Pattern: Oatmeal
Yarn: Cascade Eco + in 'Scarlet'
Needles: 5mm and 6 mm circulars (US 8 and 10)
Mods: Adjusted guage, added longer ribbing on the sleeves, and added faux seams on the body. My Ravlelry Project page can be found
here.
As part of my
5 Small Goals for Winter, I wanted to knit a cozy sweater for myself. I had also been craving a super-simple bright red sweater, so this checked all the right boxes for me! This is a wonderful top-down sweater pattern for a bulky weight pullover, and knits up really quickly- I probably would have finished this much faster if Christmas hadn't happened. I don't know if your holidays are anything like my holidays, but mine are pretty far from relaxing- usually really busy with lots of people to see, things to do, and food to eat (maybe I'd eat fewer dessert squares if I held my knitting more?). Anyway, it felt so good to knit a bulky weight sweater- it's cozy, super comfy, and I love Cascade Eco, so it was hitting all the right spots.
This is the second sweater in a row that I've put faux seams into, and I have to say, I'm really liking how it looks and works- it makes your knit look more finished, and helps give the sweater some of the stability that real seams would. You can see the faux seam in some of the photos below:
How to Add a Faux Seam
To put a faux seam into a sweater, I purl a stitch in the same spot on each side of the sweater. So if you are knitting from the bottom up, and you have (for example) 180 stitches around, then I'd knit 89 stitches, purl, knit another 89 stitches, and purl again. It's even easier if your sweater is top down (like this one!). When you get to join the body again after the underarms, purl the stitch in the middle of the stitches you cast on for the underarm. Usually, you will need to cast on a few stitches after you have separated the sleeves and are rejoining under the arm to work the body in the round. The middle stitch of those cast on stitches is where you put the purl stitch. And now you have a faux seam!
As a side note, I was trying out Commentluv to see if that would allow me to better respond to comments, but it was a bit of a gong show and I had to take it off. Blogger really doesn't allow you to interact with commenters as much as I'd like, so I'm considering migrating to Wordpress. Any advice?