Stick a Fork In It!

And call it done! I've finished sweater #3 - the ever popular Central Park Hoodie from the 2006 Fall edition of KnitScene.

I purchased this yarn from WEBS over a year ago with this sweater in mind. I know - it looks suspiciously like my other sweater, the Not Your Average Sweatshirt - just in cardigan form. I guess you could say I'm a sucker for cables.

Loved, loved, loved this knit. Relatively fast and fun. Pretty standard construction - knit the back, knit the two fronts, knit sleeves, pick up stitches for hood, pick up stitches for button bands, and then seam the whole shebang together. Piece of cake...

I have to give tons of props to Ravelry. If you haven't made use of this resource yet, you are missing out. While this pattern has been out for 2 years, I've found it certainly pays to wait a bit before jumping in. Then - I read the forums in Ravelry and learn from other knitters' experiences. Such as...

Running the double cable up the hood. The original pattern calls for a basic stockinette hood seamed together at the center. Not only did I continue the cable up the hood, but I tried (rather unsuccessfully) to do some short row shaping to make the hood less pointy. It is less pointy than my other hoodie, but still - I look like a gnome when the hood is up. I figure I won't wear it up much anyway. The other hood modification was to kitchner the sides of the hood together rather than do a traditional bind off and seam it up. Looks pretty good.

The next mod: Knitting a larger sleeve. Many knitters mentioned the sizing of this sweater runs a tad bit small. So - since I'm not a teenager with toothpick sized arms, I chose to knit the sleeves in the next size up (the medium, rather than the small size). Turns out - that was a fabulous idea - the shaping for the arm was perfect - no wrestling needed to set in the sleeves & I have plenty of room to wear a long sleeved shirt underneath. Yup - worked out just dandy.


The last modification was to pick up all the stitches along the fronts and the hood at once rather than do one half at a time as per the original pattern. I ordered a 60" cable from knitpicks (LOVE my options set!! - great gift for a knitter, hint - hint) and then spent the better part of an entire day picking up 300+ stitches and knitting a 1.75" k2p2 ribbing. I chose not to add buttons, so no button holes either. I figure I wouldn't button the sweater anyhow, so decided not to add any holes. Also - another suggestion from Ravelry - chose to do an i-cord bind off. Wow - that took a lot of time. Knitting three stitches for every one stitch bound off - but, the effort was worth it.

Bottom line - I.LOVE.THIS.SWEATER!!!

Dirty Details:

Size: Small (36")
Yarn: Donegal Tweed from Tahki Yarns (the suggested yarn for the pattern) 6+ skeins
Colorway: Can't remember - some purple color.
Needles: Size 6 & 8 from Knitpicks

Now... on to holiday knitting with a gusto!

ETA: Please pardon the crazy dark photos with the dreary dirty kitchen background. Getting good lighting for photos in December in Alaska at 9:00pm is a pretty tall order.