I had the dumbest idea for a circular yoke sweater and now I'm going to knit it.
June 18, 2025
The last 10 yds of yarn I needed came in along with some extras of the other colors just in case, so I was able to get the yoke done! My circulars aren't actually long enough to try it on, but I've used this pattern book and construction before and know it will fit more or less fine. A good wash should straighten out a lot of the tension issues and bloom the yarn a bit as well. Cotton is so weird.
I think I am just going to work the intarsia flat, rather than try to stay focused on long swaths of colorwork in one go. The seam up the side will also let me adjust fit a bit as well. Now I need to make a few bobbins and split for sleeves! Once this row is done, I shouldn't have to do anything but follow the colorwork chart until the end. I think I've decided on i-cord edging, yellow for the top, dark purple for the sleeves, and black for the bottom.
May 30, 2025
I played yarn chicken with the yoke (and lost T-T)
I did make it well over halfway to the split for sleeves and am fairly pleased with how it's turning out. The fabric feels great in the hand and, while the design is maybe a bit simple, I think it will read as a UFO just fine. I changed the yellow dot motif to be two rows and four columns larger, which I think was a good choice even though doing stranded colorwork with this yarn on metal needles is an INFURIATING experience. Seriously so slippery and hard to manage tension. It will be at least a week and a half until I can get another ball of each gray and can keep working on it but its going super quickly. I guess all those influencers cranking out sweaters every other week aren't doing single strang fingering weight like I like to do.
May 27, 2025
Been a minute since I've worked on this thing
I did a easy intarsia color chart and decided to be less ambitious about doing the figure. I'll just duplicate stitch it on the front at the end.
April 1, 2025
Always amazed by how much plant fiber based fabric changes after a wash. Can you believe this is the same swatch???
Unwashed gauge is 4.7 sts, 6 rows per inch
Washed is 5 sts and 7.5 rows per inch
Tis was on US 7/4.5 mm steel fixed circulars. They feel huge after working exclusively with sock yarn for months! Knowing both should help me know how far to knit as I go before washing, though since I'll be working from a seld drafted intarsia chart it might be less necessary idk. Turns out it is possible to knit intarsia in the round also!
March 23, 2025
You know how circular yoke sweaters make this upside down arch of stitches when worn? Well it kinda looks like a UFO.
Making this thing is going to be so silly. I'm going to knit it in the round until the armholes, then split into front and back and work those flat so I can do an intarsia design of a beam of light and a guy getting abducted. It's going to be done in KnitPicks CotLin (70% cotton/30% linen) in the brightest colors I can find.
Maybe working a circular yoke sweater flat is dumb construction, but it actually should prevent the cotton from skewing when I make it due to the seam. High contrast + rich, cool reds should also make this a piece that gets a lot of wear. And before you think I'm not serious, I already ordered the yarn.
I'm going to be modifying Ann Budd's top down circular yoke sweater for the pattern. The first ever sweater I made was the bottom up version and it was super easy to follow and fits great. Not sure how much ease I want - I'm guessing around 4 in of ease since the linen should be drapey and the plant fibers won't have enough memory to do something form fitting.I still need to make the ckhart for the intarsia and figure out how I want the stranded colorwork in the ufo to sit between the increase sections.