Twisp of Fate

I’m in the home stretch on the Lochinver sweater from Alice Starmore’s Fishermen’s Sweaters.  Here it is with the body, collar and one sleeve done:

I have modified the sleeve patterning from the pattern as written.  In the book version, she alternates pattern bands with plain stockinette stitch sections.  After looking at pictures of finished “Lochinvers” on Ravelry, I wasn’t crazy about the look.  I also looked in some of my books on traditional fishermen’s sweaters of England and Scotland.  They tended to have patterning at the top of the sleeve (ending either above or below the elbow) then finish with plain stockinette stitch before the ribbing.  I think this was because they tended to snag and wear more on the lower arm – these were working sweaters, after all.  It would be easier to tear out and re-knit the lower part of the sleeve this way, to keep the sweater going.

Anyway, after the first pattern band where you decrease away the underarm gusset, I continued with 3 of the body charts and the same 8 rows between them as in the body, making for double purl bands between patterns.  Had to keep track of the decreases every 3 rows but that wasn’t so bad.  Then finished with a short section of stockinette and the final ribbing.  I was able to try it on to get the sleeve length just right for me, which is always nice.

Hopefully I will be done with this by next week – block and sew on the 3 buttons for the collar – and post one final picture!