Red Rivel Sweater

Introducing the Rivel Sweater.

Normally I would say it's my new favorite sweater, but unfortunately, the yarn I made it from drives me crazy. I can barely make it through a work day before I'm changing clothes because the yarn just itches.

Which is sad, because I love this sweater and I love the yarn {color, style, fit}. So, maybe in cooler weather, when I can find something to wear underneath it so it doesn't touch my skin, this will become a staple of my wardrobe.

Love {love love} the cables that define the front panels on this sweater. It was a really easy, cable pattern and didn't slow down the knitting much at all.

The wide ribbing was kind of a boring knit at the end but it turns very nicely into a shawl collar when you wear it. There is no shawl collar shaping which makes the ribbing a cinch to knit.

Here was the downfall of my sweater: the seaming of the sleeves.

Now, I know I've mentioned before how much I do not like seaming. Most of the time, it is because it just takes too much time. But with this sweater, it has become apparent that I just plain suck at it. So far, I've sewn the pieces of the sweater together twice.

The first time, there was too much bunching in the front. I assumed it was because the front panel was too long and so I took everything a part and shortened the front panels. The second time, I sewed the sleeve to the sweater starting from the back, then I came from the front and met in the middle. I think it fit better sewing it that way, and in hindsight, I should have sewn it that way to begin with.

After I sewed everything back together, reknit all of the ribbing, and tried it on again... it was still bunching in the front. And that is when I realized the bunching wasn't because the front panel was too long, it was because of how I had sewed the sleeve to the sweater the first time had brought too much sleeve into the front. And now with the front panel being too short, it brought too much fabric in the front panel up into the shoulder area and that is making it bunch.

{blah blah blah}

So, I can take it apart, reknit what I undid on the front panels, and put it all back together again. But we are talking about a sweater that I cannot stand to wear because it itches. And, so far, I haven't found it worth the effort to fix.

But, find a nice top to go underneath and I might find the motivation...

Boy, this sweater has been nothing but trouble.

But, not all of the seamimg was a pain. I found that once I got past the sleeve, all of the other edges were a breeze to sew together and looked fabulous, mostly because my knitting has become so uniform { yay me }. One side benefit from knitting almost every night for the past 5 years.

And, now that I might know how to sew on sleeves, perhaps I can branch out and take on more projects that are not top-down construction...

But, that would only happen after a few successful projects. This one has been too stressful.

Here's a nice piece of serendipity. The first time I did the ribbing, I had to go back and make the ribbing match the cable up the back. But, when I did the ribbing the second time, it all matched perfectly, no counting, no figuring beforehand.

Why doesn't that happen all the time?

I also added stitches on both sides of the shoulders to make the collar lay a little more flat {keep that itchy yarn away from my neck}. The first 5 stitches on the back piece on both sides, I picked up two stitches instead of just one. Then about 17 stitches down on the front panels, I stopped skipping the 4th row when picking up stitches. So, overall, I added 10 stitches on each side, 20 total.

It did help keep the collar away from my neck. But, the sweater still drove me crazy. I just didn't have a rash on my neck.

So, I'm just waiting for this to become my new favorite sweater.

Three diseases without shame: Love, itch and thirst.”
~ Irish Sayings quotes