"Mystic" sweater: reknitting sleeves

"Mystic" sweater: reknitting sleeves, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

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. 

Life at its worst...

On holiday, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

...should be like this: visiting dear friends, lovely weather and a bag full of knitting projects. Not to mention - but not in the photo - a lake nearby, delicious food and a bottle of champagne. (But this being life at its best is certainly good enough!)

It took some time to decide what kind of neckband to make for the "Mystic" sweater. The original has a cabled one; you knit it separately and sew it into place, which makes it similar to St. Brigid. However, I thought a turtleneck would look nice, and something simple would let the anchors be in focus. The ribbing is the same as for the cuffs (3 knit, 2 purl) to make it blend with the cable patterns.

"Så här ska det vara när det är som sämst," som en god vän brukar säga när vi har det som trevligast!

Gusset experiment

"Mystic" sweater progress, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

There is half a sleeve left to knit, but I've started seaming the sweater: to have some of it over and done with, to see how it turns out and to make it easier to handle. (It was like having an octopus in my lap.)

When I knitted St Brigid recently I added cables to the edges of the sleeves to make the seam as invisible as possible. I've done the same thing here, but developed the idea: the cables start at the bottom of the front and back pieces. When I got nearer to the armholes I added increases on each side of them to make a kind of gusset, and when I picked up stitches for the sleeves I added the gusset stitches. This way I could continue the cables without interruption.

The negative thing about it is that there is not only a cable but also a seam in the middle of the armhole, which might make it less comfortable than an ordinary gusset, but I wanted to give it a try anyway.

Kanske blir det lite obekvämt med en bred fläta med en söm i mitten i armhålan, men jag kunde inte låta bli att testa en idé jag fick. När jag stickade St Brigid nyligen lade jag till flätor i kanterna på ärmarna och tyckte att det blev snyggt - och då fick jag för mig att jag skulle testa att ha det så hela vägen från höft till handled. För att få en kilform under armarna ökade jag på var sida om flätorna och satte maskorna på trådar efter att jag hade kommit till ärmhålen. Sedan fortsatte jag på dem i samband med att jag plockade upp maskor för att sticka ärmarna.

A helping paw

A helping paw, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

Last weekend I was cat-sitting and made quite a lot of progress supervised by Puma.

I've kept the basic construction of Alice Starmore's design Mystic, but in a slightly different way. Instead of kniting the sleeves separately starting with the cuffs and ending with the shoulder straps, I started with the straps; when they were the right length I picked up stitches along the front and back and added the strap in the middle.

A pattern change is that I've added a net pattern to the sleeves. I think it works well with the anchors, and it is fairly easy to make it follow the shape of the sleeves.

"Mystic" sweater in progress

"Mystic" sweater in progress, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

This is a really difficult colour to capture: in reality it's brighter, greener and bluer.

But not this bright (and the green doesn't show here):

Not that it matters much - the important thing is that it's enjoyable to knit, which it is.

Thanks for all your comments on my Aranish sweater! Summer arrived at long last, so I haven't worn it yet. My impression is that we practically skipped spring this year. Didn't I wear layers and layers of clothes only a few weeks ago? It's a good thing I'm not allergic to wool like one of my friends!