What would you do differently?

If I knit this sweater again:

I will use only one stand of yarn for the hems and the button and collar bands. I used two strands for the bottom hem and sleeve hems. They seem bulky compared to the rest of the sweater.

I will leave out the shaping. I think the casual style (no buttons) lends itself better to an unshaped sweater.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by KnitWhich? on May 29, 2009 at 4:10pm

Thanks, Amanda. I'll try the single strand bind off as well. I do plan to try out the single strand hem before I decide which I'll do.

Permalink Reply by Angela on May 27, 2009 at 8:56am

Thanks for all the tips. I've been going back and forth about whether to do the waist shaping or not, and I think I'll skip it this time after reading your comments. I have about two more repeats on my sleeve and then I get to start the body!! Woo-hoo!

Permalink Reply by Karen Monnett on May 27, 2009 at 2:07pm

I like the double strand, it gives some body to the hems and keeps them in place. I am not using the shaping either because I am sort of round and therefore don't need shaping at the waist.

Permalink Reply by Peggy Stuart on May 30, 2009 at 6:43am

Karen: I'm thinking about skipping the waist shaping, too, but for the opposite reason. My waist and upper body are small in relation to my hips, so I look better in tops that are a little blousey. As long as the shoulders fit, and the raglan shaping should make that easier. I may put in a pocket, though, but if I do, it will be an afterthought pocket, so I can decide where I want it. It would be fun to document all the changes people have made to this project to make it their own. A lot of the changes have come about because of the brainstorming in the KAL. --P

Permalink Reply by parisribbons on May 27, 2009 at 3:34pm

Oh,dear! I'm having palpitations! Somehow I missed the bit about washing the swatch. Can
you believe it? I've done dumb before but this takes the cake. My gauge was perfect so I
thought I had it made. How much does this stuff shrink? I suddenly realized that all the wool
sweaters I had years ago - I dry cleaned them. I have 1 sleeve and the entire body up to
the sleeves done. I can't frog that much. It feels like the top of my head is blowing off.
( OK, I'm just a tad melodramatic.) But this is the limit. --- Judith

Permalink Reply by Angel on May 28, 2009 at 3:00am

Judith, My swatch actually got a little bigger after washing it. You will probably be fine because there is alot of give in the fabric. If it's a little snug, you could block it out to fit you.

Permalink Reply by Amy on June 3, 2009 at 7:53am

Now that I've seen Amanda's finished cardigan with the contrast color on the inside hems, I want to do that for my current sweater! But! I don't want to frog everything I've done (two sleeves and a couple inches on the body) in order to add color to the hems of the sleeve and the bottom of the sweater. What is everyone's opinion of only having the contrast color on the inside of the neckband and front bands? I have plenty of time to decide, but I'd like to hear what other people think.

P.S. If it's relevant, my MC is Basalt Heather and my CC is Shimmer Lip Gloss.

Permalink Reply by KnitWhich? on June 3, 2009 at 10:51am

Having the contrast on just the neck and front is fine. It will give it a 'professional' look. I almost did that with mine because I thought I might run out of yarn, but I had enough MC to do the whole thing. But I may do that with my next one. I'll see how it goes, once the yarn comes in.

Joanne

Permalink Reply by Amanda S on June 8, 2009 at 12:48pm

Actually, that's exactly what I did! :) The inside of the bottom hem and sleeves is in my MC, and I only added the CC to the collar and front band. I like it. I don't think you need to frog at all. :)

Permalink Reply by Amy on June 8, 2009 at 1:13pm

Awesome. Thanks for the feedback. I will definitely be adding some CC to the inside of my neckband and front bands. =)

Permalink Reply by karenhuntz on June 3, 2009 at 11:13pm

Yea, I'm done! See pics on the finished sweater and steek discussions.
What I would do differently: accept that I tend to knit different gauges for 2 small circs vs large circ. Actually put size 44 sleeves on size 40 body, worked fine. I would carefully cast on to prevent flipping (was able to block this out after lots of fretting), and knit straight for 2 rows before joining in the round. The slight gap is in the steek anyway, and much easier to connect without twisting. Next spring I will try not to do a gauge critical project while doing spring weeding/planting. Sore arm muscles also messed with my gauge.
What I would do the same: glad I changed yarn, even though the chosen yarns are beautiful. I stopped counting after frogging the body 5 times (see above), I'm afraid I would have destroyed the yarns and my nerves if I'd used 3 strands. I used 1 strand of Imagination Gingerbread throughout (No sweat to get gauge as specified). Very soft and comfy. Glad I didn't "knit up" the hems. Tried, but ended up with slight bias, and was much happier with my hand sewing efforts. Happy I reinforced the steek on the machine, did the middle 2 stitches of the steek in purl stitches, this made a foolproof target for the scissors.(see the steek disc.) The washaway stabilizer worked great, no tearing! In general, no fears about doing a steeked sweater in the future, even thinking about getting another sweaters' worth of yarn at the sock summit.
Karen

I had really wanted to add a zipper, but the yarn softened a lot after a washing, so glad I went with coat hooks and eyes instead. At least now I know if I'm freezing on a plane I can fasten it enough to stay warm.

Permalink Reply by Beth on September 1, 2010 at 5:09am

This is a great thread, even for those of us knitting the Classic Lines Cardigan a year later.

I'm almost finished with the raglan decreases and about to go into the short row shaping of the neckline.