Granito - Finished!

I was going to write a blog post last week about my progress on my Granito sweater, but I was on the sleeves, the maths for picking up the stitches for them (they're knitted down from the body of the sweater) was straightforward* and I was racing along.  After I'd finished the sleeves, all that was left to do was put the stitches for the pocket backs onto the needles from the waste yarn they'd been put on and knit those.  That was also straightforward because I'd scribbled notes on the pattern regarding how many rounds I'd knitted so far at various points in the pattern, so I knew how many rows I needed to knit so the pocket backs (facings?) finished where the hem ribbing started. 

I sewed the pocket facings to the sweater at knitting group on Monday, sewed in the yarn ends I hadn't got around to doing and yesterday I soaked it and smoothed it out to dry on the floor in the spare room.  Today, I got my sweater drying rack thingammy out and put it in the garden to speed up the drying process.

Here it is:

I'm pretty pleased with it.  There are a couple of areas which could have been done a bit better, particular the top corners of the pockets.  Because those lines down the front are made by slipping two stitches every other round, putting the pocket facing stitches on waste yarn distorted them a little bit.  I also tried knitting on the pocket facings by knitting them together with the 'bar' at the back of the slipped stitch row, but that was too loose for my liking (I know of at least one person who's made this sweater who attached the pocket backs that way, which is how I got the idea to try it), so I undid it and just knitted straight down, which I don't think helped smooth the stitches out.

There were a couple of very minor modifications I made to the pattern.  I went down a needle size for the ribbing at the hem (the pattern doesn't specify to do this) because I know that I don't knit rib particularly tightly and I thought if I used the same size needle as for the rest of the sweater the hem might flip up.  I also knit the first and last stitch on every row of the pocket backs/facings to give me a straighter edge when it came to sew them onto the sweater.  Other than that, I followed the pattern.

I had enough yarn, so didn't have to go with Plan B, which would have been knitting the lower part of the sleeves in a contrast colour and using the same contrast yarn for the pocket facings (I also got that idea from another Raveller).  With that in mind, I did the neck ribbing after I'd knitted the main part of the sweater, then did the sleeves and finally the pocket backs.

The sweater weighs approx 540 grammes and used approx 1290 metres of yarn, leaving me with around 30 grammes of yarn.

Would I make it again?  Yes.  It's a fairly straightforward, but interesting knit and has a nice shape.  If I made it again, I might modify it slightly and twist or cable the stitches running down the sweater instead of having the slipped stitch columns.

As it's a nice sunny day, here's a photo I took earlier of the sweater hanging up on the garden fence!

I've now started crocheting a rather large blanket, so a bit about that next time.

Not Knitting Socks!

I finished DD2's third pair of socks:

They didn't take long and there's plenty of yarn left.  I'm going to learn a different cast-on for the toe next time because my usual Judy's Magic Cast-On method means that to get the socks to match, I have to start the yarn at the same point in the repeat resulting in the little line of a different colour right at the toe.  I think a figure-of-eight or Turkish cast-on might eliminate that, so I'll give it a go.

Not that I'm going to be needing to use such a cast-on for a while as I've cast on a sweater!

I've had my eye on Granito by Joji Locatelli for a while now and decided to spin the yarn for it.  I chose a merino/silk blend from World of Wool called Libra:

Photo borrowed from the World of Wool website

This fibre is a blend of five colours of merino - Fuchsia, Jonquil, Clementine, Flo Pink and Citrus - plus bleached Tussah Silk.  Once I'd spun it into a 3ply yarn, the colours had blended into a gingery-orange with pink hints!

This photo isn't actually the completely finished yarn though as, after washing and drying it, I decided it needed a bit more twist, so ran the whole lot through my wheel again and then washed and dried it for a second time!

I knitted a swatch and washed and dried it:

and was pleased that I got the gauge that I wanted (or close enough) so I cast on my Granito sweater last week and, so far, I'm pleased with it.

It's an interesting construction.  It's seamless, but the construction is different to other top-down sweaters I've knit.  The back shoulders are each cast on and a few rows worked, before being joined and then short-rows are worked to shape the shoulder slope before the stitches are put on hold.  Each front shoulder is started by picking up stitches from the back shoulders, but with the wrong side of the back facing, which gives a decorative 'seam' across the shoulders and then each side of the front is worked, with more short rows before being joined up and then knitted down until the front is the same length as the back and then the front and back are joined and then knitted down until it's the correct length for the next stage, which is pockets!  As if all that wasn't enough, can you see the vertical 'seam' at either side of the front?  That's made by slipping stitches every other row.

I've had to stop and think about this on more than one occasion, but I'm loving it!

I'm just hoping I've got enough yarn (although I've got a Plan B) in cast I run out!