Black Sheep

Chai pullover

March 29th, 2006

Here are the official “I’m finished” shots of my pullover knitted with Artfibers Golden Chai yarn.
Pattern: I’ve been calling this my Chai Pullover, but it’s actually called Belle Epoque. This is a design of Kira K, manager of Artfibers. I got this pattern free with purchase of yarn.
Yarn: Artfibers Golden Chai in color 23. I used aproximately 6 balls of yarn.
Needles: Addi Turbos size 6 for the body and upper half of the arms. Addi Naturas size 4 for the ribbing on the bottom half of the arms.
Started: Way back in May of 2005.
Finished: March 28, 2006.
Read all about my progress here.
Here is another shot of the front.
And here is a shot of the back.

What can I say about this sweater? We have been through so much together. But I learned so much from this knit. The first time I knitted this sweater I followed the directions, knitting it flat and then sewing the pieces together. The second time around I knitted it in the round. I cast on the amount of stitches for the front and back, minus two (because there is no sewing up of side seams). I then followed the directions for the body decreases as given for both the front and back. When I got to the arm shaping I divided the front and back. I kind of used the pattern for the Vintage Camisole as a guide for this. When I finished both the front and the back I sewed the shoulder seams (the only sewing I had to do!) and then knitted the collar in k1p1 ribbing, as the pattern says to do). Then I picked up the stitches for the arms and knitted down. I followed the regular pattern backwards. It was really easy because there is no shaping on the arm, and I ignored the shoulder shaping. Knitting this in the round was definately the way to go. It made it go much faster and I think I even used less yarn. I think my knitting looks better, too since there was no purling (except for the k1p1 ribbing, which doesn’t look the best).

After washing it the second time with Eucalan, it did stretch very slightly. But, just in case, I knitted the arms slightly shorter than I wanted them. In the end, they turned out to be the perfect length.

And, finally, I *heart* this yarn. I will probably use it again for something else. It knits into a beautiful lightweight fabric with fantastic drape.

Entry Filed under: Chai Pullover