KNITTING A SWEATER - Completing My Petite Knit Wednesday Sweater
I’ve fallen behind in my updates! In my last post about this sweater, I linked the yarns and pattern used, and showed my process up to the point of completing the front a back yokes. Things went fast from there! I don’t think I am a particularly fast knitter (I knit “continental” style), but this project was truly my security blanket during a time of big changes. I knit whenever I needed a moment to relax, space out, focus on something other than moving. My goal was to complete the sweater before we moved out of the hotel and into a rental flat, but we found a flat sooner than expected. I still knit the sweater in under a month, which…..next time I will go more slowly!
I’m not sure if I mentioned sizing in my last post. This is the Petite Knit Wednesday Sweater, and the size chart puts me at size Medium. Based on the amount of ease built in to the design, I chose to size down for the body to size Small. However, for the sleeves and length of the body, I kept to size Medium. So in the end, my sweater is a blended S/M; all other modifications will be explained in this post.
The body of the sweater practically knit itself. It’s stockinette stitch in the round, which is wonderfully repetitive, mindless knitting. I stopped when my ball of wool yarn ran out (conveniently at the point the pattern has you switch to rib). I wasn’t sure if I would want to lengthen the sweater - I am 5’8”, and always lengthen bodices when sewing. I left my long circular needle in, and moved on to the turtleneck.
The turtleneck and sleeve cuffs are knit in half twisted rib, in the round (hem is same stitch, but not knit in the round). I did not enjoy learning this stitch, because I found if I made a mistake, I had a hard time fixing it - the loop of my previous stitch needed to be half twisted, and I always “fixed” it wrong. This meant I ripped out the whole turtleneck a couple times before I figured it out. I now feel like I really understand the stitch. But after all that mindless stockinette, I wasn’t super excited about the challenge.
The turtleneck is quite long! I love it! It takes a while to knit, because the stitch shrinks up a bit as the yarn relaxes - so, every time you step away and come back, it seems a little shorter than you remember. Definitely worth it, though, because it’s a super warm neck.
For the sleeves, you pick up stitches and knit in the round, decreasing stitches as you go to create shape. On the left, you can see where the sleeve attaches to the body before blocking; on the right, you see the same area after blocking. Blocking makes a huge difference! (I blocked at the very end of knitting, just showing you this now so you can see the before & after.)
The sleeves flew off my needles - they were really fun to knit! I knit them all on my short circular needles until the cuff, at which point I had to switch to double pointed needles. I tried 4 needles in work (plus the 5th for knitting), and it was just too clumsy. I went down to 3 needles in work and it wasn’t too troublesome. Luckily, it’s just a small area to knit. I learned that I hate double pointed needles! Mine were super slippery metal, too, so I had to constantly worry about the needles just sliding right out of my stitches.
I tried on the sweater as I knit the sleeves, and decided to make them longer. I added 1.5” length to each sleeve, after completing all decreases. I don’t think I have particularly long arms, and in sewing, I do not usually need to lengthen sleeves, however, I am happy I did here.
Once I had completed the neck and sleeves, I tried on the sweater. After adding length to the sleeves, I assumed I would need to add to the body length, as well. I have no idea what height this sweater is drafted for, which may be somewhere on the Petite Knit website, but I haven’t gone digging for it. I tend to wear super high waisted pants (which I sew for myself), so my decision had more to do with style than fit.
After trying on the unfinished sweater with a few different pairs of pants, I decided to keep the length as per the pattern size Medium. From there, it was just the bottom hem with the side splits. Having already gotten the hang of the half twisted rib, it was pretty straightforward to knit the hem, however, the hem is not knit in the round, so I had to adjust to changing stitches for right side/wrong side.
You can see the side split in the above photo. I was concerned about this stretching out over time, so when I sewed in my loose yarn ends, I reinforced the split with some carefully placed hand sewn stitches.
The cast off for the turtleneck, cuffs, and hem is made with double knitting and an Italian bind off. I think the only bind off I’ve ever done in the past is “knitting off”. I followed the videos posted on Petite Knit’s website and Instagram story highlight, and I think after making this sweater, I’ve really got the hang of it! I think my bind offs look even cleaner on the wrong side (inside the garment), and I’m not sure why that is, but I’d consider binding off on the wrong side in the future, so my best looking edge is on the right side.
After sewing in all my ends, I blocked the sweater - it made a huge difference, especially in all areas where you pick up stitches and start knitting again (neck, sleeves) as well as at the hem. In the case of this sweater, it also helped remove excess mohair fluff….which I think will continue to shed for the first few wearings, before the yarn settles down a bit. At least I hope so!
I’ll post the finished sweater tomorrow, but I wanted to document the rest of the process before I forget anything. I loved knitting this sweater. I learned a lot, and knitting is the perfect portable project, so if you are moving or in some transient stage of life, but need something to occupy your hands and mind, give knitting a try! XO, Martha