Third Time's the Charm

I have talked about this sweater before. It began life as a Sally Melville vest from her Purl book. I liked the vest, loved the yarn.

Last year, the vest became too large for my smaller body. I envisioned a cardigan about hip length, with 3/4 sleeves. One Sunday at church, I saw the perfect sweater. I complimented the lady on her sweater and asked if she had knit it. She had, but didn't remember the name of the pattern. It had something to do with a baby sweater. As I had guessed, it was an off take on an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern from her Knitter's Almanac, called the February Lady Sweater.

I downloaded the pattern from Ravelry and checked my yarn quantity. I could do this! Since the sleeves are knit after the body is finished, they could be a little shorter or a little longer, depending on how much yarn I had at that time. I measured the length of a jacket with a similar style, and started in. I knit the whole body and most of one sleeve before I tried it on. There were problems!

The sweater was a little small. I think my yarn is thinner than recommended. It also was quite a bit longer than I wanted. What to do? I slept on the problem and mulled it over in my mind. I also marked the desired length while I had it on. That took care of the distinct possibility that the sweater would stretch.

Final decision resulted in two large balls of yarn. I started over, using stitch counts two sizes larger. I also bought myself an iPad, which made it easy to take a clean pattern and highlight the numbers I wanted. I also transferred any relevant notes. Now I have the body of a sweater that fits! On to the sleeves! There is light at the end of the tunnel.

By the way, I made the buttons for the original vest. The pattern calls for only 3 buttons.