Sheepish

Project: Ba, Ba, Sheep
Design: When Sampson Met Lila, Knitty, Deep Fall 2011
Yarn: YarnArt Pure Merino, 4 balls of brown and 2 ball of cream, 300 g total
Needle: 3 mm hem, 3.5 mm body and cowl
Time to knit, correct the length (added 8 rows of st st with grafting) and sew: two weeks

The pattern is interesting and the first to catch my eye when Knitty Deep Fall came out. I've done some modifications - the hem is jagged and I like it this way a lot, I knit it in the round up to the armholes, also lifted the neckline to the height of the armholes and it is still a bit low for my liking. I wish I had listened to my gut and made the neckline higher and narrower and the cowl with more stitches (this is 132 st) by picking 1 st for every knitted row and not 2 st for every 3 rows. I would also extend the final part of the cowl by changing the needles to 4 mm (which I also thought of as a possibility while knitting, but didn't dare to try it). Now the cowl does not fall as freely as I wished it to and hardly covers the neckline, so I decided to sew it folded in half, as seen on the pictures.
Because I never wear short sleeved wool sweaters, I made mine with 7/8 sleeves, no pattern here, just following my general idea of a sleeve.
The yarn is virgin wool and a bit itchy at first, until the skin adjusts to it. I like it, but I wouldn't knit another sweater out of it soon. Surprisingly, it didn't stretch at all in length or width after wet blocking and the sweater is probably a tiny bit too fitting. As a whole, though my gauge was exactly as needed, probably due to the different yarn (and knitter :) my sweater came out smaller than expected (thus the 8 rows of elongation).
The trinity stitch cowl makes this simple stockinette sweater look festive and just the thing I needed for the coming holiday season.

PS: Can you tell how cold I am while taking these pictures :)? Frost had fallen in the morning and I hurried to shoot the sweater before it began to snow. Now I'm sitting next to the heater, while a heavy snow outside falls on the trees and fields.






For other finished objects don't miss Linda's Creative Friday and Tami's Amis FO Friday