Wednesday 13 February 2013

Simple Summer Tweed sweater

I've got several WIPs at the moment.  Here's one I started on Saturday:

The pattern is the Simple Summer Tweed V-Neck sweater which as you've probably guessed from the photo is a top-down raglan sweater.  The yarn is some RYC Cotton Jeans in the colour Canvas, which is a neutral greyish-beige.  I bought the yarn from Kemps - for something silly like 99p per balls.  The tension for the pattern said 16 sts per 4 inches which I got with 5mm needles, but thought was a bit floppy, so I've gone down to a 4.5mm needle and am doing the large size instead of the medium.  The thing that's so good about a top-down sweater like this one is that if you need to, you can do a few extra increases (or fewer) and add in some plain rounds before dividing for the sleeves to get a good fit.  I'm hoping this will be one of those casual sweaters that works with a lot of things in my wardrobe through spring and early summer (probably the whole of the summer if this year's weather is anything like that of the last few years).

As this is now just rounds and rounds of knit stitches as I work down the sleeves, with the occasional decrease to taper them slightly, it's good tv or book-reading knitting.

I divided for the sleeves yesterday afternoon and then knitted the body until I'd got to the end of the ball of yarn I was using.  Then I put the body stitches on some waste yarn to hold them, popped it over my head to check the fit and then started on the first sleeve.  By doing the sleeves first, I'll know how much yarn I've got available to do the rest of the body and the neck band.  The sleeves and hem of the sweater don't have any bands - it's just casting off and letting the fabric roll a bit (I think - I haven't read it through properly).

I also finished DD1's Sheep Heid hat on Monday and it was blocked and dried overnight.  I did try to get a decent-looking photo yesterday morning once she'd put it on, but she got a sudden attack of the teenage grumps and this is the best I could do:


I'll get it back from her this afternoon when she gets home from school and see if I can do better.  After all the work I put into it, never mind the many ends that needed to be sewn in, I think some better photos are required.

I do have a couple of other things on the needles, but I'll show you those next time - my camera battery needs charging for a start.

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