Anthony's Sweater

This sweater was started in April, 2010 just as a diversion from other knitting projects that needed attention.  It lingered and hibernated off and on, and was ripped and re-knit a number of times until I found the perfect recipient for it; my friend Anthony! 

Realizing that the sizing was perfect for him, I got his partner to sneak one of his sweaters out for a quick measure and made some notes to modify the work.  I ripped out the bottom ribbing and knit the body longer, then ripped back and started the sleeve over.

Once I figured out the sleeve, knitting the second was easy.  One thing I want to note about this project:  The yarn Feza Yarns Cypress Mohair (which, by the way, has NO mohair in it!) is a s l o w self striping yarn... gently spun, fluffy and wonderful to work with... However, when knitting a top-down sweater with self-striping yarn, the size of the stripes changes dramatically at the point where the shoulder and body stop being knit and the sleeve is continued on its own.  In the past I have avoided this obvious change in band sizing by doing alternating stripes on my other sweaters.  some "in progress" and other details for this project can be found HERE on its Ravelry page.

If I were to knit another sweater like the one I just gave to Anthony, using yarn that slowly changes colors causing broad stripes, I might consider alternating two balls of yarn and striping the sleeves instead of allowing the self-striping yarn to be in control.  Going WAY back in time to late 2007/early 2008, I made a sweater I called "New Years Resolution" out of a similar yarn called Atunno, and in anticipation of the varying sizes of stripes I used two balls of yarn for the back of the sweater which helped even out the color changes.  For example, if a piece was 50 stitches across, I knit 25 stitches with ball A and 25 stitches with ball 2, wrapping the two yarns each time I came to the center (like intarsia).  This resulted in a striped fabric with stripe sizing that somewhat mirrored the two fronts (this was a cardigan; click on the image below to be directed to the ravelry page for this project).  The striping on the sleeves ends up being in about the same size, and I am pretty happy with the way this one turned out. 

The problem is that for a top-down raglan the piece is worked in the round, removing the ability to work back and forth on the pieces.  If anyone has heard any suggestions as to how to improve the stripe sizes on this type of sweater, I'd love to hear!  Post in the comments and share your knowledge with others!

Like what you see?  Click the "like" Facebook button or share this  post on Twitter with your friends.  Thanks!