Beatnik Sweater

After much cabling and seaming, I'm very excited to share with you my completed Beatnik Sweater!

I really enjoyed this entire project, and as you can see it yielded an attractive product.  I imagine this being a part of my presentation outfit in graduate school for lab meeting, it looks sophisticated and, dare I say it, just the kind of sweater a successful scientist would wear!

Pattern: Beatnik

Designer: Norah Gaughan

Published in: Knitty, Deep Fall 2010

 The pattern was clearly written and as far as I could tell, free of mistakes.  I can definitely see why it is such a popular pattern to knit because the cabling is highly entertaining and just challenging enough to hold interest for both the front and the back.

I especially liked how the collar was constructed, because it produces such a polished edge.  Basically it was knit twice as long as it needed to be, and then folded inwards and seamed to produce a nice clean edge.  Oftentimes I dislike how my bound off edges look and this is a great way around that problem that I will definitely keep in mind for the future.

My major frustration with the pattern was of course with the seaming, as it was constructed the same as most seamed sweaters.  However, this was even more difficult due to the fact that the edges of the garment were knitted in seed stitch, which is not easy to seam attractively (at least for me).  Luckily for me, I was able to solicit the aid of my mother, the master seamer and it ended up looking fantastic.  One thing that she suggested I do on future patterns with a complicated pattern is to knit a few extra stitches on each side in stockinette stitch to help make it easier to seam perfectly.

I used Plymouth Yarns Worsted Merino Superwash for this project.  Some of you may remember from a past post that I simply adore this yarn.  Both times I have used it, it has produced such an attractive, smooshy fabric complete with that irresistible merino smell!  I also think that the yarn was a great match for this sort of project because it should be very comfortable to wear and long-wearing.

I love this sweater and will likely wear it a lot, but I think this will be the last seaming I do for a while.