EZ October Sweater

“The Old Man, on reading what follows, said, ‘They will sue you.’ I said ‘Why?’. He said, ‘They will be bald.’ I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘They will tear out their hair.’” Knitter’s Almanac, p. 110.

Of course I am only more attracted to this sweater after such warnings.

I didn’t, however, really think the bald look will work for me, so I attempted to unravel this sweater in miniature before starting in earnest on the real thing. I pulled some leftover sock yarn (Claudia Handpaints, Eat Your Veggies)
from the stash and picked up my #1 DPNs and provisionally cast on 84 stitches. Why 84? Well, I can’t always be trusted with math, so I figured 100 would be a good key number. The sweater starts with 85%, and I rounded down to an even number. This cast-on edge will later be woven together to form the outer-collar edge. It occurs to me now that if one used a figure-8 cast-on, one could avoid the weaving at the end.

I then decreased on each side every other row until I had 64 stitches, and then cast off 16 stitches in the middle of one side.



Next, I rejoined in the round and start a lopsided version of raglan shaping.


(Sweater is facing left.)

I cast off for the sleeves when I had 25 stitches, as the mini-sweater needn’t be functional and I had little interest in knitting tiny sleeves for it. At the same time, I put the extra stitches in the front on waste yarn. I cast off 16 for the back neck opening, so I put 16 stitches on waste yarn for the center front, giving me an 8-stitch facing for my neck opening. As before, I rejoined under the pouch (and at the same time cast on 8 stitches at each underarm) and continued knitting the body for a few more rounds, a few garter ridges, and cast off.


I grafted the collar, too.

Now for the fun part, Phase 2 of the neck shaping. I crocheted my small steek, and cut.



Then, I put the live stitches of the facing on a needle, and knit some more facing. Just a few garter ridges, and then I cast off.



Voila!



Now, about the real thing. I’m no longer sure that the October sweater is the ticket for my green Patina. It will be pretty warm with the facings, even in cotton, and especially with the silk content. Here in the land of endless summer, single-thicknesses are best.

Maybe, someday, a fine-guage winter sweater? If I can work up the nerve to knit long sleeves top-down in the round... I do hate turning the whole sweater.