I haven’t had a lot of luck with knitting adult sweaters in the past. I mean, I’ve knit a short-sleeved Tubey, but that doesn’t even fit me anymore and I’m not sure it really counts as a sweater anyway. Every other attempt has failed, for one reason or another.
Well, until this past December. I present to you, my first real sweater and my final FO from 2010!
Pattern: Roam by Laura Chau
Yarn: Tess Superwash Merino
Needles: US5 Denise circulars
I adore this sweater – it’s cute, comfy, warm, and a ridiculously bright (and very “Kris”) color. That being said, it is not the perfect sweater. It has its little quirks. They’re not deal breakers, but they’re things I need to keep in mind for future sweaters:
– It’s probably hard to tell from these photos, but when I zip the sweater up all the way, it hits me at an uncomfortably high point, just at the hollow above my collarbones. I’m not entirely sure whether it’s because of the length of the knit pieces, the length of the zipper, the weight of the hood (more on that in a bit), or some combination of the three. Luckily, I don’t usually wear outer layers zipped all the way up anyway, but still, it’d be nice to have the option.
– Speaking of the zipper, the bottom of it tends to curl upward.
– The bottom hem in the front tends to sit a little higher than the back. There are two major factors at play here. One is the weight of the hood, which tends to pull everything back a bit. The other is my own figure – I’ve gotten a bit bustier in the past couple of years, and didn’t completely account for this when I knit the fronts.
– There’s much more ease overall than I’d like. Luckily, the pattern includes waist shaping, so at least I don’t look completely boxy.
– Finally, the sleeves are still too long, despite the fact that I had shortened them by several inches.
But quirks aside… I still love this sweater!
Sadly, I am not thrilled with either the needles or the yarn I used. The Denises are too light for me – I like a bit more weight in my needles. And one of the tips kept coming unscrewed at the join. But I didn’t have any other size 5s at the time I started this project, and I didn’t want to switch partway through and possibly affect my gauge, so, well… yeah.
As for the yarn, it’s a pretty color, and it’s nice and soft, but it was a total pain to wind. And there was an absolutely ridiculous amount of excess dye in it – or rather, is. It didn’t really rub off onto my fingers or needles while I was knitting, but I lost track of how many times I rinsed the finished sweater before I finally gave up. Luckily the dye doesn’t rub off on things when the wool’s dry, but still.
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