Tubey

Tubey
Originally uploaded by iamsalad.

I may not have mentioned it, but I've been working on Tubey for a while now. It is a quick knit, but after finishing the shrug portion of the pattern it took me quite a while to get the oomph necessary to cast on for the body.

The body itself I started on Tuesday and I'm almost finished with it already (Saturday)...you've got to love a job that has you work an 11 hour day but only do a little over an hour's worth of work.


If you're going to do this pattern I have a couple of notes:
1--A lot of people have complained about having a loose, puckering back on the shrug portion...I know that my sholders are rather narrow and just "knit to fit" across the back, which was far less than the 19" called for. I actually ended up measuring from armpit to armpit across my back to figure out the length and then knit a few rows in each direction (as per the directions for a couple of inches and then using the provisional cast on and going in the other direction for a few rows) to check fit before proceeding.
2--Do a gauge swatch or use the section across the back as one to determine not only size, but how tight you want the fabric. The pattern called for a size 8 needle. I HATED how loose that made the fabric. I ended up knitting a little on the loose side with a pair of size 4 needles. When I started the body I tried again switching to the size 8s for the beginning (over my "lady lumps") and then graduated down to size 4 again over the next 5"-6".
3--If the top is too low or wide at the top don't tear back, just sew along the upper edge connecting the "sleeve" portion to the front portion for a few more stitches on each side
4--If you alter the size of stripes just try not to make any stripes appear the same width to get the same "look" as this sweater has--and remember that brighter and lighter colors expand (look bigger) and darker colors contract (look smaller) especially when placed next to each other. This is part of the reasoning behind why the pattern has smaller strips of the brightest colors.