amimono no monogatari: The Dolman Sweater That Never Happened

I was ready to start another sweater. :) Something that was in DK weight so that it would be a quick knit. I had found this pattern: For the Love of Remnants and thought I could just just alter it a little to have longer sleeves. So here's what I did:
- Using my mystery berry coloured yarn and my Chiaogoo US8 needles, cast on 160 stitches (65 shoulder/sleeve sts, 30 neckline sts)
- Pick up 65 sts, cast on 45 sts and pick up another 65 sts.
- Knit 26 rows (13 on each side of cast on) where the last 5 sts on each side should
be k (2 rows) or p (2 rows) to make cuff of sleeve.
- Three-needle bind off for 25 sts to close off a potion of the sleeve. This is 5"
(13 cm) from the initial neck line.

Body:
- Row 1-2 (2 rows): Knit in the round (236 sts, 126 in the front, 110 sts in the back).
- Row 3: *ssk, k2, k2tog, k2, k2tog*, repeat * 5 times, ssk, k2, k2tog, repeat * 17
more times for a total of 165 sts (88 sts in the front & 77 sts in the back)
- Row 4-5 (2 rows): knit in the round, maintaining 165 sts
- Row 6: *ssk, k2, k2tog, k2, k2tog*, repeat * 3 times, ssk, k, k2tog, k, k2tog,
repeat * 7 more times, ssk, k2, k2tog, k5, k2tog, k2, k2tog, repeat * 3 more times
for a total of 116 sts (61 sts in the front & 55 sts in the back)
- Row 7: knit in the round, maintaining 116 sts
- Row 8: ssk, k to the last 2 sts, k2tog, ssk, k to the last 2 sts, k2tog for a total of
108 sts (59 in the front and 49 in the back)
- Row 9: knit in the round, maintaining 108 sts
- Row 10: repeat Row 8 for a total of 104 sts (57 sts in the front and 47 sts in the
back)
- Row 11-13 (3 rows): knit in the round
- Row 14: repeat Row 10 for a total of 100 sts (55 sts in the front and 45 sts in the
back)
- Row 15-17 (3 rows): knit in the round
- Row 18: repeat Row 14 for a total of 96 sts (53 sts in the front and 43 sts on the
back)
- Row 19-21 (3 rows): knit in the round

Once I got to this point, I decided to try it on. It was quite obvious that I should've decreased the stitches much earlier. 😒 In typical fashion, I ripped out the body and most of the stitches on the front side and re-did it like this:
- Cast on 160 stitches (65 shoulder/sleeve sts, 30 neckline sts)
- Pick up 65 sts, cast on 45 sts and pick up another 65 sts.
- Knit 13 rows for the back where the last 5 sts on each side should be k (2 rows) or p (2 rows) to make cuff of sleeves.

As I was doing this, I just lost steam and didn't want to try this "pattern" any more.😞 In the meantime, I had borrowed The Art of the Circular Yokes book from my local library and found this pattern: Modern Art. I instantly fell in love with it.

I ripped out what I did have left on the needles and immediately started on Modern Art instead. 😁

Initially, I had used the needles recommended but, after a few repeats on the yoke, I realized that the needles were too small. So, I ripped it out and used a US8 (5.0mm) needles instead; it came out perfectly. I continued to follow the pattern and actually knit the short rows it recommended for the back shaping. However, the short rows just came out weird - like I had a little hump on the back. So, more ripping ensued and in the end, I just took it out altogether. Overall, this was a relatively quick knit because I used thicker, chunkier yarn. Because of that, my sweater looks bulky but cozy. It also taught me some important things, particularly about how you can use short rows to improve shaping in certain areas (just not for the back for me on this particular sweater as it recommended). It also reminded me how easy it is to simply follow a pattern (as long as you read it thoroughly in the beginning so that you can accurately follow it!) instead of figuring things out as you go.

Now, while I did follow (most of) the pattern, here's a summary of the adjustments I did (you didn't think I was going to follow it exactly did you?):

I skipped the back short rows
For the sleeves (both sides), instead of knitting 10 rows (after picking up stitches for the sleeves), I only did 5 rows then proceeded to do the decreases at every 5 rows instead of every 8 rows and lastly, instead of doing 10 decreases, I did 16 decreases then knit in the round for 12 rows until it reach my wrists (it's bracelet length to account for any "stretching" from washing and drying).

Here's the dimensions of my sweater: