Norwegian Sweater Finished!

Well, it’s finished and I love it! There are things I would have done differently – had I known then what I know now, but nothing was hard about it. I found a sweater that fit me, knit a test gauge in the yarn I planned to use and then used Elisabeth Zimmerman proportions to figure out how many stitches in the tops of the sleeves and how large the neck opening should be. I knit the sleeves from the top down – making for a perfect length - - which was no problem since my pattern (after a sweater in Annemor Sundbo’s book, Treasures from the Rag Pile) was the same right side up as upside down. I decreased from 120 stitches fairly evenly down the sleeves to 68 stitches before I started the ribbing.

The steeking seemed scary, but I temporarily sewed the shoulders prior to measuring for the steeks. Then opened the shoulder seam to sew the steeks. I used a zig-zag stitch and went over the first zig-zags with another line. It seemed to me the zig zag stitching would maintain the stretchiness of the knitting. Then I wimped out and slathered fray check on the steek just past the zig-zag stitching. I had knit a facing on the sleeve top so it covers the stiffened (fray check) part of the seam. The pattern knitting pulled in which surprised me somewhat since all the colorwork hats I had made from my own homespun stretched out in blocking. I didn’t block the sweater so maybe it will stretch out some, but if it doesn’t, that is fine too. It will more closely resemble the sweater I copied.
I think if I do another sweater I will use more appropriate yarn. This sweater cost around $15 to make. I had some black coned wool I got on ebay and the white is Knitpicks DK weight “bare.” Next time I would either use homespun or Knitpicks Telemark yarns.