At the moment, I only have one knitting project on my needles — yet another pullover. Despite a closet full of hand-knit sweaters, I can't seem to stop collecting (erm, hoarding) patterns, pairing a design with yarn from my stash, and casting on.
Knitting sweaters seemed so daunting when I first started. Reading a pattern is literally adapting to a new language and deciphering code — gauge, math, bizarre abbreviations, positive/negative ease, short rows, seaming, charts, etc. These are just some of the components involved when making an actual piece of wearable clothing.
I've come a long way since ripping out my first short-sleeve pullover after one wear back in 2009. I don't claim to be an expert knitter, but no technique seems insurmountable anymore. (I do refuse to touch steeking, though.) I alter most patterns in some capacity and have gone as far as re-engineering a few others. Everything I know is thanks to YouTube; I've never taken a single knitting class.
With all that in mind, however, this particular sweater has a design element I haven't tried before. It's still all stockinette in a top-down construction with raglan increases, all of which are second nature to me.
The new-to-me bit is the extremely deep yoke with long raglan lines, resulting in girthy sleeves — batwings. I actually own a couple of store-bought tops with a batwing shape, and I find them quite flattering and fun.
The progress photo shows what a sweater looks like before separating the body from the sleeves. It's essentially one massive circle until the split. The length of the body is finished before moving on to each sleeve.
Admittedly, I have to trust the process on this one because my WIP seems huge. I have over 500 stitches on my needles so far, and I'm not done increasing and creating volume yet. As is my m.o. when it comes to patterns, though, I'll modify as I please. I probably won't knit to the prescribed stitch counts, and I've already changed the short row shaping at the neckline as well as the raglan design. I can never leave anything alone.
FAFO.
The pattern is Vesper by Devin Ventre and is available for free on Ravelry. The yarn is from deep in my stash, discontinued Trusty Fingering in Sage from The Plucky Knitter.