I have a finished object for you!
It’s a good one, and one I’m very proud of.
Specs:
Started: October 1st 2007
Finished: November 8th 2007
Yarn: Rowan’s Felted Tweed. 7 balls in color Treacle, and not too much of one ball in Ginger. If I hadn’t knit the thing too wide for 13 inches, I might have gotten away with 6 balls of the main color. Live and learn.
Needles: 3.75mm (us5) for the body, and 3.25mm (us3) for the ribbing.
Pattern: None! This one is all me. Knit from the bottom up, in the round to the armholes, then divided and worked back and forth to the shoulders. This one is drop shoulder, so it was easy enough to just pick up stitches and figure out decreases down to the wrists.
The only part that I had anticipated trouble with was the crew neck, and I wasn’t wrong. I wanted it to fit very close to the neck. I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but all the crew necks in the patterns I’ve looked at, seem to be cast off way far away from the neck, which I don’t understand. So when I planned this one, I knew I wanted it to be much closer fitting. I reknit the ribbing twice, the first time it wasn’t pulling in close enough. Then, after it was done, and Brandt had worn it once, he asked if I could even bring it in more. So I undid the bind off, knit a few more rows, decreasing a third of the stitches on the last row, then I bound off again, with with needles 5 times bigger (5mm,US8), than I had knit the ribbing with (3.25mm, US3), holding one strand of elastic with the yarn. Worked like a charm. Surprisingly enough, I winged the shaping for the collar, and nailed it the first time round.
Of course, it helps alot when the recipient of the sweater is available for fittings pretty much around the clock. One of my favorite parts was knitting the stripes. Especially on the cuffs, it was totally satisfying to knit with orange after all the plumy main color. Thanks to the boxy-ness of this sweater, it was a great mindless knit for awhile, just around and around in stockinette, which is one of the reasons I knit it so quickly. Also, I couldn’t wait to see it finished and on my handsome man.
He loves this sweater and wears it all the time since I officially finished it last Thursday. I am going to extend the sleeve cuffs just a little bit though, they end right at the wrists now, so just a little bit more and they’ll be perfect. I love custom knits! So. Much. Fun.
I think that he’ll wear this as much as possible, so I’m already planning man sweater #2, also in Felted Tweed, gotta have more than one hand knit sweater in rotation you know.
Well done! Isn’t it nice to have an appreciative (and handsome) recipient?
It looks fantastic!!! And you sound super happy! 🙂
Oooh, love the sweater, great job! and the model too. Perfect match. He needs to quit his dayjob!
Very nice! I love the colour combo. Maybe I should knit something like that for my man. Congrats on going patternless.
That came out so nice! I absolutely love the colors, and it looks just great on the intended 🙂
wow I immediate was looking for the corresponding Rowan pattern because that is some professional workwomanship!! I love the color combo and working the last row with elastic is ingenious!
FABulous!!
Very nice! Great fit, and I love the colours you chose. I agree completely about crew necks. What’s the point of of a sweater if you have a draft coming down your neck all the time?
Looks great! Again I am a little envious of all of you that have husbands or boyfriends that will let you knit things for them. My husband adamently refuses for me to make him anything, even a hunting orange sock hat!
Wow! It looks great and how awesome is it that he loves it?!
that is fantastic! I love the color combo and the tweediness!
Wow! Awesome sweater. Great fit on the neck. Having just finished a man sweater with a crew neck, I know exactly the challenges. Your solution seems to have worked perfectly. I’m taking notes for when I knit the next one.
It’s *gorgeous*.
Wonderful sweater – what a lucky guy! ;o)
That is such a handsome sweater! You did a great job on it. I think I have some of that yarn. I might have to dig it out now!
Totally love it. May have to bookmark it as the Celtings are getting bigger by the second. THIS is what a nice man sweater is all about.
It looks great on him, and how nice to have such a willing model. Hi to Brandt!
I so liked this sweater when you were working on it in Rhinebeck and I like it even more on Brandt! Well done!!
Congrats on finishing the sweater! It looks fantastic! 🙂
Fantastic sweater! I love the orange stripes, and the lovely brown tweed. Wonderful job, the collar is perfect!
LOVE!! very dashing. and good for you knitting a nice-sized manly sweater, nay, TWO (well, in the future) out of smallish-gauge felted tweed.
I really love that sweater. I love the colors a lot and think you did a fantastic job on the crew neck! I just stumbled across your blog and am reading it backwards so you are probably going to get some more comments on long-forgotten posts! 🙂