It’s been forever and a sweater ago since I told you about my design inspiration for a drape-front cardigan. Why haven’t you heard much about it since then? Well, let’s just say that cabled sweaters, new shop items, and lace knitting are much more exciting to blog about than miles and miles of plain old stockinette knitting.
But sometimes plain old stockinette knitting is just what is called for. You know, those times where your daily life takes so much brainpower that you have none to spare for your hobbies. Or when you’d rather be participating in the exciting conversations happening around you. This project fits into both of those situations perfectly.
So I visited with family and friends while I knit, and I watched movies while I knit, and I listened to several audiobooks and podcasts while I knit. And the knitting just kept going and going and going… I did say miles of knitting, right?
But soon I had something that I could try on. (The bottom of the back is bunched up because the needle is still in there.)
Yes, it’s a rare on-body photo instead of on the dress form. I was traveling and there was no dress form handy.
Which got me excited to keep knitting. Eventually I had this lovely finished sweater body.
Here I stopped to make quick notes about how the design was working out. Did the ribbing at the neckline and side “seams” work as expected? How is the length? Do the fronts drape like in my imagination, and do they tuck up to form a cowl neck like I wanted? Yes on all fronts. Though I may make a non-structural design change to the ends of the ribbing at the neckline to match the stepped ribbing ends at the sides on future versions.
Time to move on to the sleeves. Yes, those sleeve openings look huge in the photos. I’m trusting in the process a bit here. The sleeves will be picked up and knit from the sleeve openings down to the cuffs, two at a time. Because I want this sweater to be as seamless as possible, and because I can’t stand to knit plain stockinette sleeves one at a time. I’m expecting that the sleeve openings will be pulled in a tad once the stitches are picked up and the knitting on the sleeves gets going.
How fast does knitting the sleeves go? A lot slower than expected. Miles of stockinette, you know.