FO: Fylingdales

If there’s one thing I love about FO posts, other than the obvious, it’s that the post title it really easy!

At the same time I finished up the last holiday gifty, I was finishing Fylingdales. The bands and collar gave me a little trouble – I ended up knitting a total of 3 bands and 2 collars. Thankfully, the reknits were fast and I’m glad I did it. Needless to say, I love it. I have been wearing it non-stop and it has become one of my favorite sweater knits.

Nate was game for an extra-special photo shoot, we drove about the neighborhood looking for new locations, aimed for late afternoon to get that great yellow light. Nate even placed effects on these first couple shots, he said to get the color exactly right (it is!) and to make it more “magazine-y”. For the locals, these were taken at an overlook near the City of South Pasadena “rock sign” seen from the 110. It was fun. Now, on with the goods!

Pattern: Fylingdales by Lisa Lloyd from A Fine Fleece (Raveled)

Yarn: Elann Peruvian Sierra Aran, Fiddlehead Green, 13 skeins (650g, 1,183 yds)

Needles: US8 and 6

      

Size: 32″ at the bust, 36″ at the hip

Mods: In some ways, many; in other ways, I followed the pattern exactly. The biggest mod was the yarn sub to achieve a smaller gauge and thereby achieve something smaller than a 42″ sweater, which would swallow me and not let me out of the house. The pattern gauge, in stockinette, is 16 sts/4in whereas my gauge was 18 sts/4 ins. I was aiming for a snuggly 38″ bust. I compared my swatch gauge with the cast on numbers, and the maths told me to follow the smallest size. Obviously, I ended up with an even smaller sweater than I originally planned.

Two things I learned from the finished product. My stockinette gauge is going to be MUCH looser than my stitch pattern (the bodice) gauge. I based the entire pattern resizing on the stockinette gauge, which isn’t too far off for the bottom bit but is quite far off the for the upper bit. Second, when a heavy yarn relaxes during blocking, it will lengthen and take some width with it. This second thing I had experienced a little in the past, and, as the body (knit in one piece) was growing I realized something was up. I had planned to make it longer, but then erred on the shorter side lest the sweater weigh fourteen pounds and give me a humpback.

Before blocking, the stockinette bottom had excess width (it was about 38″ around) compared to the bodice that I tamed with quite forceful stretching during blocking. In the end, with some planning and a bit of luck, it all worked out. Since I am pear shaped, having the inadvertently smaller bodice worked in my favor. Were I a more busty gal, it wouldn’t have been as good.

  

Other mods:

• Knit the stockinette bottom about 1″ longer, and knit the armhole about 1″ shorter
• Added waist shaping in the seed stitch panels on each side – I believe it was 2 pairs of decreases and 2 pairs of increases each about 6 or 8 rows apart
• Knit a mandarin collar instead of a shawl collar, using the same number of rows as the bands

With this done, now I’m working on some January birthday gifts and some goodies for me too. Pictures soon!