03-06-2017

I’m naming this Owl Creek, Aspen because I plan to make a shorter version of Aspen and Owl Creek is in one of the valleys around Aspen. I bought yarn to make another Exeter but I’d rather make a new-to-me pattern and I like the cables in Aspen. So here I go, starting with sleeves as a lazy way to swatch; if I don’t make gauge, I’ll just start over, no biggie.

Originally, I thought I’d knit the back & fronts top down so I could adjust the length on the fly according to the amount of yarn I have. But then I started making the sleeves cuff up and think that the sweater will look wonky if I have to start the hem in the middle of one of the cable repeats instead of starting them all at once. So I’m going to make an educated guess about how many decreases up the body to start (original cast-on)-(decreases)=my cast-on, with the number of cable repeats taken into account as well, along with the belt loops, which I may or may not skip (haven’t decided about the belt yet).

03-09-2017

Do a set up row for the cable charts after finishing ribbing; use last row of each chart on a WS row.

Sleeve Notes (03-22-2017)

• Tubular cast-on 4” cuff of 2x2 ribbing
• Finished decreases at 18” from CO edge
• Had to do the last 4 decreases every other row instead of every 4 because I knew I was close to cap shaping, which I should’ve started at 16”.
• Sloped bind-off is very neat looking; I’ll probably incorporate this in all my sleeves moving fwd.
• Used a little less than 1 skein per sleeve.
• Post-seaming: I didn’t make the sleeves short enough; in other words, they’re too long not to fold over, but the fold over cuff is shorter than the original. The sleeves for Exeter are similar, but the cuff is so long that when I put my hands through, the cuff comes undone and I have to re-fold it every time I put the sweater on - these sleeves are shorter enough not to unfold when I put the sweater on.

Fronts Notes 04-17-2017

I finished the fronts last night. Notes: I guessed about where to start the neckline shaping and, TBH, wanted it to be slightly higher than the original since this is shorter than the original. The result is that I was only able to fit in 14 neckline decreases, ending with 33 stitches for each front (instead of 27). The math doesn’t quite jive - I may have written down an extra decrease - but suffice to say I have more stitches than I’m supposed to. I’m banking on making adjustments to the collar to compensate for this. BTW, tubular cast-on but with recommended stitch count -5 (so 5 side shaping decreases in).

05-12-2017

Shoulders: did short rows on fronts & back & 3 needle BO of shoulder seams, which looked wonky so I also matress stitched 1 row before the 3 needle BO together & it looks fine now.

Collar: picked up 3st for every 4 rows & 1 for 1 on the back st. Did 7 short rows per side, almost to shoulder seams.

05-16-2017

I finished seaming today and just need to sew buttons on to call this complete. However, the collar is pulling up so much that I’m going to rip it out and redo it, picking a stitch up for each row rather than 3 st for every 4 rows. I like where the last buttonhole/button ended up - at the beginning of the short rows, 4 stitches past the first decrease marker for the neckline, so hopefully I’ll get that right. Also, the neckline starts exactly where I planned/hoped it would - a bit higher than the original but not too high. I just need to rest my hand for a day or two thanks to an RSI from knitting.

05-26-2017

Collar (2nd try) & Button Notes
Picked up 1 st per row for the button bands & collar which resulted in the perfect collar & button bands. Also I knit all the short rows this time (I don’t know what I was thinking the 1st time around) so the collar is pleasingly fuller. The top button & button hole cut are about 1” into the short rows; I may end up taking that button out and pretending the button hole doesn’t exist - it works okay, but makes the collar smaller (obviously). Buttons are from Benno’s Buttons & Trimmings - style M-7901 13/16”.

I have 1.5 skeins of yarn left - wish I had added just a bit more length, but at the same time it hits about mid-hip and is perfect, just what I was hoping for.