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Friday 1 February 2008

In which I explain more about Tangled Yoke - substitutions and gauge change

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I knit a sweater in Felted Tweed last year (Salina) and though I loved working with the yarn, I didn't want a whole sweater out of it just yet. For some reason, I also knew wholeheartedly that Tangled Yoke, for me, should be a pullover. Before I started knitting it, I found this henley version, which is truly lovely, but again, not for me.

I was originally eyeing up Cascade 220 for my version, but couldn't pass up a gorgeous bag of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK in a deep lime green, which I scored for £20. Well, by scored, I mean, wiped a small tear from my eye as I paid for it, because it's been discontinued. Woe.

So here I am, different gauge, pullover, etc. The swatch gave me 5.75 sts/in after being knit in the round and washed, a fairly significant difference form the original pattern, so I struck out on my own, basing my stitch count on a schematic I made of a favourite pullover.

tangled yoke schematic

Those are my measurements, should you ever care to knit something for me. *wink*

I knit and everything was lovely. I was knitting the Tangled Yoke for NaKniSweMo, way back in November. Remember that? I knit like the wind, like a fiend, I was in love with the yarn, with the pattern, I struggled through the cabling and persevered, and then? This.

NaKniNearlyFinished

See all that buckling? This is when I learned it was WAY too big at the top. Like, handfuls too big, at least 20 or 30 stitches too many from the bust up. I wailed and gnashed my teeth, but went ahead and finished the sweater as best as I could, basically running out of yarn in the process.

Tangled Yoke Finished (but sucky)

Then two days later I ripped out the yoke to the armpits and the body to the waist, determined to make everything better...

1 comment:

Felicity Ford said...

Thanks so much for this detailed, step-by-step post; it is really useful to read about the steps with gauge, stitch numbers etc. and also to see how you've mapped out the important measurements for a sweater!