How it started

I don’t honestly remember if this was my truly first sweater, or my second-knit-but-first-that-fit sweater.  I think my literally first-ever sweater was a light beige pull-over v-neck that was tooo small for me so I gave it to my sister.  Anyway they were both knitted during the same year.

Anyway, when I worked at Schramm & Raddue, for my birthday in 1985 (or 86), the secretary for one of the partners gave me a specially selected kit with a book of men’s sweater patterns and enough Pinguin brand wool yarns to make one of the sweaters.  Her mother worked at or owned a yarn shop, so it was easy to pick out a birthday gift for me.

It mostly-sorta-kinda fit, and for a first sweater I thought I did fairly well at the time.   But look at the neckline.  My bind-off was toooo tight, so the shoulders were pulled inward, and I did not know how to make a centered double decrease for a neat point at the front.  I can’t even remember how I fudged it around, but even then I knew it wasn’t right.

Also, Romy Reiker, wife of one of the senior partners and one fo the bookkeepers wasn’t pleased with my efforts.  She was German and made a point to tell me of her tortures growing up in school in Germany.  She actually flat out told me I had to take the left sleeve off and re-insert it “correct” — so the red stripes “actually” lined up.  You’ll notice it is still not quite aligned!

Early Rebellion

The pattern call for, and yarn was given for, the dark gray, off-white, and light grey. I already had the red and decided I wanted stripes.   The pattern also called for a crew neck, but I wanted a V-neck.   It was my first foray into ignoring the instructions and doing my own thing.  I had no clue how to actually make a v-neck point, and back then the instructions said to seam ONE shoulder, knit the neckline/collar, and then seam the other collar and close the neckline.

And then with the shoulders fully joined front-to-back, you were supposed to seam the sleeves, then seam the front/back and then gentle shape the sleeve cap into the armscye.   I know better now:  connect the shoulders, then attach the sleeves along the armscye, and THEN seam from wrist to waist along one line.

Current Plans

I plan to very carefully remove just the neckline ribbing and then re-knit a proper v-neck.  I do have some sort-of similar grey wool sportweight yarn and long-enough circular Six 6 needle.  Fortunately the shoulder seam has fairly well felted itself into place, so I’m not worried about undoing the shoulder by accident.

I will start it sometime this weekend, and I’ll have close-up photos of what I’m doing, and how I’m doing it.  Wish me luck.

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