I have been fighting off a bug since Thursday.   The silver lining is I made serious progress on my top down sweater. 

On Friday night I ripped my sweater back to this:

This happened because of all of the inspiration I took from the judges and many others in the #fringeandfriendskal2016 who inspired me to #ripforjoy.

My Top Down KAL Sweater 1.0 was wonky.  It puckered in multiple places and the fit was off.  My feeling was I should have separated my sleeves earlier in my yoke.

Yesterday,  I started back in on my sweater.   Before I began knitting,  I recalculated my sweater math.  This time, I remeasured my bust, higher up, at my underarms.  This new measurement is what I decided to use to calculate my raglan increases and my yoke depth to the separation of the sleeves from the body.  

I verified my pattern notes back to the Top Down Tutorial.

Karen Templer provided great advice regarding the number of underarm stitches I cast on.  She suggested 6 or 7 and in my first sweater, I had cast on 12.  Karen even wrote a blog post on Underarms in response to the issues some of us were having.

Once I cast on my sleeve stitches, I increased my bust to my full bust measurement.

Look at the difference!  I am so excited! 

The fit is so much better.  The sleeves are perfect!

Sorry the photos aren’t the best but I really couldn’t contain my excitement.

I had two goals for this KAL: to learn how to custom-fit a knitted garment and to learn how to make a top-down sweater.

It all seemed so daunting at first.

The process outlined in the Top Down Tutorial is an excellent guide.  Measuring, trying on, measuring again, trying on again, ripping and repeating are key.  I learned how knitted fabric lays, I got a better understanding of my body and I learned how to construct a sweater based on measuring and math.

As I have said before, this is my first KAL.  It has been a wonderful experience.  Seeing all of the different sweaters being made by so many talented knitters has been inspirational.  There was comfort in knowing other knitters were struggling with my same issues.  It was fun to see them figure out what worked and the joy they felt when they succeeded.

I am grateful for all of the support from Karen Templer, the knitters and from Kate, at Wild Haven Fiber Company.

#fringeandfriendskal2016 #topdowntutorial #knittersofinstagram #knitting