Once again I’m mashing two patterns together to see what happens. Science!
On this occasion I’m combining Brick (Ravelry link) by Clare Lee with the Sea Glass Sweater (Ravelry link) by Wool & Pine (Designer’s site). You may recall me making a Sea Glass earlier in the year – I was utterly taken with the 1×1 colourwork and thought I’d like one in a neutral colour scheme.
With that said, as I’ve worn the sweater I’ve found that the neckline has collapsed in on itself a little – and also that it’s just a little wider than I might like, and the fit round the upper chest is just a smidge large. I thought that applying the shaped neckline of Brick might be interesting; it’s made by knitting flat until you’ve reached the depth the front of the collar will be, increasing at each side as well as doing raglan increases, before joining to work in the round. Off I went.
I had a look at the sizes in both patterns – essentially I was aiming to end the yoke of the Brick pattern with the same number of stitches as I did in the Sea Glass pattern size that I made, since it was a pretty good fit and comfy to wear. I found that the fifth size of Brick was the same stitch count (even though Brick uses worsted yarn and bigger needles, so if I was making it as suggested this size would be too big). I tried not to over-think it after that because I was afraid that if I did any more maths I might end up in the future, or frozen in time unable to decide if my experiment would work.
I footered about with my yarn and chose about 450g of black, white and grey (of which there is no shortage), and here’s what I’m working with:
I know that the whole jumper last time used 450g, so this pile should represent enough to finish. I will say that I find I’m favouring the greys over black or white so I may need to swap in some more grey to the project bag along the way. That’s not a challenge, there’s still lots in there – I just tried to pull out the scrappiest of skeins to use them up.
Off I went on a long car journey (as a passenger, naturally) and this appealed to me because it’s how I started my first Sea Glass off, too! That particular journey was almost two weeks ago and I’ve made good progress – though I do have a concern that I hope I don’t regret ignoring… I forgot that the shaping of Brick meant that my row starts in the front centre, not the back centre. So as well as trying it on back to front a couple of times (not just once, a couple of times), I have a currently visible seam front and centre. I moved the round start to under the arm once I noticed, so it’s been isolated, but it’s still there.
Now… I have partially solved this with a mix of tightening with crochet and mattress stitch, and eyeballing it I think that a little more application of these methods will solve the problem to my satisfaction. Looking at the photos, though, it seems much more obvious under the camera than in real life! But I am absolutely, categorically not going back now. My nuclear option, should I need it, is to add a line of chunky black crochet running right up the middle front of the sweater (and perhaps in other places too) and I’ll call it a design element.
The last Sea Glass took two and a half weeks to make. I’m not going to match that timeframe on this occasion, but it’s well on its way and all that remains to be seen is if that pesky seam can be managed into submission. Oh, and if I can successfully pick up stitches for the neck because, as we know, that’s not my forte.
Still… isn’t it looking cool?
I’ve added this post to the Unraveled Wednesday linkup, with thanks to Kat for hosting.
The Crafty Yarnster 