Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover

Recipient: DH
Designer: Linden Phelps and Beryl Hiatt
Pattern: Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover
Source: Simply Beautiful Sweaters for Men
Completed: December 18, 2007
Colours: Slate blue with navy accent
Yarn: Luxury Collection 100% FS alpaca, DK weight
Completed status: Too big. I want to redo it all over again.
Pictures:

front


back


scan of finished pattern from book

2008-Jan-1

I was able to sneak over to my mom's place and block the sweater there a week before Christmas. The next evening we were at my parents' place, so she packed it up and covertly handed it off to me when we arrived. DH never saw a thing.

Looks pretty good, eh? What could be wrong with it? Well, remember how I realised about halfway through DH's sweater that it was measuring too small? How I ripped everything back and started all over using the large instructions to make it wide enough?

Yeah. Well, it's too big.

I could scream. I mean, he is crazy loving the sweater, and totally doesn't care that it's a little sloppy, but I care...rather desperately, actually. This is a sweater that is supposed to cling gently (and hotly) to the male torso. The loose fit gives it a completely different look, which - while kinda nice - is not the one I was going for. (I was going for the hotness.) I am seriously tempted to knit the whole thing all over again. DH has told me not to be silly, but I'm sure I could steal it back from him without his noticing.

2007-Dec-16

Either Friday or Saturday night, I had a sewing and ends-weaving-in marathon and finished the damn thing. PHEW. That was a whole lotta ends, and it sucked hard. But I ploughed through it, and the only thing remaining to do before I consider this officially 'done' is to block it. Ordinarily, I wouldn't bother, because it looks pretty good now. However, a fair bit of the front and sleeves were made using yarn that had been previously used for the smaller size that I started with, so it was all kinky. And unfortunately, it knitted up kinkily (is that even a word?), so it needs a good soak to relax. I'll give you pictures when I've done that and it's looking right.

Trouble is, I have no idea where or when I'm going to block this damn thing. I was thinking of bringing it over to my mom's when I drop my older daughter over at her place on Tuesday (they're getting together to make a gingerbread house, very exciting stuff) and blocking it there, but my mom said today that she's planning to pick DD1 up...so I don't know. I think I might call my mom back when DH isn't around and rearrange that plan.

2007-Dec-8

Very close to the finish line now!



Here you see the completed front, back, and sleeves, with the shoulder seams of front and back sewn together and the first part of the neckline (the folded-over ridge) done. I'm currently working on the mini-cowl part of the neckline that gets sewn in behind the ridge.

2007-Dec-1

I have two completed sleeves! Plus, the shoulder seams have been sewn, and at the moment I am working on the neck ridge. I'm using the last bits of the lighter dark blue for this, and unfortunately am running out fast. There's no way I'm going to have enough to do all 1.5" that the ridge needs. Fortunately, the ridge is formed by folding over that 1.5", so that only the first 0.75" or so that gets knitted is actually visible, and I think I miiiiight have enough of the lighter dark blue to do that. (After which I'm planning to switch to the darker dark blue.) I could be wrong, though...stay tuned.

2007-Nov-23

One sleeve down!



And one sleeve in progress:


(pictured next to sleeve #1 so you don't think I'm recycling photos)

2007-Nov-19

Well, The J and Carrie K both like the striping on the sleeves exactly the way it is, so now that I've freed up the Denise cable for the project, I've forged ahead. We have sleeve progress:

2007-Oct-15

I'm back in the land of uncertainty.


(Sorry about the blurriness.)

See the light, thin strips in the dark blue stripes? That's me working the original ball of dark blue in with the new balls of navy blue in an effort to minimize the difference between the two colours. Unfortunately, in spite of my original hopes, the difference between the two dark blues is not minimal, so I don't think it's working. Bleah. So I'm not sure whether to keep going doing it this way, or to alternate stripes one new navy, one original dark blue. I think I'll do two sleeves two different ways and see which one I like best.

Again, bleah.

2007-Oct-7

So I took the two skeins of navy alpaca back to the shop to see if they would kill me if I tried to return them. Mercedes was all for it until she realised it had been a sale item - apparently the rule is, no return of sale items. She felt really bad about saying no and, from the look on her face, I'm sure I could have persuaded her to break the rule and make an exception for me, but I didn't mind in the slightest. It's a fair rule, and by enforcing it, she clamped down on my wishy-washiness and enabled me to make a decision: now I have to keep the yarn, so I might as well continue with my plan of making striped sleeves. I will hopefully get around to casting on for the first sleeve (with the navy) soon.

2007-Sep-18

I have finished the front!



Exciting stuff. You would think that I would be happily starting on the first sleeve now, wouldn't you?

Alas, no.

