Bound Off: Rocky Coast Cardigan

It's done!

And, more importantly, it fits!

Well, sort of.

Pattern: Rocky Coast Cardigan, by Hannah Fettig, from Coastal Knits
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Tonal in Pearlescent, 4 skeins (880 yards)
Size: 40" (designed to be worn with 4-6" positive ease)
Needles: 10.5
Mods: sleeves--details to follow
On Ravlery

It's not a perfect fit because, let's face it: I'm 8 months pregnant. Almost nothing I own fits quite right, even maternity clothes. Even with weight gain in the recommended range, I'm just starting to be . . . puffy.

Don't even get me started on shoes.

Nevertheless, I hope (wish, pray, plead) that it will be a near-perfect fit after baby is born, and the baby weight starts to disappear.

 

(See a mis-crossed cable? Don't tell me!)

The cabling here might look intimidating, but it's actually a great pattern to memorize and work without a cable needle. You only work the cable crosses on 2 rows of the 8-row repeat and they're quite simple.

The yarn seemed slightly rough while working, but softened up with blocking, and is very comfortable to wear. I adore the subtle color changes, drifting from white to gray to soft brown and back. I think it works quite well with this pattern, though some of the other tonal colorways might be too variegated.


But the most important thing to consider here is the sleeves.

They caused a great deal of heartache, but after all my efforts at reworking them, they fit. They're snug, but they fit.

Notes on Modifying the Rocky Coast Sleeves:

A number of knitters have noted problems with the sleeve fit, specifically that the yoke and upper arms are too tight. 

I believe one major reason for this is that the sleeves are knit in the round, whereas the rest of the sweater is knit flat, so there's a potential for a major gauge change--this wasn't even a blip on my radar until after I'd finished the sweater the first time and realized it didn't fit.

Hannah has provided instructions for expanding the yoke and upper arms, which I strongly encourage you to take a look at if you haven't already completed the sweater. Your best bet is really to fix this problem before you even have it.

If, however, you have completed the sweater, you can't do anything to modify the yoke without frogging nearly the entire thing.

The very idea makes me want to cry giant, Euclan-scented tears.

If the yoke of your sweater more-or-less fits, and your primary concern is the sleeves, however, you can rip those out and try to enlarge them. 

Here's what I did (for the 40" size):

• Picked up 10 sts at the underarm, instead of 6 (for a total of 48 arm sts, rather than 44).
• Worked twice as many rounds as indicated before beginning the decreases.
• Worked 1 fewer decrease rounds than indicated (I believe the pattern calls for 6 dec rnds total, so I worked 5).

This left me with 38 sts before working the cuff--as the cuff is worked in k2p2 rib, I eliminated 2 sts on the very last pattern round before starting the ribbing.

(You might also try going up a needle size or two for the sleeves, but personally, I would find knitting in the round on size 13 needles nearly impossible.)


I foresee this sweater being in regular rotation in my wardrobe, as long as the weather stays cool!