Paul Klee Pullover

I am still amazed that I finished reknitting both sleeves and wove in ends by my self-imposed deadline of the night of December 16th so that I could wear it to the knitting salon holiday party the next day.

I did. I wore it all day even though the weather was warm -- the day's high was about 59!

I joked that I might wear it to bed and it was really hard to take it off at night.

While I generally prefer my sweaters to be a little more fitted (10 inches of ease is a bit much), this oversized sweater reminds me of some of my favourite sweatshirts from jr high and later in high school.

It was hard not to wear it again today. I know I'm wearing a different long sleeve shirt underneath. ;)

Other projects keep getting my energy so progress has been incredibly slow.

Progress is progress. And once I finish the first sleeve I get to do it all over again for the second sleeve.

I’ll be here for a while. It’s good Dot made sure I’m comfortable.

I stalled on this project because i wasn’t happy with the neckline. Last night i reknit it. I’m still not thrilled but it’s better and maybe third time will be the charm.

I work on the body of the sweater most nights in front of the TV, it's plain stockinette so it should be easy and fast.

Yesterday I brought it to knitting group. It was much better to knit than the Artus shawl because I didn't have to pay attention.

Why is the body only 11.5cm (4.5 in) from the split for the sleeves? I hope to knit this to a generous tunic length, given the ease I think it needs to be at least 16 inches (40.5 cm) and ideally probably 18 in (45.75 cm) .

Ok, I'll admit yesterday I did more holding up of the pullover and everyone oohed and aahed (it's a great ego boost) ... however it feels much slower than it should. I think some of is the cable length, it's long which is great for trying on, but there is some time spent shifting the stitches around. As I'm using Chiagoo tips I don't have many different length cables so it's either this or ... impossibly short.

I'm not sure I want to switch tips ... so I'll muddle on. I sort of wish I liked cropped sweaters!

I definitely need to pause soon to work the sleeves and decide on a hood or how I'll finish the neckline. I'm definitely going for the big cozy sweatshirt pullover type feel.

When I began the c6 colours, I didn’t have c7 yarns with me. All are blues and they are similar. As there’s no increase between c6 and c7 for my size they stack perfectly. As I work further I can tell that they are far too similar. I have to decide between ripping back two rounds and switching a & b or ripping back further to swap. I think the easier swap will be fine. I do worry that it will look chessboard though as the colour after is purples so they may stand out, I’m trying to resist acquiring more yarn for this project.

Hmm. Decisions decisions!

Interesting, if I look at my original layout of the colours, I’d swapped a and b for this sequence so I guess we’ll see how that goes. Of course I had for the second round of greens too, but it is what it is.

adding later…

I swapped a & b and worked back and forth in the first section. In black and white it looks ok. However I think the issue is that there are many similar colours blended in between the two shades. In large “chunks” you can see the overall difference in colour however in the small 4 stitch 5 row pattern it is too close.

My solution? I ordered more yarn. Hopefully I’ll now have a combination that works. I’m frustrated for not swatching earlier or even simply wrapping the colours around a stick. It’s also hard to be patient and wait for delivery.

As I expected I’m knitting much looser on this yoke than I did on my swatch. I haven’t bothered to measure the difference, I decided I’m ok with all the extra ease. I believe I’ll add a hood and I may make a kangaroo pocket too. It seems to be evolving into that type of garment. At the moment the colours are more autumnal than I expected but as I get to the cooler end of the spectrum I believe it’ll balance out. I would love to knit another in perhaps all blues, neutrals, or natural dyes. Purchasing colour cards will come first, Jamieson and Knit Picks… Bartlett if they offer them (I’ve not checked).

It’s not as hard to count to four this time even after an increase round. However, I misread one of the repeats flipping back and forth between my size and the yoke instructions and rested instead of increasing. Even though it didn’t feel right, I carried on. Ripping out two sections wasn’t fun and even with the extra stitches it was faster to reknit because it felt correct.

I find it challenging to work a gauge swatch for a sweater. There are minute changes to my tension when I work over the full yoke stitches vs a sleeve, for example. I worked my swatch in the round over 44 sts. My swatches don't lie, they don't necessarily tell the full story.

While I love swatching for fun, I don't really enjoy making one for gauge. I just want to start the project already.

How much does gauge matter? I'm debating between working between two sizes. The ease is incredibly generous, and I prefer pullovers a little more fitted. Thankfully the early part -- the colourwork part -- of this sweater is is worked the same for both sizes.

What I will need to figure out more than stitch gauge is my row (technically round) gauge. I need to know when to divide for the sleeves, and since my round gauge is -- according to this swatch -- tighter by 1.25 rounds over four inches, I'll need to do some maths. Previously, I've waited too long to do this and for a top down circular/raglan yoke that does not lead to a good fit. However, in this case, it may probably work in my favor.

There's a few challenges with the swatch I worked and one that is a bit of an elephant. I worked the minimum size (over 44 sts and it's barely 6 inches) making it difficult to measure in the round (as I've not yet cut it to get a more accurate measurement). I didn't work a proper stitch count for the full colour repeat. I neglected to measure my gauge before I tossed it in the water for a wet block.

Why does this matter? While I'm working the sweater I'm measuring unblocked gauge. I need to know how much it changed!

What size will I work? My expectation is I will work looser over the yoke than I did for the swatch. So this is ok, it doesn't matter which of the two sizes I'm aiming for, I'll cast on the same number of stitches. I'm also planning on doing a provisional cast-on and working the neckline later -- either as written or a crew neck. I believe that will change how I knit at the start of the colourwork.

So I'm going to jump in and start the sweater now. Once I finish the yoke I'll need to decide which size I'm working, but for now it's not critical -- the instructions are the same for this part.