Because I've been doing some stitch counting, and I'm pretty sure that I actually do have enough of the steel blue to do the entire rest of the sweater with - I don't actually need to use the extra balls of navy that I bought some time ago. Argh! So I don't know whether to try to return those navy balls to the shop and do a completely steel blue sweater, or to do navy stripes up the sleeves anyway because I like the look of the stripes, or do just the rim of the neckline in navy, or...what. Naturally, being so undecided has prevented me from being able to cast on for the first sleeve. I'm completely stuck.

So I throw it out to you guys again...what do you think of these new options?


OPTION #6: steel blue except for the rim of the neckline


OPTION #7: completely steel blue

(The other five options can be seen in this post.)

I'm also going to ask the shop whether they would be totally POed if I returned the navy blue balls. (They allowed me to break up a sealed package of 10 in order to buy them in the first place - does returning them make me scum?) I'm thinking that if they don't let me return them, I'll probably use them on the sweater so as not to waste them. (No idea what I'll do with the leftover steel blue yarn, but I'm willing to fall off that bridge once I come to it.)

2007-Sep-12

DH has had a break from work for the last four days, so it's been somewhat challenging getting anything done on his sweater with him around. However, I'm still moving at a decent clip up the front:

2007-Sep-8

I am motoring along on this pretty fast, whenever DH goes to work or golf. So much so that the second iteration of the back of the sweater is now complete:


I think it's a much better width than my last try. Here's a comparison shot:


Notice that the new back is more-or-less the same height as the old one (actually, it's a bit shorter), even though it's wider. I've decided to follow the large-size instructions for width and the medium-size instructions for height, because that looks like it will give me the best-fitting results for my husband.

I'm now a few inches into the front, and have started on (I think) the sixth skein. It's all going well and I'm pretty confident of having enough yarn, especially with the plan to do navy stripes on the sleeves and a navy rim around the neck.

2007-Aug-28

This saw a teeny weeny bit of action soon after the blankets were completed - I joined the second ball and got a few more rows done while DH wasn't around. I'm hoping it won't be too tough getting going on this thing again, even though I no longer have the commute to work on it away from his eyes, and we're both at home together a lot. He does a lot of golfing and yardwork, so I should be able to find the time.

2007-Aug-20

Thank you, everybody, for your opinions on how to apply the navy to the sweater. Option five was your favourite as well - that's the one where I make the sleeves entirely out of the navy, with the rim of the neckline done in navy also. Unfortunately, there is no way that my two skeins of navy (well, in actual fact, I have three, but one of them is not the same colour as the other two) will make two sleeves. So, the next best thing seems to be option #2. This (which Tumblina also thought of) is actually the same as option #5, but with navy stripes on the sleeves instead of all-navy sleeves. So what I've done is to start the body in the steel blue. I may or may not go back to Knitters Attic to get enough navy to do two whole sleeves, depending on how much I can get done on the body with the amount of steel blue that I have.

2007-Aug-7

Okay, I've been playing around with Photoshop to try and figure out how best to incorporate the navy with the steel blue, so that I don't run out of steel blue when I re-do the sweater in the next size up. Here is the picture of the completed sweater from the book, in a colour vaguely similar to the blue I'm using:



And here are the different applications of navy that I've come up with:


OPTION 1


OPTION 2


OPTION 3


OPTION 4

There's also a fifth option, which is actually my favourite, but I don't think I have enough navy to pull it off:



So, dear readers, tell me...which of these possibilities do you like best? I know which one is my preference, but I'm putting the question out there to you guys because I'd like a second opinion and I can't ask my husband, obviously.

2007-Jul-4

What you don't see in the stash enhancement photo is the yarn I'm going back to the store for tomorrow. They have the alpaca yarn in blues which seem to be excellent matches for the blues that my MIL gave me for this project. However, I obviously need a side-by-side comparison before I can know whether they're truly the same. If the steel blue at the shop is a match to what I've got, I'll buy more of that. Otherwise, I'll get a few balls of the dark blue from the shop and use it as an accent colour on the cuffs, neck and bottom of the sweater - this strategy will free up more of the steel blue, thus ensuring I have enough yarn to redo the whole thing in the large size. (Basically, no matter what, I win...except for the part where I rip out everything I've done so far and start again with the instructions for the next size up. A thousand curses.)

2007-Jul-3

I haven't actually done any work on this recently, but it has been on my mind. I've been mulling and mulling, and it is with great reluctance that I think I have to admit that the size I'm making right now is going to be too small for DH. I don't think blocking is going to solve this problem. I think I'm going to have to rip the whole thing out and knit it in the large size. The next question, of course, is whether I'll have enough of the yarn to knit it in the large size. I suspect not. So I really have no idea what I'm going to do, other than complain about it ceaselessly here. Sigh. I suppose the first step will have to be taking out the pieces and evaluating their width with an honest and critical eye.

I'm so not looking forward to this.

2007-Jan-17

Armhole shaping on the front is complete. I'm now working up towards the beginning of the neck shaping.

2007-Jan-11

Back is finished:


Front is over half done:


I still can't believe I'm going so fast.

