knitabit

Lochinver De-briefing and critique

Lochinver is from Alice Starmore's "Fishermens Sweaters." Here are the particulars:

Yarn, Pattern and Needles

I used Naturally "Aspiring" Yarn, a wool/alpaca blend DK weight yarn from New Zealand. At first, I thought this yarn was too soft but in the end I think it's just fine. It does have the longer alpaca fuzzy 'hairs' but they don't bother me at all. The yarn is a camel color - I would have preferred something a bit bolder but I didn't care for other colors in stock in the yarn store at the time. I was pretty much set on this particular make of yarn - the price was reasonable and it is SO SOFT.

I used Denise's Interchangeable needles, size 5 circulars. This is the smallest size in the system. I liked the way you could use the cords as stitch holders.

Once I got to the sleeves, I switched to double point needles; I don't know why I didn't buy size 5 circ's -- I hate dpns! I used size 3's (I had circ's in that size) for the cuffs and the collar.

My test swatch was pretty close to gauge; but I blocked it to a slightly larger size (more about that later.) I checked my gauge periodically as I was knitting and it was always pretty close.

I think the pattern is for men's sizes! I normally wear a women's medium or large, but I knit up the size small for this pattern, and it's PLENTY big enough.

The pattern is VERY well written and I can't recall any instance in which I had to guess about a vague instruction.

Modifications

I pretty much knit it up as per the pattern, including the cast-on recommended at the back of the book. I used a kitchener cast-off for the cuffs and collar and am really pleased with how that turned out.

Finishing and Blocking

This is the first time I've knit a sweater in the round and boy, do I love it! The only finishing I had to do was to hide fewer than a couple of dozen yarn ends, tack down the collar overlap (about 7 hand stitches!) and sew on two buttons. I really hate finish work, so it was a real treat to finish up knitting and have the sweater be virtually complete! I will try to look for patterns that work this way in the future, and will plan to learn all about steeks when I get to knitting a fair-isle sweater.

When I was done knitting, I noted that the purl ridges (the horizontal lines separating the different stitch patterns) were a little bit wavy. Most of the stitch patterns had enough of a rib-like quality to cause them to pull in a little tighter than plain stockinette or reverse stockinette. So I decided to block the sweater to a bit of a larger dimension to remove the wavies. And that worked just great! So that's why the sweater turned out a little bit larger than the pattern called for.

I might re-wash and re-block it to get it a little bit smaller. The neckline is especially stretched out, and I'd like to relax those stitches a bit. The pattern shows the collar coming up much higher on the model's neck; I don't mind the way it hangs lower on my version, however.

Workmanship

I kept a pretty constant gauge - even though I knit this over the course of nearly 4 months. (I'm proud of that!)

However, you can see on the sleeves where the dpn's were. Also, I don't think I picked up stitches around the neck as neatly as one could. I saw in the "Big Book of Knitting" some suggestions for neater necklines - I will try those on my next project. There were a couple of stitches around the underarm gussets that were really large - practically leaving a hole in the work. I had to pull the stitch tighter and tie little knot to close those holes.

Every time I made a mistake, I went back and fixed it - even when it meant ripping out rows and rows of work.

Wearability

This sweater is very warm. It's too warm to wear around the house doing busywork - like packing up suitcases, etc. But it feels really comfy here at the cabin. I probably won't be wearing it to the office or to places where the climate might get too stuffy. It will be great for wearing outdoors!

It's got a bulky, oversize fit to it, but I think that comes with the territory when you're knitting ganseys. The underarm gussets add to the bulky fit, I think.

The Verdict
I like this sweater! I also liked knitting it - I picked up a bunch of new skills. I am anxious to try a big fair-isle project, as I think it will be more interesting switching colors rather than switching between knit and purl stitches.

Comments

Karen, Lochinver is absolutely gorgeous and the yarn looks so soft and nice to wear. I made a smaller size for my second Starmore sweater because the first one is large enough to fit both DH and myself simultaneously.

Posted by: Nanette at December 29, 2003 12:18 AM

Beautiful sweater! Congratulations
Robin

Posted by: Robin at December 29, 2003 09:05 AM

Thanks for providing allthese details. I have Lochinver on the needles right now; you've motivated me to pick it uo again. Beautiful work!

Posted by: Louise at December 29, 2003 09:10 AM

Wouldn't surprise me especially if this were a men's pattern; although Lochinver is an area of Scotland, Lochinvar (of which Lochinver is maybe a variant?) was a knight: see http://www.bartleby.com/41/442.html

Posted by: Patricia Tryon at December 29, 2003 09:06 PM