Finished Sweater: Carnac

Pattern: Carnac by Army of Knitters
Yarn: Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted in Brass Heather
Needles: US 10 and 15
Size: 37 1/4

The impulse to make this sweater resulted from a phone conversation with my sister aka The Stitcherati about our current knitting projects.  Almost one month later (could have been faster actually), I had my own version of Army of Knitter’s Carnac and my sister had hers.

Yes yes, I can be quite impulsive…but it seemed like such a quick, instant-gratification knit, something I haven’t had since I knit my Star Crossed Beret in February (hmm, my sister was up visiting that weekend, too).  And of course, being impulsive, I didn’t knit a gauge swatch.  I just jumped on in with my needles and yarn and casted on the required amount of stitches and knitted away the hours watching Murder, She Wrote on Netflix.

Should have knit that gauge swatch.

It’s not that I’m unhappy with the sweater, but it didn’t turn out how I wanted it to.  I was hoping for more of a loose, boho-casual fit shown in the pattern picture.  Instead, I got a sweater with shrunken sleeves, a short rise, and very very tight armholes.  I blocked the dickens out of it, thinking that the cotton yarn would grow when wet, but it didn’t loosen up as much as I had hoped.  Ah well, such are the consequences of impulsiveness.  I got used to the tight fit as I wore it during the day, but felt that I kept tugging at the sleeves and bottom of the sweater.

The pattern was clearly written and was an easy to remember pattern repeat that knitted up in a flash.  Where I got stuck was trying to figure out how the heck to knit the sleeves in the round on size 15 needles.  The pattern never calls for DPNs, just circulars, and I tried several times to get the sleeves going on a 16″ circular needle.  I was also too impatient to wait for US 15 DPNs to arrive by mail (do you see a theme happening here?) so I shelled out for some nice 40″ Addi Turbos to try out Magic Loop.  After several attempts and throwing my knitting across the room, I finally figured out the technique and finished the sleeves in a matter of days.  

I also picked up less stitches around the neck than the pattern called for…about 44 I think?  I’m sure that if I had actually gotten the right gauge I would have picked up as many as the pattern said I should pick up.

I guess this sweater was a happy accident, but it was nice to finally finish a major project since my Leaflet sweater almost a year ago.  It’s given me the push to tackle another sweater or two – an Owls sweater, which almost seems like a mandatory knit for every knitting blogger, and Andi Satterlund’s cropped Chuck sweater (psst I bought yarn for it this weekend).  I wonder if I can whip these off of my needles before the end of the year…