Pleased as Punch

If you follow me on Instagram then you will already have seen these photos, but I think you can understand why I want to post them everywhere. I really couldn't be happier with my first finished sweater of 2020.

Pattern: Darkwater by Jennifer Steingass, size A/37.75 in.
Yarn: HipStrings Buoy DK (37.5% BFL/37.5% Shetland/25% Manx Loaghtan) in Marine (MC) and Goldenrod
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm), and US 6 (4.0 mm)
Started/Completed: January 24/March 4
Mods: cast on/bound off using CC

This project had been in planning for quite a while. I bought the yarn at Indie Knit & Spin last February and really wanted to cast on right away, but I had other things to knit first and then things distracted me, as they so often do. I wear my other Buoy DK sweater so much, though, that I knew I wanted another one in rotation, and so I put this project atop my 20 in 2020 list.

The pattern calls for using fingering weight yarn, but the gauge given is really more suited to a DK, in my opinion. Buoy DK, as it happens, is more of a light DK at 288 yards per 100 g, and I knew it would knit up nicely at the pattern gauge. I was able to get spot-on stitch gauge, but my row gauge was a little off, so while the fit in this sweater is exactly as I wanted it, I do have a fair amount of positive ease, especially in the yoke, which I think you can see well in this photo:

The yoke ended up being a bit deeper than it likely would have been if I'd used fingering weight; the underarm of the sweater, for instance, is about 2 inches below my actual underarm. All this really means is that I just have to make sure that the yoke isn't riding up too much when I wear it, but it sits nicely and doesn't look sloppy, so I'm okay with it. It's a good reminder for me to have good posture, in any case.

The difference in row gauge also necessitated recalculating the sleeve decreases, and I ended up pretty much doing my own thing for the sleeves anyway because I picked up more stitches under the arm to avoid holes and then worked mini gussets to decrease them away. I knew how many stitches I should have at the top of the sleeve and how many I needed for the cuff, so it was really just a matter of doing some basic math using my gauge to figure out when to decrease.

When I blocked the sweater, I was very deliberate about smoothing out the colorwork yoke. It's still not as flat as it could be, but I know that it will even out over time as I wear the sweater (and trust me, I'm going to wear the heck out of it!) and wash it. It's certainly extra cozy with all those floats in there, and over time I expect them to stick together a bit.

The only other real mod I made that wasn't necessitated by fit issues was to add a pop of the contrast color to the edges of the sweater by casting on the neckline and binding off the lower hem and cuffs with it. It made for a few extra ends to weave in, which was a bit of a pain, but I had plenty of CC yarn to work with and like the effect a lot.

While I was worried (as I usually am) that I'd be cutting it close on yarn, I ended up having plenty: I used just a smidge more than three skeins of the main color and about half of the contrast color, so just a little more than 1,000 yards altogether.

I've already worn the sweater once (and gotten tons of compliments on it) and hope to get in another wear or two before I pack it way for the summer!