sweet little sugarplum

It's finally finished and I love this sweater.

To help determine shaping, I referenced the Sugarplum sweater out of Melanie Falik's Handknit Holidays. The edging on the cuffs collar and hem are direct from the pattern, but the rest of the thing is pretty well different. Most notably, I changed the yoke pattern and shaping. When I first took the sweater off the needles, I was devastated to realize that my math was right and that I should have altered more than I did. The whole yoke just gaped open and slipped off my shoulders. So sad, I was. I liked the wide collar shown on the model in the book, but on me it simply would not work.

So taking a cue from the great EZ, I knit about five inches of color work pattern and then decreased the stitches by about a third. I decreased the same way after another inch or so, and then a third time after a few rows. Then I did the collar border and a sewn bind-off. I'm much happier with the way the yoke looks and fits now.
I like the use of short row shaping to make the color work pattern curve gently in the front. On the next sweater I hope I can figure out how to incorporate short row shaping for the bust, though on this sweater it seems to have been not as necessary.

I'm glad it's done and I'm glad it's been so successful. But now I'm project-less! I'm swatching lace for a little camisole I want to design, so hopefully in another month or so I'll have another lovely handknit top. Certainly there will be socks in the meantime.


The Quick and Dirty:

Pattern: Modified Sugarplum Sweater from Handknit Holidays

Needles: worked to a gauge of 5 sts/in on size US 6 needles. Hem ribbing done on US 3. Color work done on US 8.

Yarn: Classic Elite "Wings" 55% alpaca/ 23% silk/22% wool