Sweater Adventure

As I said in one of my earlier posts, " Using the pattern book would have been a logical way of learning how to use the [Bond] machine, -- but I have never been too logical." So with little practice behind me, I have jumped right in to sweater production.

First sweater attempt -- this is the back. The yellow yarn is
waste yarn and is not part of the project.

I decided that the best thing to do would be to make a "practice sweater". So I dragged out some old acrylic yarn that I did not like to knit or crochet with anymore and decided to make myself a sweater. I figured if it looked lousy it could just be one I wore to work in the yard.

Four hours later, I pulled the back of the sweater off of the knitting machine and thought, "this looks a little big. . ."

Lesson Learned:

Read the directions CAREFULLY. The yarn called for in the pattern was "light worsted" I missed the word light and used worsted weight. A sweater size 42 turned into a 54. Hmmmmm.

******************************************

Un-raveling the yarn was rather fun. Normally taking apart a project would leave me a weeping mess; but the fact that it took me only four hours to knit the back of a sweater big enough for a 300 pound linebacker, gave me the ability to rip away! As I was ripping out all the stitches, it occurred to me that maybe I should make a smaller sweater -- something more along the lines of what a child would wear. Thank the good LORD for making little great-nephews! He's going to get a sweater whether he likes it or not. But I still had the "light worsted vs worsted weight" issue. 

Lesson Learned:

The math you learned in 5th grade still works today. If the light worsted  is 17 stitches to 4 inches, and the worsted weight that I used is 15 stitches to 4 inches, then to get the same size sweater, I just take the number of stitches, divide by 17 and multiply by 15.  So for the cast on, the pattern called for 62 stitches. Sixty-two divided by 17 and multiplied by 15 is 54.706. That is almost 55, but I was pretty sure I needed an even number of stitches, so I used 56. For what ever reason, the gauge called for 23 rows and I was getting that with the worsted weight; I think that has more to do with the keyplates than the size of the yarn.

Notice again, my interesting weights.

I love the colors that I used. I think it is really "manly" looking. It will be cute on a little boy. (I certainly hope it is wearable).  Now I am ready to steam the back to remove the curl and then it is on to the front of the sweater! Wish me luck!

Pinned out for steaming -- I need to buy some
blocking wires.