(I also can't believe what a mess the alpaca yarn made of my jet-black blazer today. Yowza. Fluffy bits everywhere. Très sharp and professional, I tell ya.)

2007-Jan-5

At last! Something inline with The Schedule!

Well, to be honest, this week The Schedule says I'm supposed to start the Peacock Feathers Shawl for my mom. However, since I don't have the pattern (I ordered it, but it hasn't come in yet), starting it would be quite difficult. :) So, I'm fast-forwarding to what I have to do next week instead.

Therefore, the new goal for this week is to get half of the back of the Larry's sweater finished. Happily, I reached this goal at lunch yesterday.


Back of the sweater as of last night

Don't be too impressed with my speed, though - I'd already had about six inches done when I started back in on it on Tuesday. Still, I'm working through it pretty fast. And the yarn is really, really heavenly - sooo deliciously soft as it flows through my fingers. The weird thing, though, is that with my Ljod cardigan project, I get more tactile pleasure out of the yarn when I knit it English style. However, with this sweater, I get more tactile pleasure out of the yarn when I knit it continental style. This doesn't make any sense to me, but I'm not going to think too hard about it. Whatever makes my hands happy, I'll go with that.

2005-Oct-2

Alright, I admit it. The reason the poor Stornaway sweater is so far behind schedule is that on Friday night, I took advantage of the last evening of DH's absence and plowed forward on this.

Bottom ribbing is now done and you can see right at the top of the work there that the first row of cabling (plus a little bit) has been accomplished. I am now on ball #2 and am freaking out just a little that there may not be enough yarn.

It struck me on Friday that this is going to be an increasingly difficult project to hide. I may have to get creative.

2005-Aug-25

I couldn't help myself. DH went out last night to get gas so I whipped out the project and did a few more rows.

2005-Aug-22

Slightly more work was conducted (still in secret) on this project on Sunday afternoon - I got another inch done on the back. Should I have spent the time working on a more urgent project? You betcha. Do I feel guilt? Not much. Alpaca eases a multitude of sins.

2005-Aug-21

The indecision concludes.

The story so far:

around November 2004: I've been working on Alice Starmore's 'Henry VII' sweater pattern for DH for some time, but have started to have misgivings about the yarn I'm using for it (Red Heart acrylic). It doesn't seem luxurious enough to do the pattern justice, and I'm worried that the sweater will end up looking like crap.
Christmas 2004: MIL gives me the 'Simply Beautiful Sweaters for Men' book, a whole bunch of DK weight alpaca, and a request to make the 'Stacy's Sweater' pattern for either DH or my brother.
post-Christmas 2004: I realise that the 'Stacy's Sweater' pattern does not jazz me. I decide I want to make Alice Starmore's 'Henry VII' sweater pattern with the alpaca instead, and thus solve two problems with one solution. Test swatch shows this will work.
New Year's eve 2004/5: I ask DH if he minds if I do Henry VII instead of Stacy's Sweater. He confesses he likes the Stacy's Sweater a lot, even though he also likes Henry VII.
early January 2005: I have guilt about messing with MIL's gift intentions and DH's desire for the Stacy's Sweater, and decide to go with the Stacy's Sweater pattern after all. Discover very shortly that the yarn is waaaay too small for the pattern. By process of elimination, this leaves me with only one choice: use the gift alpaca to do Henry VII.
a few days later: I lament the fact that the yarn, while of course it looks lovely doing Henry VII, would look even more lovely doing the Stacy's Sweater pattern.

Fast forward to this weekend...

I was flipping through the 'Simply Beautiful Sweaters for Men' book. And once again I came across the 'Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover' pattern. And once again, I drooled over it. I'm sure you can see why. It's a lovely sweater, and ever since I saw it I've wanted to make it for DH. Not only is it gorgeous, not only do I think DH would look really sexy in it, but it is also very stylish. And I hate to say it, but the vast majority of the sweaters in DH's wardrobe are...well...not stylish. They tend to hearken back to the Bill Cosby era of sweaters.

So this time flipping through the book, it hit me...what if, by freakish chance, the gift alpaca was the right gauge for this project? It would suit the Larry's sweater bee-yewtifully, and, making a sweater from the same book as the Stacy's Sweater pattern would be much more in line with my MIL's gift intentions.

But I figured it would never work, since the yarn had been way too small for the Stacy's Sweater project. But what the heck. I did a test swatch last night. I GOT GAUGE.

This morning I cast on for the Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover. Here is where I am so far:

For the first time since this whole rigmarole started, I am truly at peace with (and excited about) the decision. I still have no idea what yarn I'm going to use for Henry VII (which I still really want to make for DH), but at least I definitely know what I'm doing with the gift alpaca. I'm going to use the one navy ball that came with the 'kit' to do the ridge around the neckline below the collar. I think it will look fantabulous.

DH knows nothing about any of this. It might be a surprise. :)

Labels: larrys