A new sweater

Last week, when my sewing machine had its little problem, I decided to try and knit something. On the knitting machine, of course.

I looked at some of my vintage machine knitting patterns but I always struggle to match patterns to the gauge I can knit to with the yarns I have. In the end, I decided to try and make a pattern myself for a very simple little sweater.

I used two of the really thin yarns knitted together: a red one and an olive/beige one with slightly irregular thickness and a bit of shine.

I'm pretty pleased with the result. I made a couple of swatches to decide on the perfect settings for this combination of yarn and the result is light and soft but not too loose. I used the right swatch for my calculations for the pattern. I tried that before, last year, but I guess that time I had over-blocked the swatch. The striped sweater ended up a bit more snug than intended and a bit shorter too.

I did very little blocking on the swatches this time and the resulting sweater is very close to the measurements I wanted (2 cm shorter, to be honest. The width is spot on).  

The design is quite simple: straight body pieces with the flat double edges which are easy to make on a single bed knitting machine. A dropped shoulder and a straight neckline which mean the pattern doesn't require any reduction of stitches except at the shoulders. And tapered, three quarter length sleeves.

The cable-like detail which decorates the front is actually made using re-hung stitches. It's easier than making real cables and you don't need rows of purl stitching along them but because it is made by pulling the material in, that piece of the knit-work becomes a lot less stretchy.   

I'll try to make an illustration about how this works next time I use it.

In the mean time, I still haven't decided on a Lutterloh pattern and I'm working on a top for my grandmother. It should be a fairly simple jersey blouse using a block I made for her last year. However, the design and fabric she picked don't really work that well together and I'll have to unpick the collar because I made the top of the facing too narrow. I'll show it later.