I started with a gauge swatch. These were my notes mid-September on the swatching:
14/09 Working on a swatch w my handspun. Sofar, unwashed:
- 3.5 mm needle: 22 sts/10 cm
- 4.0 mm needle: 24 sts/10 cm
Now, I will wash and block the swatch.
Next day, almost fully dried flat:
- 3.5 mm: 20 sts/10cm
- 4.0 mm: 20,5 sts/10cm almost on gauge!
So, for every 20 sts I need to cast on 0.5 sts extra.
My chest circumference is 96. It requires a caston of 192 sts, which is almost 10 times 20. Which means I should cast on 5 additional sts. I should round that off to a multiple of 4 (the pattern is 4 sts wide). Now, this size has no positive ease for me at all, so I will cast on 8 additional sts, 200 in total.
Which I did.
The dark yarn is my handspun of a long time ago. It is from a bit of fleece that a Norwegian spinner gave to me many years ago, Dala spel cross, on a spinning meetup in Sweden. A lovely yarn, a bit fuzzy and not so evenly spun by me. I will not have enough of it, so I decided to do the bottom rib, neck rib and probably the icord around the arms in another dark brown. The lighter yarn is also handspun, a mix of 70% Flevolander (my own sheep) and 30% Alpaca (of an alpaca that lived in the next street).
I’ve read the full pattern, understand everything except how I should sew the steek down with a mattress stitch, but I will google that when I am a bit underway.
This is an update one week later:
Well on my way. Done the hem plus 5 pattern repeats. Now, as you know, there is a limited amount of the dark yarn, so I've done some weighing and calculating. In total there should be enough of the dark to knit 21 pattern repeats.
My row gauge was 30 rows = 10 cm, which is 4.3 pattern repeats. So in total I will be able to knit 49 cm IF I only were to knit a tube. Plus 5 cm hem equals 54 cm. And that is EXACTLY the length at which the pattern tells me to graft the shoulder stitches together. So it will be extremely exciting.
The pattern however is not a tube. There will be armhole shaping and neckline shaping. AND there will be extra stitches for the steek but that is less than the armhole and neck shaping. So, most likely, if the calculations are correct, there will be enough of the dark yarn. But there is always the possibility to knit the armhole and neck ribbing in another yarn though.
And then, almost 2 weeks later:
I made the steek at the underarms for the arm openings. Then, I was supposed to slowly decrease 10 stitches on each side, but I did not pay attention until I had already decreased 14 stitches on each side. This brings me back to the stitchcount of the original size I'm knitting. I don't think it makes a huge difference, there will be a slightly smaller 'shoulder' than in the pattern, 2 stitches at the left and right side. Now I'll continue up to the shoulder shaping. It is still not clear whether the dark yarn is enough.
And here are my notes slightly more than 2 weeks later, on October 20, 2026:
Today I finalised my martall, or maybe it is a gran, as it holds very little red but more brown/black and cream colour.
This is an update one week later:
Well on my way. Done the hem plus 5 pattern repeats. Now, as you know, there is a limited amount of the dark yarn, so I've done some weighing and calculating. In total there should be enough of the dark to knit 21 pattern repeats.
My row gauge was 30 rows = 10 cm, which is 4.3 pattern repeats. So in total I will be able to knit 49 cm IF I only were to knit a tube. Plus 5 cm hem equals 54 cm. And that is EXACTLY the length at which the pattern tells me to graft the shoulder stitches together. So it will be extremely exciting.
The pattern however is not a tube. There will be armhole shaping and neckline shaping. AND there will be extra stitches for the steek but that is less than the armhole and neck shaping. So, most likely, if the calculations are correct, there will be enough of the dark yarn. But there is always the possibility to knit the armhole and neck ribbing in another yarn though.
And then, almost 2 weeks later:
I made the steek at the underarms for the arm openings. Then, I was supposed to slowly decrease 10 stitches on each side, but I did not pay attention until I had already decreased 14 stitches on each side. This brings me back to the stitchcount of the original size I'm knitting. I don't think it makes a huge difference, there will be a slightly smaller 'shoulder' than in the pattern, 2 stitches at the left and right side. Now I'll continue up to the shoulder shaping. It is still not clear whether the dark yarn is enough.
And here are my notes slightly more than 2 weeks later, on October 20, 2026:
Today I finalised my martall, or maybe it is a gran, as it holds very little red but more brown/black and cream colour.
But that is not so important.
The important thing is that I am VERY pleased with it! After a few unsuccessful knits (hibernating, waiting to be finalised or frogged) this vest is wonderful!
Can you spot the error in the back?
There were some moments that I doubted its success and you can read all about that below, but now that it is finished, it has a perfect fit, a wonderfully soft and textured surface and it holds a lot of personal memories, of the spinning meeting, the person who gifted me the fleece, the pattern and also the knitting process. I learned a few new things, like steeking and sewing the steek with the mattress stich (which I googled).
