the aftermath.

It is difficult to write about this sweater because it has gone on for a very long time. I started this back in the fall with high hopes of finishing it quickly but I became distracted and put it aside. The final product has been a bit disappointing, which I think I have fixed but I absolutely love this shade of Cascade 220 Heathers.

First, I cast on in a bit of a frenzy because I had seen another similar Rosemont posted on Instagram and hoped to create one similar. It was in a similar colour and I felt really inspired. I am also in the presence of a now 2-year-old little girl who is in love with purple (thank goodness she doesn’t love pink, I’m not sure I could handle that) and am reminded daily of my own love of purple.

After working the initial yoke shaping, I knew my row gauge was off enough that I needed to use one of Amy Herzog’s hot tips and work some bust darts above to ensure I had enough ease at the bust before dividing for the sleeves. This worked like a hot-damn but I was really worried about the back neck edge due to the length of it – it just seemed too wide.

Pattern :: Rosemont Cardigan by Hannah Fettig

Yarn :: Cascade 220 Heathers in colourway 9560 Liberty Heather

Needles :: 5.00mm Addi circulars, varying lengths

As I worked my way down the sweater, I added shaping to the back waist to add some shape to the sweater and lengthen it by about 5 inches in total. I wanted the total length from armhole to cast off to be about 23 inches. This seems to be a good length for me and these types of sweaters.

Following the instructions for the sleeves loosely, I worked them quickly and lengthened the ribbing by roughly an inch. The fit is perfect as I wanted bracelet length due to my constant pushing up of my sleeves on all sweaters!

After I had washed and blocked the sweater, my concerns about the back neck edge came to fruition. It was so wide that it continuously fell off the back of my neck. During a few wearings, I felt that I was constantly pulling at the sweater to adjust it which is just plain annoying. If I were to make this again, I would work raglan increases closer to a traditional raglan, rather than these ‘compound’ raglan increases that Hannah Fettig writes out in this pattern. They just don’t fit me very well, whereas traditional raglan increases fit me like a glove.

Left with concern about wearing this very much, I needed to make a decision about how to fix the back neck edge. After some measuring, I figured out it was approximately 5 inches too big which is a huuuuge difference across the back of my neck. After pulling it around on myself and my dressform to estimate an idea of what I needed to do, I decided to thread some of the leftover yarn through the pick-up row on the wrong side and pull on it. Think basting stitch in sewing. I did this, and placed the sweater on my dressform again, pulling on either end equally to gently pull it to the appropriate width. As you can imagine, this created puckers. The result, however, was a really lovely fit. I anchored the yarn in place by weaving it in on either end really well (but also invisibly) and tried it on again. Worst case, I was going to pull it out and call it quits/defeat.

The forgiveness of knitted fabric will never cease to amaze me. Not only did it fit me really nicely, it didn’t show any puckering once on my body. The collar helps immensely to hide it, as well as my hair (although I recently took off 6 inches) but the sweater sits nicely on my shoulders and naturally pulls the puckering out. It is now completely wearable!

Have you had any successes altering knits after they are finished and cast off? Please share!