Thanks Goodness for Negative Ease

Thimble sporting Hare and Tortoise sweater

Boy oh boy, where to start! There have been so many 'moments' when making this sweater - those wobbly moments when it looks like it has all turned to s*** and why am even bothering with complicated things when I could probably make a really nice PLAIN sweater and surely to goodness it is easier all round to just buy one anyway.

There have also been some really brilliant moments, like when I finally understand the instructions, and when the little tortoises appear and when the steeks don't fall apart despite me using the wrong yarn and when the neck looks so neat....

I am very proud of that neckline

Hedley helping me stretch the sweater

The design by Kate Davies caught my eye a couple of years ago and I bought the pattern online as a PDF. I think it suits a petite frame better...or maybe I should face the fact that I should have gone for size 3 rather than size 2, though I think I was between sizes...lesson 1 - if between sizes choose the BIGGER size.

Kate Davies wearing Tortoise and Hare sweater

Lesson 2  - Steeks: if the instructions call for Shetland wool, use Shetland wool. Alpaca yarn is everywhere at the moment and I loved the idea of it, plus it is hypoallergenic. I was excited to discover Artesano 4 ply Alpaca comes in the same shades and at a fraction of the cost too so I bought all the yarn and only then did I read this post, where Kate Davies explains steeks (a scary process which involves cutting across rows of ovely neat knitting) and in the final paragraph, states: 'So if you are in any way nervous about steeking, then I would suggest that you stick with a sticky yarn (choose a woollen -spun yarn with a ‘halo’) and avoid smooth, shiny yarns — ie, those that are superwash-treated, those that are worsted spun, or those with long smooth fibres, like Alpaca'. Well of course it was too late by the time I had read that....I have to say there were a few sticky moments at the end with the steeks. I used sticky wool to crochet the steeks but the Alpaca really is a slippery customer and I had a sweaty couple of evenings sewing in ends.

Lesson 3 - No two animals look the same so why should I knit them that way, even when the pattern wants me to? Reminds me of the flower scene from Harold and Maude:

 

Well OK, so my lumpy tortoises aren't so much deliberate statements on the wonderful diversity that exists in nature as happy accidents due to the old affliction of watching too many DVDs and not concentrating on the pattern. Luckily, for the more monstrous tortoises (tortoi?) I was able to fix any of the bigger shell cankers with a needle and wool.

Lesson 4 - Negative Ease. One of the biggest wobbly moments was when someone suggested tactfully that maybe I could give the finished garment to my 11 year old neice because it obviously was really very small. The hardest thing about this design is that it is knitted as a solid tube and then the 2 sides of the neck are knitted together with a steek bridge (as are the sleeves) so it is impossible to try it on until the steeks have been done and cut. So it takes a lot of faith that everything will be ok in the end. Negative ease is best explained here by Techknitter. The garment is smaller than the person wearing it. Had I known about negative ease I would have smiled knowingly at the 'little girl sweater' comment instead of feeling somewhat distressed. OK, so the 'trying on' moment was a bit like this example of extreme negative ease:

I have learned a lot about lengthening a sweater design and steeks and knitting in the round and fairisle and what a peerie is and Vikkel Braids and weaving floats and the properties of alpaca and negative ease and fixing mistakes. I am 90% happy with the sweater. I mustn't eat too many pies or I will enter extreme negative ease territory.

Gussets

Man's Aran cardigan after a good few wears

Rowan Pure Wool Family Collection

One day I will hopefully get to finish a sweater without there being something ever so slightly or ever so majorly flawed about the finished piece. Ever the optimist, each time it happens, I just think how much more experienced I am getting with every mistake.

Pictured in grey is the man cardigan I recently finished, from the Rowan Pure Wool Family Collection. The request was for 'one of these in merino'...

After too much time going google-eyed looking for a fine merino Aran weight wool with similar knitting tension gauge and suitable colour and price (the other twisted thing about flaws being the more expensive the raw ingredients, the more painful the flaw and the more temptation to shamefacedly throw it in the bin because looking at it is a constant reminder of profligacy and overestimation of one's crafting ability), I settled on Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran in grey, which I found on sale.

I wish I had known about Ravelry back then, I might have checked out the properties of this wool before committing. Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful wool, soft and warm and a pleasure to knit with. It does pill on wearing but nothing a bit of de-bobbling won't sort every so often. The tricky thing is the stretchiness of Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran on washing.

Determined at the outset to avoid disasters, I think I even did a tension gauge swatch before knitting (learning from the cape fiasco), and measured the subject and measured again after christmas mince pie season...So when a year later (I am easily distracted) it came to the sewing up, I was dismayed to find the jacket to be just a little too snug in the chest department, the subject not having expanded in any appreciable form.

Not to worry, Techknitter to the rescue. What we had was an emergency gusset situation.

Gussets using Techknitter technique

Gusset in situ

How gusset might appear when lifting arms aloft

A gusset  is a 'triangular or rhomboid piece of fabric inserted into a seam to add breadth or reduce stress from tight-fitting clothing'.

It was a bit fiddly sewing them in and I would have liked a neater finish but they certainly did the job and BEFORE WASHING (bw) this was a perfectly fitted man's cardigan.

After washing (aw) we seemed to have an entirely different beast. Thinking that wool is wool is wool and wool generally shrinks on drying, I washed and blocked and hand-dried flat.

Imagine my dismay when I discovered aw that the arms had increased in length by about a third (!!!) and the gussets were NO LONGER NECESSARY, the chest having 'relaxed' on washing. I wasn't relaxed. Absobloodylutely no way am I taking those gussets out.

At that point I discovered Ravelry and read a most interesting Debbie bliss Rialto Aran discussion
which had the following comments, 'This stuff blooms like crazy during blocking! It really spreads and becomes much more drapey', and my personal favourite, 'Nice to knit, but grows faster than a puppy after you wash it.' Someone recommended tumble drying which did work, though that encouraged pilling.

Buttons from TextileGarden

On the plus side, it must be comfy and warm because it has been worn lots this February but I admit I do get sad when I see the sleeves rolled up like a jam roly-poly. I did find the perfect buttons though, from TextileGarden.

I wonder if next time I should wash the pieces before making up, thus avoiding any unnecessary though not uninteresting forays into the world of gusseting....