My Sleeveless Shell is Done

It is done! I finished sewing in all the ends this morning. Since it is actually wearable, I am probably being over critical by saying I am not super happy with it. But if my whole point was to learn something in the making of it -- learn I did.

I learned a lot about converting a pattern from a hand pattern to a machine. The pattern gave a gauge that was for width of 17 stitches = 4 inches; but it did not give the number of rows per inch. It was a pattern that expected you to measure as you go. Well on a machine, when your sweater is stretched out with weights, it is rather hard to measure. My fall back was the swatch that I did. I measured the number of rows and then tried to determine how many rows I needed to have in order to get a good length. I am guessing my math was off or my knitting on the sweater was different from the swatch for I am about 3 inches short in length. Most of that length should be in the "bodice". It feels rather snug in the arm area. When looking at my picture and at the picture with the pattern, you can see that my neckline is higher and that there is not as much length in the straps. The lesson learned here for me: Be selective with the pattern. Make sure that it has everything you need to convert easily to machine knitting -- rows included.

I had trouble with the yarn. It is not very resilient when you have to pull out a row and re-knit it. The 8 plies come apart easily and when re-knit they look slightly different. I think that if I had picked a solid color, it would have been more apparent so I am glad I went with a variegated yarn. While it is soft and silky feeling, I think that it will get a lot of pulls in it.

The cable really looks nice and neat, it turned out much better than I hoped. I actually changed the cable to twist every 10 rows as opposed to 12 rows -- but that was a total accident. I miscounted on the number of rows when I did the first cross over and I didn't want to go back and pull it out because of the yarn plies coming apart.

Well, I might try this pattern again as I do like the sweater. However, I think that I will try it with a wool blend and stay away from the bamboo cotton blend. Perhaps I will try this pattern by hand where I can measure it the way the pattern is written.

Or maybe I will just stick to socks.