Best sweater so far!

Why am I so happy with this sweater? Let me count the ways. 

1. It's cozy and warm.
2. I love the cables. 
3. It's better than the photo I used as inspiration.
4. It's exactly the size I wanted it to be.
5. Technically, I did a good job.

Proof of magenta threads!

Why is it cozy and warm? 

Because I used aran-weight yarn that's a blend of 50% wool and 50% alpaca. It's loosely spun, heathered yarn in a luscious turquoise that's threaded with magenta (which only becomes visible in bright light). 

This yarn came from my stash. My Ravelry notes indicate it was a birthday present from my husband, which means it was thrifted. It's Estelle Yarns Ultra Wool. Ravelry says this was a limited run that ceased production in 2010. Too bad, it's beautiful yarn!

What about those cables? How is it better than the inspiration?

My inspiration photo came from an ad. This is an extremely cheap acrylic number. While the look of it appeals to me, anything I made would be nicer than the original. The elements it had to include were - it had to be a bit oversized, have a deeply cabled yoke, and have cables that continued up into a high and otherwise ribbed collar. 

Some investigation revealed that the cables in the inspiration sweater were probably 5x5, which would be hard for me to knit on a knitting machine. This is because the needles are fixed in position and so you can't, as in hand knitting, squish the stitches together to cross a big number of them. There are ways to do it, but they are a little complicated. Plus, I lacked the tools (transfer tools with more than 3 prongs) to accomplish a 5x5 cable. So I looked elsewhere for a cable pattern I could use. 

I decided to knit a pattern of 3x3 cables. The chart came from the Harmony Guide to Machine Knitting Stitches, a great resource. 

I really like the bumpiness of this cable pattern. My yarn has great stitch definition, and I think the finished cables look even better than the photo in the Harmony Guide. 

This chart works because it creates an allover cabled texture that could continue up into the high neck. I realized I could place the cables so that I had 4 columns of cables (24 stitches in total) with 2 on either side of centre. These 4 columns line up to look (sort of) like braids, as in the inspiration sweater.

What about sizing?

Just slightly oversized - that was my goal. I made a sweater last year that fit just right. I seem not to have blogged about it (my bad). Here is a photo. (More details on my Ravelry project page.)

This sweater was knitted from yarn that was just a bit lighter in weight than the Estelle Ultra Wool, but it's still fairly thick. Its shape is super basic - it's a gansey. The front and back are rectangular and the sleeves have a very shallow cap. I added a gusset under the arm for better fit and comfort. 

Nevertheless it has a fairly deep round front neckline, which works well on me because I have a forward neck. 

I designed this sweater in Garment Designer, so I had the pattern pieces. All I had to do was adjust for a different gauge. 

Here's a photo of the 2 sweaters - they are almost exactly the same size! 

Last but not least - the technical details

I knitted swatches of stockinette, ribbing and the cables. The gauges for each were different. 

The difference between the stockinette and the cables was dramatic. I knit the cables at a bigger stitch size to make it easier to cross the stitches, but still, in order to have no difference in width between the cabled yoke and the rest of the front, I had to add 20 stitches across the front! I did this increase using a garter bar, which allowed me to take all the stitches off the needles and put them back in a different, more spread out configuration. 

The added stitches are completely invisible in the finished piece, which is, as intended, completely straight up the sides. 

I also had to calculate the length of the yoke using the cable specific gauge. I made a separate pattern piece in Garment Designer just for the yoke. 

Because the gauges were so different, I decided not to do shaping for the neckline or shoulders on the machine. This was because shaping would interfere with the cabling and so I would end up with a lot of uncabled stockinette, including all those extra stitches. They would flare out, probably in an unattractive way. 

To avoid flaring in the neck and shoulder areas, I decided (first time ever) to use a cut and sew technique. I took the centre 24 stitches off on waste yarn, and knitted the cabled pattern straight up on either side of these stitches to the length needed for the highest part of the shoulder. 

Then I rehung the centre 24 stitches and continued the cable pattern up for the high neck. I added a stitch on either side for seaming. 

I then used thread basting to identify the lines for the shoulder slope and side neck shaping. I ran 2 lines of straight stitch along the basting to secure the knitting. 

The back of the collar is knitted in rib, which has (luckily) a similar row gauge to the cables. I figured out the number of ribs I needed to get a piece that would be 85% the length of the neckline, minus the centre 24 stitches. The rectangular piece was knitted with open stitches at the top and bottom, as I had decided to attach it to the neckline with hand stitches, and wanted flexibility to rip back a row if needed to make the upper edges of the back collar even with those of the ribbed portion. 

At left, the collar was sewn on. That orange yarn is the waste yarn that secures the top and bottom loops. 

I didn't cut anything until after I had attached the back and front at the shoulders, and attached the back collar. 

I decided to further secure the cut edge by encasing it in bias strips of tricot (similar to Seams Great) from my extensive sewing stash. the tricot on one side using a zig zag stitch, then cut ... very carefully ... before encasing the narrow edge in the tricot with another line of stitching. It isn't particularly beautiful on the inside, but it works and I think it is secure. 

The hand-stitched collar looks pretty fabulous, if I do say so myself. 

I used a backstitch. It looks like a line of purl bumps.

In the end, the back and front of the collar were just the right heights, and I did a similar back stitch finish on the open loops at the top of the collar, all the way around. 

The back hem is a bit longer than the front, and there's a little slit at the side seam. 

The only thing I'm not 100% satisfied with is that the top edge of the cables at the collar curls a bit. I will live with that for a bit before deciding whether it needs fixing.