had the position of the buttons, I crocheted some loops on the one side.

I slipped stitched from the bottom, working just inside the selvage stitch (along green line). When I got to the place for the button loop, I chained 10, and then continued slip stitching in the next stitch.

After both loops were done, I slipped stitched twice and then pulled the end to the back through the last loop to finish. I thought about doing the trim all the way around the collar because it was a nice finish, but decided not to because both the top and bottom of the collar are seen and the slip stitch looks good only on one side.

I did a 4x4 basketweave stitch for the main part of the back and front (the texture makes it warmer) with stocking stitch on the sleeves. I did my usual garter stitch edge for the hems of the sleeves and body.

I tried it on to check the collar fit but you can see the sleeves are way too short.

Wool-Aid likes the sweater body to be longer than usual for extra warmth, but it makes the sleeves look really short. I try to make the sweater into "realistic" proportions, but in the end, I figure anything close to reasonable will fit someone!

Project Stats
Started: 27 Feb '19
Finished: 21 May '19 (the knitting; buttons not until July)
Pattern: Based on the Steppe Ahead Sweater by Irina Makarow
Materials: wool (485 grams); raveled from unknown sweater
Ravelry project page: Wool-Aid Sweater 2019-1 (4)

Then and Now Vintage Striped Blouse, Start and Progress

I'm getting pretty close to finishing a vintage "Then and Now" blouse so I thought I'd give you the full tour.

Gauge swatch. The gauge didn't match the
pattern but it was what worked for this yarn
so I resigned myself to recalculating all the
stitch counts in the pattern.

It started with a Then and Now knit-along suggested in the Vogue Knitting Magazine group on Ravelry in 2018. The idea was to knit something from a current year (2018) issue ("now") and knit something from the selection of Vogue "flashback" patterns where they take a vintage pattern and update it with modern materials and colours ("then").

My "now" pattern was the pink and black cowl from the Winter 2017/18 issue. I started it in January and finished in April.

I knew pretty early that my "then" pattern was going to be a striped blouse from a 1984 issue but I didn't have any idea what yarn to use.

I wanted something drapey, probably silk. And as usual, I was hoping to get the yarn from a second hand sweater. I couldn't find anything. I purchased a couple sweaters from other unravelers online to try, but they weren't well suited either. (Too thin or wrong colour.)

I looked a little further in the stash and decided a white silk I bought from colourmart.com would work with a tan rayon/linen blend from this sweater. Because I had less white than tan, I figured I had to switch the main colour from white to tan. That was probably better for my colouring anyway.

I knit up a swatch at the end of December to technically meet the knit-along requirement to start the project in 2018. The group is pretty relaxed anyway. I mean, it's not like they won't want to see a finished project just because it was late or that we're competing for cash prizes! :)

After all the calculations for gauge and size, it didn't really look like I had enough yarn, but it seemed to me like I should. Normally ignoring the math for a feeling isn't advisable, but yardage numbers aren't always reliable. So, I started anyway. (Spoiler alert - it's going to be fine.)

The blouse has an interesting construction. The front and back panels are knit side to side, and those are the pieces done first. Besides recalculating stitch counts for gauge, the only change I made was to finish the shaping with short rows instead of casting off stitches over a series of rows.

Along the sides, the top and bottom are knit a little wider
to give waist shaping.

The final effect gives a smoother edge that is easier to seam. No one else will ever notice but I like to take care of the little details.

The next piece is a monster. The yoke and sleeves are knit in one piece that stretches from the cuff of one sleeve to the cuff of the other. Over 300 stitches and each row took a while.

With this many stitches, I had to work on
a circular needle. I switched back to my
straight bamboos after I split for the neck.

I only had a couple small misadventures while working on this piece. While doing the neck shaping, I misread the instructions. Probably more accurate to say I assumed the directions. In many, many cases shaping (increases or decreases) is done on every other row. Well, the neck shaping needed to happen a little faster and should have been done on every row. I realized after 18 rows were knit.

Fortunately that was when I was working on just one side of the neck, so the rows were only about 140 stitches, not 300.

As I got close to finishing the second shoulder, I noticed I had dropped a stitch far below.

I was not eager to rip all the way back. I thought about just sewing the stitch in place, but didn't like that idea other. So I dropped the stitch beside it all the way down too, and then "knit" them both back up. Dropping the extra stitch gives you a little more slack in the yarn to even out the tightness over two stitches. With a final blocking I don't think it will ever be noticeable.

I was happy to finish this massive piece:

I think the neck hole is obvious. The slit will go in the back and be closed up with three buttons. (So vintage, right?) The left and right sides, will curl into tubes and form the sleeves.

Here's the front panel in position below the yoke to give you a bit of an idea (and give me a little motivation that this is actually coming together):

The piece I'm working on now is one of the cuffs:

The cuff in progress under the end of the sleeve.

My first effort was far too narrow. I added about 20 stitches and I think I'm in the ball park now. The size is forgiving as long as it's big enough to be loose around my forearm and small enough to have to gather the sleeve to fit. (Again, so vintage, right?) This cuff shouldn't take too much longer and then I have to knit the second one.

After that, I only have to knit two pieces for the collar. It's nice to be knitting these small portable pieces. I'm looking forward to having this together. I should be able to wear it even in warmer weather so I won't have to wait until next winter to wear it! :)