Sweater: Banged!

​After weeks of stubbornly refusing to do the finishing touches on my #bangoutasweater, I’m proud to say that it’s finished!
 
The problem for me was how to deal with the steeks. I knitted on a band and was trying to sew down live stitches to the wrong side of the fabric, like a steek taco instead of a steek sandwich. But that meant I had to sew the live stitch down to exactly the right corresponding stitch – on black yarn. It was tedious work –difficult to see and difficult to get right because … black yarn.
 
Once I finally got my act together, I knew what I had to do – unpick what I’d already sewn down, knit another row or two, and bind off. Now I had flaps, and just pinned them down so they encased the steek edges. The beauty of knitting is that it’s pretty forgiving, so this time I didn’t have to go stitch by stitch to get it perfectly right – I could just whipstitch the bands into place, and this time it looked much more even.

Then it went for a wash and just needed a zipper. Last time I used this tutorial, but this time I found Purl Soho’s gave me exactly what I wanted with a minimum of fuss. I find that the simpler something a technique is, the more likely I am to actually do it. Purl Soho's tutorial fit the bill.
 
And then I got to wear it. I love, love, love the zipper, and the neckline behaves just the way I wanted to – pulling away from my neck without flopping against it in the way that drives me crazy.
 
One of the things that has kept me from knitting a sweater at this gauge is a concern about it being too warm – but it’s not. This yarn is so lightweight that the sweater weighs practically nothing and is as light and airy and just as warm as I want it to be without being too hot.
 
Much has been made about whether or not Lopi yarn is itchy. This wool isn’t soft like Merino, but it’s not really itchy either. Most of the itch in the unwashed yarn seemed to come from vegetable matter that was easy to pick out while I was knitting it. After I washed it, it softened up quite a bit. Some people like to use hair conditioner to soften it even more, but I just used Eucalan.
 
I found that there was a bit of a prickle when I first but the sweater on, but that soon disappeared into a light cloud of warmth. Now I’m drooling over all the different colors of lopi yarn and planning half a dozen sweaters from this yarn. Don’t worry, I’m doing everything I can to hold myself back. Besides, I’ve still got the Anna vest to knit.

                    xx,                        

Pamela