FO Friday: A Recalibrated Recalibrate

It feels a bit like cheating to start off the year with a finished project when most of it was knit in the previous year, but I think we all know by now that time is a meaningless construct. So here it is -- my first FO of 2023. Please forgive the awkward selfies; my in-house photographer had to stay late at school yesterday, and it was after sunset by the time she got home. Because we had sun yesterday for the first time since we returned home, I figured I'd take advantage and do the best I could.

Pattern: Recalibrate by Shana Cohen
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce (80% superwash merino/20% nylon) in Icy Blue (main color; used a full skein) and ten 20 g mini skeins
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm)
Started/Completed: November 3, 2022/January 2, 2023
Mods: where do I begin?

First, let me begin by saying that this pattern is fabulous and well worth the purchase price. Shana has included just about every possible detail that you need to complete this pattern, from photo tutorials of how certain techniques are used to details about how to use different colors to several options for fit. Most importantly, she has a detailed schematic and table of measurements of every section for each size (which turned out to be critical in making mine). This is also one of those garments that seems to look good on everyone, and it's very size inclusive, with finished bust sizes ranging from 34.25 inches all the way up to 70 inches.

The garment is knit in a modular fashion, with a fair number of provisional cast-ons and picking up of stitches (if you aren't a fan of the latter, don't let that deter you -- all the picking up is done at a 1:1 ratio, making it very straightforward). You start with the panels that fall directly in the center of the front and back, then pick up along the sides (casting on stitches in between to form the side of the neckline) and knit the fronts and backs, then join the side up to the armholes. The last steps are picking up and knitting the short sleeves and then picking up all around the bottom of the sweater.

While Shana does include some ways to modify the pattern to fit your body in particular, my modification was a bit more extreme. The gauge listed in the pattern -- 17 stitches and 34 rows over 4 inches/10 cm in garter stitch -- is one that I'd expect to use with a worsted or Aran weight yarn. But the pattern calls for fingering, and while I know that Shana intended the gauge to be that loose so that the finished garment would have drape, I knew that if I knit to that gauge, my sweater was going to stretch all out of shape and look really sloppy -- and, moreover, it was likely to wear out more quickly. So I decided to completely recalculate all the stitch counts, which seemed daunting at first but soon proved to be fairly straightforward.

The first thing to do was to get a gauge that I liked. I knit a good-sized swatch and washed and blocked it, and then I measured my gauge once I was satisfied. That ended up being about 24 stitches over 4 inches using a US 4/3.5 mm needle for me, and the resulting fabric had drape but also structure. Next, I went to the table of all the measurements -- and I mean ALL the measurements. Every "block" of the sweater appears in the schematic and has a corresponding measurement in the table, so all I had to do was pick the size with the measurements that came closest to the fit I wanted. Although Shana recommends a fair amount of positive ease, I decided I wanted a bit less, so I went with the 38 inch bust (I'm about a 35 inch bust, so that would give me 3 inches of positive ease).

The next step was to go to the schematic. I filled in the measurements for each section and then used my gauge to calculate how many stitches and rows I'd need to knit to get that measurement. Because knit fabric is flexible, I knew I could fudge it a little bit if I needed to, such as if the measurement told me I had to knit an odd number of rows but I actually needed to make it an even number.

Finally, there was the yarn to figure out. I'd known since last holiday season that I wanted to use most of the mini skeins from my Fibernymph Holiday Countdown set (there were two or three I didn't love and didn't think really went with the rest, so I excluded them). I was originally going to go from one mini to the next, but as I was knitting my first stripe, I decided that given how variegated some of the minis were it would make sense (and give a good visual resting point) to put a narrow stripe of the pale blue in between them. To determine how many rows to knit with each mini, I weighed the first one after I'd knit two rows, then four, etc., finally arriving at 10 rows to use up just around half so I could use the remainder for the mirrored stripe on the other side. Although I have somewhat of a gradient effect, that wasn't necessarily my plan from the outset; I started with the first, then picked the next by looking for another mini that seemed to share one or more colors as the previous one so that it would look like a natural progression. The final mini I used (on the bottom of the body) was a semisolid that came with a skein of self-striping, and I think it makes a nice neutral that doesn't detract from the variegated shades.

My final modification was to do an I-cord bind-off on the body to match those on the collar and sleeves. It's not called for in the pattern, but I think it makes a nice edge finish.

In total, I used just a little more than 1,000 yards of yarn, and despite the two-month gap between cast-on and bind-off, it really was a quick knit. I completely about half of it in the second week we were in Florida, and I only did a bit more extra knitting per day than usual while we were there. I would absolutely make this pattern again, and I think it would be amazing in handspun. If you are someone who is intimidated by sweaters because of shaping and seaming and all those "at the same time"s, then I'd encourage you to give this pattern a look. It's really just a series of rectangles with some clever joining techniques!