I'm so happy with it that I could do a little dance, make a pirouette in front of the mirror, hug my husband and ask him whether he will take some photographs of me tomorrow when it is light enough outside.
The moments of doubt:
The important thing is that I am VERY pleased with it! After a few unsuccessful knits (hibernating, waiting to be finalised or frogged) this vest is wonderful!
Can you spot the error in the back?
There were some moments that I doubted its success and you can read all about that below, but now that it is finished, it has a perfect fit, a wonderfully soft and textured surface and it holds a lot of personal memories, of the spinning meeting, the person who gifted me the fleece, the pattern and also the knitting process. I learned a few new things, like steeking and sewing the steek with the mattress stich (which I googled).
I'm so happy with it that I could do a little dance, make a pirouette in front of the mirror, hug my husband and ask him whether he will take some photographs of me tomorrow when it is light enough outside.
The moments of doubt:
1. When I discovered that I made a mistake halfway down my knitting. And that was a lot already, I had just started the steek for the underarms. Should I frog? Was it very obvious? After some thinking, and a short consultation with my DH, I decided that it was not too obvious, and if I managed to keep it in the back and not the front, I would be able to live with it. I hate going back, not only in knitting, but also when driving, walking, whatever activity that holds progress.
2. After creating the steeks for the underarms, and actually quite some rounds later, I realised that I forgot/didn't notice the sentence with instruction on where to put the marker for the sides so that the whole garment would be symmetical. Remember that I read the whole pattern? Apparently I did not remember this little sentence! The stitch pattern is not symmetrical, and though only 4 stitches wide, i noted the difference in the arms. On the left front, there were three dark stitches next to the steek, on the right front there was only one. At the back, the same difference, though now the left back has only one dark stitch and at the right side at the back there are three. Well, I decided to continue, because I convinced myself that no-one will notice (apart from myself, that is). Not realising that the same will happen at the front steek for the neck opening, as well as the back neck. Oh well, just carry on, it will not be very noticeable. But stop! Not very noticeable... hmmmm, when grafting together the front and back shoulders, it dawned to me that also here, there is a slight consequence of not separating front and back symmetrically: the pattern at the front does not match the pattern at the back. Well, now, I include a picture so that you can see it. I can live with the knowledge that this could have been avoided if I had paid attention to that one sentence. (On the other hand: the error could have been avoided altogether if the pattern repeat had been drawn symmetrically - which I keep in mind for myself if I ever would design something myself).
2. After creating the steeks for the underarms, and actually quite some rounds later, I realised that I forgot/didn't notice the sentence with instruction on where to put the marker for the sides so that the whole garment would be symmetical. Remember that I read the whole pattern? Apparently I did not remember this little sentence! The stitch pattern is not symmetrical, and though only 4 stitches wide, i noted the difference in the arms. On the left front, there were three dark stitches next to the steek, on the right front there was only one. At the back, the same difference, though now the left back has only one dark stitch and at the right side at the back there are three. Well, I decided to continue, because I convinced myself that no-one will notice (apart from myself, that is). Not realising that the same will happen at the front steek for the neck opening, as well as the back neck. Oh well, just carry on, it will not be very noticeable. But stop! Not very noticeable... hmmmm, when grafting together the front and back shoulders, it dawned to me that also here, there is a slight consequence of not separating front and back symmetrically: the pattern at the front does not match the pattern at the back. Well, now, I include a picture so that you can see it. I can live with the knowledge that this could have been avoided if I had paid attention to that one sentence. (On the other hand: the error could have been avoided altogether if the pattern repeat had been drawn symmetrically - which I keep in mind for myself if I ever would design something myself).
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| The bark of an old pinetree |
3. When sewing down the steeks, the instruction is to not stretch the knitting too much. Apparently I did stretch it too much. When done with the sewing I tried it on. At the back, the openings for the arms were flaring out. A lot. So much that you would think that extra space was needed for my wings to come out, if I had those. Which I don't. I sincerely hoped that the i-cord binding would pull it in. And to help that, I made sure to skip a few stitches when I picked up and knitted the stitches for the i-cord. I skipped approximately one stitch every 8 stitches at the back, and at the front 3 stitches spread out evenly. And it worked. The flare is gone, the i-cord nicely hugs my shoulders without being tight.
Well, I think that was it, all the frightening things that happened during knitting. Or, not fully. There was one other thing:
4. I ran out of yarn just before the last repeat of the pattern. There was not a meter of it left, even though the calculations said it would be enough. The solution was to continue with a slightly lighter, but still very dark, brown. The same yarn that was in the ribbing at the bottom, the neck opening and the i-cord bindoff at the arms. Who would notice, I wonder. Do you?
The last pattern repeat in a slightly lighter brown.
5. And of course, the unplanned, extra decreases for the arm openings, but that isn't really a mistake. It works out just fine for my smallish shoulders.
Do you notice that my hubby is a very good photographer? And that we are in the midst of beautiful autumal weather, with splendid colours around me?
