by Cheryl
The Ariann sweater I have been working on for my mother in law for Christmas is finished! I have mixed feelings about the sweater. First the yarn…LOVE it. Elizabeth Lavold Classic AL designers choice, 50% Baby Alpaca, 50% Merino Wool, 50g=109 yd in color 002 Ecru. It’s very soft and has the perfect combination of drape and structure for this pattern. It took 12.5 skeins for the 38″ size with full length sleeves and added length to the body.
Modifications: Many. Some intentional, some not. I had Jim telling me every 4 minutes to “make sure it’s big enough” so that kept throwing off my knitter’s intuition. This sweater is knit from the bottom up with some waist shaping. She is taller and a little bigger than me which makes fitting a little stressful. However, I have borrowed one of her sweaters before so I figured it it was just kind of big on me it would work perfectly for her. Knowing how most of Jane’s sweaters fit I decided to lengthen the body and forgo the waist shaping and 
belt. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the omitted waist decreases into account when moving on to the bust increases. By the time I realized this I was so far into the pattern there was no way I was ripping back. Plus, I was trying it on as I went so I had an idea that this wasn’t a big deal…it still seemed to be shaped reasonably. After the arms are 
joined to the body, raglan decreases begin. It’s a good thing I have designed two sweaters with raglan shaping so I had a good idea of how it should work. Otherwise, I may never have noticed the developing problem. The number of stitches was not decreasing as I did the shaping because of the lace pattern yarn overs. Again, I noticed this after several rows and decided that it would work out fine to do double decreases to compensate. I eventually got there but the raglan shaping part is what I would consider to be too long.
Again, I am always amazed with wet blocking. I’ve explained my thoughts on that before but I’ll say it again in case you missed it. My theory about wool sweaters is this: they WILL get wet. Most likely in a hand wash, maybe in the rain but I guarantee you, it will get wet eventually. I’d rather know the final size initially instead of being surprised later. This is why I wet block. Prior to the soak, the sweater fit me pretty nicely, just a TAD big. After blocking, well, you can see…more than a “tad” big now. Even with the mistakes it is a pretty sweater, but I’m worried it’s going to be too big for her! At least I don’t have to wait all the way until Christmas to find out…we’re going to visit her in Ft. Lauderdale for Thanksgiving so I’ll be giving it to her then for those cool Florida evenings. Keep you’re fingers crossed for me! I’ll try to get a picture of it on her when the time comes. Now I just need to find some cool buttons…
