Work in Progress Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!  I've been knitting away on my lavender cardigan.  I started it a week ago Tuesday and mentioned it in last week's WIPW.  It's amazing how much you can get done when you focus on one project and are on vacation.  Here is where it was a week ago.

I mentioned that it was a top down set in sleeve construction called English Tailoring.  I had heard it mentioned by JC Briar in a class once but had never seen instructions for it until seeing Julie Weisenberger's ebook on it.  You start with the back neck, then do the back shoulders by doing increases (knit front and back) and then holding the back stitches on waste yarn, pick up for the front shoulders, knit three inches straight down.  Then knit across a front, pick up for arm stitches and knit across the back.  That is where I was last Wednesday.

Here's where I am now.  Body is complete including the ribbing at the bottom.  One sleeve is done and second is maybe halfway.  I  picked out buttons yesterday - I have learned that it is better to pick the buttons first and make the buttonholes match them than be stuck with buttonholes that aren't size to the buttons you like.

Here are some more pictures with the details.

 Here is a close up of the shoulder join.  Basically this shoulder seam sits behind the top of the shoulder, on the back.  You can see that it makes a nice tailored looking join.
I will confess that I wanted to do this pattern very badly - it is the last and most advanced in her ebook.  I did not bother doing the intro lessons of course, nor was I deterred by the fact that the pattern was for worsted weight and I had DK weight yarn (Cestari Island Collection - have I mentioned how much I love this yarn!!!).  So I redid the calculations for my gauge - perhaps a bit ambitious.  Laying flat like this you can see that the front shoulder is a bit gathered.  It looks great on, but you can see it laying flat.

Here is a better picture of the arm cap.  The flat section across the top basically becomes the top of the shoulder - you can see the trapezoidal shape of the sleeve cap.

It looks great on and molds to the shoulder well.  Now I did other modifications to match my shape (broad shoulders, small bust, bigger hips).  I added vertical darts (a la Amy Herzog Knit to Flatter) but those pictures didn't come out well.

Here are some other shots.  Shoulder, arm and front with v neck.  That dimple at the shoulder/arm/body join doesn't show up when wearing it.  Well, not as much.

Detail of the underarm shaping.  In general, I'm very happy with this type of tailoring.  I know want to go back and do the intro lesson baby sweater and there is a top down coat pattern I really like.  The instructions for the pattern are a little bit confusing and the schematic is not even close to matching the pictures for sweater length but that is a minor problem.  With luck, I'll have this finished and blocked in a week or so to show on a Friday.



In the meantime, happy knitting.  Check out all the great projects at Tami's.