While I was waiting for some of my purchases to come in so I could finish my socks, I decided to simply dive in to try making another sweater that's been on my wanna try list: The Carbeth. This is a beautiful sweater and much to my angst, it was a bottom-up sweater.😳😱 But, I was ready to take the plunge; so, I trolled through Ravelry to see how everyone else had done their sweater and I came upon an ingenious concept: Start with a Provisional Cast on so I could make enough of the body to have some structure and then, work on the arms, "yoke", and neck before finishing off the actual body portion. And, here's what I did:
- Starting with Step 1: using my Chiaogoo Twist 5.0mm needles, did a provisional cast-on and K 10 rows.
- Move onto Step 2: switching to my Chiaogoo Twist 4.5mm needles, ribbed the wrist portions; then switching back to my 5.0mm needle, continue the arms to decrease for the smallest size & K an additional 32 rows to finish off the sleeves.
- Complete Step 3 & 4. For Step 4, I switched back to my 4.5mm needles and instead of doing a roll-over collar, I wanted a higher necked collar so I only ribbed for 10 rows before binding off.
- Then I went back to Step 1: using my 5.0mm needles where I K another 49 rows, before doing 1 short row and then K another 2 rows, P 1 row, then finished off the bottom with ribbing for 9 rows and binding off.
- To finish off the sweater (Step 5), I had to graft the sleeves to the body. Since it seemed a little tight, I picked up 6-7 sts and added 2 additional rows before I grafted it together using the Kitchener stitch.
Here's what my sweater looks like:
Front
Left
Right
Back
This was the fastest sweater I've ever made. I made it in a record eight (8!) days!😳😳😳😳😳😱😱😱😱😱 I think it went so quickly because 1) I was using Aran weight yarn (aka heavier weighted yarn = less stitches = quicker knitting) and 2) because the pattern was simply (only knitting!!) and once I figured out how much to cast on for the body and worked 1 sleeve, the most difficult part was just joining the sleeves to the body.
I can see why there is so much love for this sweater. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰💕💕💕💕💕 As I was making it, I was already mentally trolling through my stash wondering what other yarns I had that I could make another one! 😳😁😉🥰💕
