11.26.2008

Pattern: Rusted Root
For: me
Size: 36-39" bust (to fit 36-37" bust)
Yarn: 3 skeins (almost exactly, including gauge swatch) Cascade 220 Heathers in Brown Heather
Needles: US 7 for body and bottom ribbing; US 3 for picking up and knitting top ribbing; US 5 for binding off top; US 4 for finishing sleeves and sleeve ribbing
Mods: A few. See the end of the entry.
Timeline: started 09.17.2008; finished 11.23.2008

Whew! This took me forever to knit up. It's sort of sad, really. Over 2 months for a short-sleeve sweater knit with worsted weight yarn? Crazy! It had nothing to do with the pattern and everything to do with the craziness that my life turned into for a while. Another issue I ran into was that I lost a bunch of weight after starting it. It's still a little big around the waist, but I do like how it looks for the most part. If I were to make it again, I'd knit the smaller size (32-35" bust) for the top, since I have bizarrely small shoulders and do a few more waist decreases. Also, I was really, really paranoid about the lace panel making the ribbing pop up at the top, so I knit the ribbing on much smaller needles. It worked pretty well.

I wasn't going to block this, but I'm glad I did. I was able to open up the lace a bit, add a bit of length to the body, and make the sleeves a bit longer, too. It also allowed me to pretty much eliminate the tiny bit of rolling on the bottom ribbing, and helped out a lot with the ribbing on the sleeves and collar turning up. All in all? A successful knit.

Changes:
- Added increases for hip shaping.
- Bottom: knit in 2x2 ribbing on US 7s; 10 rows of ribbing instead of 12; EZ's sewn bind-off for bottom
- Collar: picked up and knit, then knit in 1x1 ribbing on US 3s for 4 rows; US 5s for 1x1 bind off
- Sleeves: knit 2 rows in stockinette on US 4s (decreasing 1 stitch on the first row to get a multiple of 3); continued on 4s for 2x1 ribbing; finished with EZ's sewn bind-off