Where Have You Been?
It's been five months since my last entry. During that time, I relaxed with friends and family over the summer months. I also worked on a few knitting projects. The first is this top-down pullover sweater knit using Classic Elite's Classic Silk yarn in colors purple and cream. This was my first time knitting with silk yarn and I loved working with it. The warm silk yarn felt good against my skin as I was knitting.
The pattern, called Incan Pullover, is from Knit Simple magazines Spring/Summer 2008 issue. The designer, Cathy Carron, is known for her top-down designs. There are two versions of the sweater in the magazine. The first, pattern #10, is made using cotton yarn and the second, pattern #11, is made using a worsted weight yarn. I used pattern #11 and made the sweater in size Large.
The sweater was made using 7 skeins of purple and 3 skeins of cream yarns. I admit I didn't do a gauge swatch prior to starting the project and knit the sweater using size 0 40" circular needles. The result is a sweater that looks and feels more like a poncho than an actual pullover sweater. The lack of waist shaping causes the sweater to ride up across my shoulders and towards the front of my body as I move. I find myself having to re-adjust the sweater towards the back of my body. These problems could be due to my knitting in the wrong gauge or using silk yarn rather than the required worsted weight yarn. If I made this sweater again I would make it in a size Medium.
The sweater was meant to be wore in the late spring. However, I underestimated the amount of time it would take to work on the pullover. I started knitting the sweater in early May while vacationing in Washington, DC and didn't finish the sweater until I got back from my summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard in early August.
This project couldn't hold my attention. Since I was also working on more challenging projects along with this one, it was often put to the side. In addition, I was growing bored with continuously knitting in the round.
Once I finished knitting the sweater, I still had to sew up the seams and weave in all the strands of yarn used while knitting in intarsia around the placket, sleeves, and sides of the front and back. It was a daunting task that I avoided as much as possible.
Nevertheless, as the cooler temperatures appoached, I realized that this pullover is perfect to wear with a pair of jeans on the weekends. I decided to dedicate my time to finishing the seams and weaving in the ends. I love it because it is casual and easy to wear.
Joy Friedman
Reader Comments (1)
Just found your blog through the Purl Beehive Community...This is a lovely, lovely sweater...and it's nice to hear what knitting with silk is like, as I've often wondered, but don't know anybody who has...
And I, like you, dread the weaving and seaming! I handed over my BSJ to a friend who actually enjoys weaving in ends (I know, unbelievable, isn't it?), because I changed colours so many times, there were about 40 or so to weave in...yuck! Not as many as what you tackled here (kudos to you!), but enough to make me shudder!
Cheers & Happy Knitting!