sweater

The sad sweater you read about a while back is sad no more - it's done and gorgeous!

Now this is a truly modular sweater. Part top-down, part bottom-up, part both: one sleeve is top-down, one bottom-up and still I had to rip and reknit both cuffs as they were too short (like the hem, too). I'm so proud of myself not giving up on this project; I didn't even want to at any point!

Poor sweater, what have I done to you?

This is a sad story about a top-down raglan sweater, which had an "accident" and has now become a bottom-up raglan sweater. Let me start from the beginning...

A while back I finally started on my husband's sweater. I decided on bulky yarn and a top-down raglan recepie for calculating my own gauge. So I measured my tall and skinny husband, I measured my gauge swatch and started knittting. I made him try the sweater on again and again, and everything seemed just fine. Until the sweater body and one sleeve were finished. That's when I noticed I had made way too many raglan increases - the armpit of the sweater was at least two inches too low, giving the sweater a batwing-kind of sleeve look and loads of extra fabric at the armpit.

I did it! I've knit Owls! Not that that makes me so special - it is currently the most knit sweater pattern on Ravelry , but if you read my blog, you will know that I'm not the big sweater knitter. So every sweater feels like an accomplishment, like having climbed a mountain. In this case, rather small mountain, as this sweater was really quick to knit! And I love it!

Pattern: Owls
Needles: 5,5mm circular, must have been 80 cm long
Yarn: Marks & Kattens Eko Ull, 100% organic wool from New Zealand. I used 380 grams, that's a little less than 8 balls.

Here it is. Finally! I bought the yarn for it in March, and finally I have started knitting my Owls sweater.

Due to my loose hand and Marks&Kattens Eco Ull yarn (lovely organic 100% wool) I'm knitting on 5mm needles instead of 6,5. I'm still working the L size, hoping that my gauge will match the one given! If not I'll need to lose a few pounds!

Oh and the Irish knitters are having an Owls KAL at the moment, so I'm kind of secretly joining them :)

And it's gorgeous! I can't say how pleased I am with it. It was quick and fun knit, fits me great, is soft and light, and well - my first finished sweater! Feel free to congratulate me (hih hih!)

The last picture is the most reliable regarding colour - it's black.

Here's the stats:

Needles: 4mm circulars, 80 cm long. Yarn: Novita Julia, 30% wool, 70% acrylic. I got it on sale - the material costs of this sweater are around 7 euro! Size is Medium, I think. There were some mistakes in the pattern in the beginning, but I was able to figure them out. I then told the designer and she corrected them.

This seems to be a time for firsts. First design, and now an almost finished first sweater. I can't believe I   have not blogged the progress of this prior to this post! I started it some time back, and am using the Xylem pattern.

I will post more photos and the stats once I get it finished - it's still missing finishing around the neck, and serious blocking for the hem.

It's actually black, just looks purplish here!