The Pink Sweater

Maybe I should have titled this post, "Why I'll Never Be One of the Cool Knitbloggers." The proof is in the picture. I thought I'd be all clever and such, and lay out the sweater back under the sweater front to demonstrate how far along we are in this project. It was such a great idea in my head, and believe me, my imaginary photos are more visually magnificent than that curly, bunchy mess up there.

Anyway. I'm past the armhole shaping for the front, and within maybe four rows of splitting for the V-neck. Precious little knitting time these days. Luckily, this project is so lickety-split fast that it makes up for the scant time I'm spending on it. Yesterday, during 90 minutes of Sunday morning new shows, I knit about3.5" of the front. Fast knitting. With only an hour a day, it's possible I could wear this thing to Thanksgiving dinner.

Yeah, right, like I'll get an hour a day for it.

I'm using one of the Ann Budd "Handy Book" charts for this sweater. If you haven't seen these books with the sizing charts, you're missing out. She gives precise instructions in chart format for standard patterns in a huge range of sizes. You pick the finished size you want along the top of the chart, pick your yarn's gauge along the left side of the chart, and she tells you everything you need to know: how many stitches to cast on, how many inches to knit, how to work any shaping -- it's all there in the charts.

Of course -- and this will come as no surprise to anyone who knows my knitting habits -- I can't just follow the charts. I have to change them. God forbid I should knit a pattern as written.

I decided I wanted a little less armhole depth, so I cobbled together chart instructions from two different sizes on the chart. If you think about it, we knit sweater pieces in two dimensions, height and width. I preserved the width of the body pieces, and preserved the height between the hem and the lowest point of the armscye. For all that, I followed the charts for my true size.

But for the armscye, I switched to a smaller size spec so that I will have a neater fit under the arm. This means I also have to knit the sleeves to a smaller size on the chart, so that the sleeve cap matches the shaping of the armscye.

This is an incredibly easy alteration. And the Ann Budd book makes it even easier. No math, just plug-n-play with the charts. Anyone can do it. Heck, I can't even take a decent photo, and even I can do it.