celticdragonfly

I have just done the shoulder join and bind-off on the Cherie Amour sweater.

And it FITS. There are no sleeves yet, and the ends aren't finished, and there's still a lifeline in. And I have no v-neck shirt to put under it yet. But I tried it on anyway. It FITS. The short-rows WORKED.

No, I don't look ANYTHING like the woman in the pattern pictures in it... and nothing will make me look like her. But I do think it's going to look nice on me. It is a very boobalicious sweater.

So I'm finally getting back to working on the Cherie Amour sweater. Having read various comments on Ravelry from those that have made them, it sounds like it needs some extra length in front for those of us with... huge tracts of land. I'm going to be doing a short-row bust dart in front, as written up in Big Girl Knits.

Trouble is, the well-written up theory assumes you are dealing with a sweater that has a full-front in one piece, and it assumes that you are knitting the sweater in pieces - that you are doing this on a flat piece for the front that will later get sewn together with other pieces. I am adapting this to a sweater that is knit in the round to the top of the waist, and then splits into a deep V neck and is knit back and forth (but in one piece) from there. So JUST a bit different.

I don't want to be bothered documenting it, but I know I should. So here it is.

Bust Dart Depth	BDD	3.5"
Bust Dart Rows	BDR	14 rows
Front Sweater Width	FSW	27"
Bust Dart Width	BDW	6"
Bust Dart Stitches	BDS	15
Turning Points	TP	7
Short Row Increments	SRI	2

I've gone through and done the 30 rows of K2P2 on the smaller needles to define the waist, and then done the one row that puts it back onto the larger needles and does the one K2Tog to get it down to 151 stitches, and I've put a lifeline in.

Normally, next would be one row around of lace pattern 2, and then stopping knitting in the round and going back and forth around, doing the decreases to form the V of the neck.

What I'm going to do now is to do the short-rows along the front, letting the back half sit, doing it in lace pattern 2. When I'm done, I will do the one round all the way around of lace pattern 2, and then start back and forth and doing the V-decreases.

I hope this works. I *think* I get the theory. What's throwing me off is that for socks, when you do short-rows, you short-row down, and then short-row back UP again - it sounds like for this, you just short-row down, and then do a straight row across all of it, picking up the wraps as you go.

Woooo! The handpainted yarn from Uruguay arrived this morning!

This is pretty stuff. The picture doesn't do it justice, really. It's a rich purple with red undertones and a vivid green. Really rather brighter than my usual palette - but this is a to be for a vivid sweater, one to ward off the gray of fall and winter. Hah. Honestly, when this is done, fling some gold jewelry on and I'd be ready for Mardi Gras.

It's going to be a Cherie Amour sweater for me. I was hesitant to make myself something with bulky yarn, but I noticed when checking the details and trying to find a locally available alternative, that this yarn, that the pattern was designed with, is thinner than most bulky yarns. I just wound the skeins into balls, and really it feels awfully close to worsted weight to me. So that should be good.

I need to swatch, I expect I'm going to need to go buy new needles. And I need to find a short-sleeved v-neck t-shirt or tank top to go under it - some color that will look good with it, dunno, maybe just a black, and a size that fits me sorta snug, a 2X or maybe even an XL. Not sure where best to find that, for my sweetie's entertainment I really do want it to be distinctively deeply v-necked.

Hey, bkseiver - thank you again for my swift. I LOVE my swift. I just used it and my ballwinder on all 7 skeins, wheeee. That went smoothly and quickly.