WIPWednesday: White Russian Pullover Week 1

For some reason, I don’t knit a lot of pullovers. I have something like 18 tank tops for summer, and at least a half dozen cardigans in the closet, but only three pullovers, and one of them I just finished up a couple of weeks ago. I decided I want to try to up my pullover game so I have more options for things to wear in the winter.

To that end, I started Thea Colman’s (BabyCocktails)White Russian pullover late last week. I’ve done a couple of her patterns, and I liked the simple lace pattern on this one. It was also a top down knit, which I usually do for baby knits, but rarely do when knitting for myself for some reason. I also like that it is designed as a somewhat cropped sweater, since at 5’ 3”, I’m a somewhat cropped person. I do plan on shortening the sleeves to three-quarter length. I also plan on having the lace pattern just in front, while doing the K5 P1 K1 P1 Pattern across the back. That’s just a little easier on my hands than doing the lace all around, and pretty much no one sees the back of my knits anyway.

I shopped my stash for the yarn. I chose Queensland Collection’s Bebe Cotsoy in a light gray. This is a wonderfully soft and squishy yarn that is a blend of 50% cotton and 50% soy silk. Unfortunately, like much of the yarn in my stash, it is discontinued. I bought a lot of my stash yarn before I retired, when it was on sale either online or at my not so local yarn stores. I’ve bought very little yarn since I retired, only for specific projects for other people. Everything else that I’ve knit in the last six years came from my stash.

I did a gauge swatch, primarily because the yarn I was using gauges at 20 stitches per 4 inches on size 7 needles, while the pattern calls for 22 stitches per 4 inches on size 6 needles. I was pretty sure the smaller needles will give me the tighter gauge, but I wanted to make sure I liked the feel of the fabric that it created as well. Sometimes when I try to fudge a yarn like that, the resulting fabric is just a little too tight to be comfortable, but this was just right, still soft and stretchy. The gauge turned out to be close enough, not too far off, but since the fabric has a good amount of stretch to it, it should be just fine.

However, I didn’t like the look of the single knit stitch in between the lace patterns, so I changed that to a twisted stitch by knitting through the back loop on the sweater itself. I also did the 1x1 Ribbing at the neck with the knit stitch twisted as well. Because this is such a bloomy yarn, I think that makes for a tidier ribbing. 

Speaking of ribbing, as I was knitting the ribbing on this sweater, I came across a knot in the yarn after only maybe three or four rows of ribbon. Now before I had inflammatory arthritis, I would’ve simply ripped out what I had done and started over. But one of the difficulties I have with my arthritis is casting on and knitting that first row after the cast on. I use the German twisted cast on for a tidy but stretchy edge since this is the neck opening. Since that requires an extra little twist and flick of your left hand and thumb to get the extra little bit in the cast on stitch, it’s a little tough for the arthritis, since my hands don’t always bend the way they used to bend. That makes it a little tough to get good tension for a cast on, so I tend to try to do it just once per project. That first row of ribbing done after the cast on has also become a challenge, because my cast on stitches tend to be a little tight. So, I don’t like ripping out ribbing anymore. I just left it as is, wove in the ends, and said, “Good enough.” For someone who will ladder back 20 rows to fix a missed purl stitch, that’s a big concession.

That’s it for the first week of this new project. I’m about halfway through the raglan increases for the yoke. Next week, I’ll tell you about my other “Fuck it, that’s good enough” moments.