Extravayarnza

Vital Stats

Pattern: Swirled Pentagon Pullover from Knitting Nature, size Small (40")

Yarn: Lana Grossa, Cool Wool Merino Big (machine washable), color 653, 10 balls

Needles: Lots and Lots of needles. 26" size 7 circulars for body & sleeves. A size 10 to work the turning row on the hem. A plethora of size 6 doublepoints to work those pentagons (it was a bit like knitting a porcupine there for a while)

Changes from Pattern...

First off, there are a lot more mistakes in the pattern than listed in the errata.The ones I remember that weren't mentioned are:

*Between the Shape Armholes & Shape Yoke Base there is a missing wrong side row. The Shape Armholes section has you end with Work 1 row even (this is a RS row) the first row in the Yoke Base is also a RS row. I ended up knitting 2 rows even to end with a WS row

*In the Picked up Yoke under the Back Neck section it tells you to continue in 2x2 rib but you are knitting 1x1 rib.

*If you want a Pentagons that don't pucker up I recommend following the shaping as written until you have 4 sts left on each needle. Then; purl 1, K3tog on each needle. Pull tail through the remaining stitches.

*This one isn't so much an error but just something you should know. Well there's an error too, on the schematic the final width of the sleeves for all the sizes is listed as 12", but each sleeve ends up a different width the correct widths are 11.5(12.4, 13.3, 14.2, 15)" . As you might have noticed this is a pretty snug sleeve. My observation from setting in the sleeve is there is room for a few extra stitches where you sew it into the ribbed section. So it's possible to add some width to the sleeve if you have some womanly curves.

I think there might have been some other things in there, but these are what I remember seeing.

As for what I changed...

~ I hate ribbing at the bottom of a sweater, so I opted for a hemmed edge. For my turning row rather than a purl ridge or a picot edge I simply knit a row with a much larger needle (a size 10). I think this may be my new favorite turning row. It looks so neat and tidy. The elongated stitch also folds very easily.

~I also added a couple inches worth of waist shaping. (I think I did a total of 4 sts per side)

~I also added 6 rows of short row shaping to the front so the front has some room for the girls & still reaches to match the back.

~Oh, big one here, I knit in the round where ever possible. So the sleeves & body were knit in the round.

~I shortened both the body & the sleeves by 1/2"

~Decided to totally nix the neck. The ribbing edge of the pentagons formed a lovely neckline once it was blocked.

I think that's all. May I say, despite the errors in the pattern, this sweater is so fantastic. I was particularly impress with the little tricks like how to use a long tail cast-on to cast-on stitches, then pick them up, and still have a tail there after the pick up to cast-on yet more stitches. Genius! I love how the sweater fits with just a couple small modifications.

Also, I was really impressed with the yarn. After a Euclan bath & a tumble in the dryer it's so so soft. A word on the dryer... We did find with a pair of socks knit with this yarn that eventually if you continually machine dry the yarn it gets a little stiff (it doesn't shrink at all). However, when I attempted to lay it flat to dry the sweater grew several inches in all directions. In the past I've found that after a few machine dryings I was able to lay sweaters flat to dry without them growing. In similar yarns long term I machine dried them every 2 or 3 washings & laid them flat for the others.

Additionally, when machine drying or even when washing a yarn like this it really helps to turn them inside out. This way the inside gets the most abuse and if there is any piling it usually happens to the inside.

Isn't the neck just incredible. I love the extra partial pentagon to raise the neckline in the back.