The Big Why

I started knitting a sweater waaaaayyyy back in February, but for some reason I never blogged about it. Each time I thought I would tell you about it, I was almost at another phase where I thought it would look better (or something). It’s still a big “why?” as to why I didn’t document its progress, but now it’s done and I want to share it.

The pattern is called “The Big Y” and it’s by Jutta von Hinterm Stein, who lives in Austria. I wanted to knit at least one of my sweater quantities of stash yarn this winter (after finishing Boy 1’s Teen Gramps and my handspun Greenbow Sweater in the fall). So I went looking for something to make with this:

I bought this yarn from a Kickstarter back in 2013. I remember being able to choose between 4 skeins and 8 skeins, and I went with 8 so I’d have enough to make a sweater if I wanted to. This was a big commitment then when I was much newer to sweater knitting. What I didn’t anticipate was how much alpaca was in the blend (the final yarn is 70% alpaca and only 30% wool – and merino wool at that). The yarn is a 3-ply heavy worsted and it was dyed organically at Saco River Dyehouse in Maine.

I anticipated that the alpaca would make the knitted fabric heavy and saggy, so I knit a pretty big swatch. I was pleasantly surprised at how much memory the merino contributed to the blend.

Note that I didn’t knit a garter border on the swatch – it is entirely stockinette. I read a convincing essay about why this will give you more accurate gauge and decided to try it.

The Big Y is a top-down sweater with a bit of a turtleneck (maybe a mock turtleneck), raglan shoulders, and a split hem. It has no waist shaping, but the slanting side rib creates the illusion of waist shaping. The “big Y” happens under the arms where two columns of ribbing merge to become one. It’s mostly stockinette, though.

My gauge was fairly off the pattern gauge, so I did some quick math and determined that working the size XS would give me a sweater that fit my M torso. And it did… in terms of stitch gauge. I had to make some adjustments in row gauge and some of them weren’t aggressive enough. When I finished the sweater the first time, I knew before trying it on that the dimensions weren’t right for me. The first picture shows the sweater alone, while the next one shows it with a commercial sweater that fits well on top of it:

The body is too long and the sleeves are too short. Here is the handspun Greenbow sweater I knit last fall (which fits well) on top of the new green sweater:

The Greenbow sweater was supposed to have 3/4 sleeves, but they are a big longer than that on me (but not truly long)… which confirms that the sleeves on The Big Y are too short. And the body is clearly too long. Want to see it on? I had to take these myself so they are NOT good photos, but you can see the fit issues:

I also decided that the split hem (which wasn’t totally finished here) wasn’t the best look for me. So: lengthen sleeves, shorten hem, lose the split. That was my plan. It took me all of a knitting Sunday to make those changes, but I did it. Here is the result:

You can see how the ribbing flows here:

The “Y” effect would have been more pronounced if I hadn’t rowed out so much… I shortened it by 24 rounds and also made the ribbing shorter.

All in all, I’m happy that the yarn has been used (I do still have 2 untouched skeins plus a little more, and I could unravel the two large swatches I knit, too), that I have a new sweater for next year, and that I stuck to this project long enough to make a sweater I would actually wear instead of one that would sit in the closet because it didn’t fit well.

I think that calls for some “party arms”!