In January I cast on the Sunset Highway sweater. I was using 3 colours of sock yarn and I had problems getting the right tension in my swatch. Several swatches and several different needle sizes and I still didn’t have gauge… so in the end, I just cast on, which was a big mistake. I finished knitting the yoke, knit 10cm/4″ of the body and tried it on. Much much much too big. It would have easily fitted over 2 of me. So I carefully unravelled the yarn and started again. I cast on, a smaller size, I finished knitting the yoke, started down the body again, tried it on and it was still too big. So I frogged to the start of the colour work yoke, put the whole project into a box (now languishing on top of the bookshelf), and decided to check my emails. I still can’t work out where I went wrong with my Sunset Highway. It is such a beautiful sweater.
Early in January our very old oil boiler stopped working… in mid-winter. This winter has been surprisingly cold for Northern Ireland. Normally, it is milder and wetter. But not this year while we were dependent on a couple of heaters to stay warm… and my knitting mojo? After knitting 2 sunset highway yokes and not having anything to show for it, I was ready to shove it out into the snow!!
Into this, came a ray of bright sunshine from Kate Davies Designs – the Carbeth sweater. I read her email in my inbox. I looked at the beautiful inspirational photographs. I thought about how warm and cosy a chunky weight sweater would be. More to the point, I imagined myself warm and cosy wearing this chunky weight sweater! Of course, I also loved the shaping of the raglan on the yoke. But, what can I say, most of all I loved that this was going to be a warm sweater knit out of chunky yarn.
Suddenly, everywhere I looked there seemed to be Carbeth sweaters. KDD wrote a couple of useful posts about blocking the Carbeth and how much more yarn I would need to knit a longer version of the Carbeth. MDK were running a Bang out a Carbeth knit along during February on their website. Hundreds of projects on Ravelry… and, I just knew this was a party that I was joining.
And… my knitting mojo had been welcomed back inside to sit (in prime position) beside the heater in the lounge!
I wanted a jumper that would look great with my Crofthoose Hat and Fingerless Gloves. I also wanted a sweater that would be warm and machine washable. I chose the Chunky Tweed by King Cole. It isn’t a yarn I have used before, being a blend of 72% acrylic, 25% wool and 3% viscose. I loved the North Uist colour way and the tweedy flecks of olive green, gold and russet set against a shade of greyish sea blue. I ordered nine 100g balls and waited patiently for them to arrive. I didn’t have long to wait as they arrived a couple of days after I’d placed the order. In the end I used 7 1/2 balls of yarn. I intend using the leftover yarn to knit a pair of Pompom Party Slippers.
I quickly cast on and knitted a swatch. I got the required tension. (Yes, I’d learned my lesson!) Then I chose the size I wanted to knit. I didn’t want my Carbeth to be particularly wide or to be cropped in length. I’d taken this into consideration when I was ordering the yarn and had ordered a few extra balls so I wouldn’t need to worry. I cast on for the 5th size. Worked 11 rounds of 2×2 rib and then continued in stocking stitch until my sweater body measured 16″ from the cast on edge. Next time I’d do 5cm/2″ of 2×2 rib as my rib has a habit of flipping up.
I worked the sleeves as written in the pattern. The only other change was that I added 5 more rounds to the length of the collar.
As ever, Kate Davies has designed and clearly written a wonderful pattern.
My main problem came with the yoke shaping. The k2tog always look nice and neat. To create a matching mirrored neat decrease instead of working the SSK I did a slip 1 knit-wise, slip1 purl-wise, knit the two slipped stitches together. This gave me a neat decrease edge that looked very similar to the k2tog decrease edge.
But, when I was about 15 rounds into the yoke, I noticed that I was getting a ladder just above this decrease. I tried everything I could think of to get rid of it, such as pulling the yarn a little tighter, but if anything this seemed to exacerbate the problem.
So, in the end, all I could think of was to camouflage the issue. I carefully, using the tip of a darning needle, gently tugged the excess yarn that was causing the ladder into the stitch next to it, and then, I spread the excess yarn across probably the next 10 stitches until all the excess yarn had gone and the stitches all looked nice and even. I did this on every round (back and front). Perhaps the laddering would have disappeared when the sweater was blocked but as this isn’t a pure wool, I didn’t think the problem could be improved just with blocking.
I’d love to know how you do your SSK to avoid any type of ladder effect?
I hadn’t knit a sweater using chunky wool before and it was a very quick project. I cast on for my Carbeth on the 4th February and finished on the 23rd February. So for me this was a very quick knit. It is a very comfortable sweater to wear and I love it! I pretty much lived in my Carbeth and my Joyride Sweater until we had our new gas central heating installed in mid March.
Your Carbeth looks fabulous! I am knitting one right now, too. I am on the decreases at the neck and shoulders. I love the construction of it. Yours fits you perfectly. It looks so pretty with your hat and gloves.
Hello Nicolette~
Congratulations for receiving The Top 20 Irish Knitting Blogs and Websites for Knitters award…well done!
Want to share these links with you since they have helped me with SSK and ladders. I hope you find them useful::
Link 1 Alternative SSK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI1fYYBpQGA
Link 2 from Judy..(Judy knits garments for Hollywood stars to use in their films) This video shows her way of avoiding ladders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc6PR9r5aXs&t=41s
Judy’s website:: http://www.knittingtipsbyjudy.com/
Also want to say thank you for your wonderful blog and for all your lovely patterns and instructions. I enjoy reading your entries and have learned much from your lessons on making socks….I look forward to each of your newsletters….Patricia
Hi Patricia, Thank you so much for the links to the videos. I have watched them with great interest and shall try the different techniques to see how they look. I think part of the problem I had with the Left Leaning Decrease on the Carbeth was that I was doing the decrease on every round on the yoke without having a knitted round in-between which for me seemed to exacerbate my problem with the ladder. Of course, in bulky yarn, it was also a bit more obvious. Many thanks for taking the time to give me these useful links. Happy Knitting, Nicolette
Beautiful sweater, hat and mitts! To help with the laddering, you could try doing a knit-2-together -through-the-back-loops or this video tweak also makes a better behaving decrease: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gce2bPfEHk
Thank you Kate for the link to this video. It is very helpful and has a twist to the way I was slipping the second stitch which is so interesting. I’ve saved the link to try this out. I’ve also been trying out the k2tog(tbl) as well to see if it would have helped. I’ve been trying the suggestions out some leftover yarn. It is so interesting. Happy Knitting, Nicolette
I really needed your post today!
So many things this winter took forever to make, mainly because it just wasn’t turning out the way I envisioned—even after the swatches I made.
Oh WELL, it’s simply good to know, I am not the only one who tries and yes, tries again.
Hey, I bought the Carbeth pattern too, but haven’t started it. Ha ha, I have seen soooo many examples from Kate’s site and Ravelry. And that’s a good sign!
YOU LOOK MARVELOUS!!
And thanks for the tips!
Love from Oregon,
Teri Byrne
Hi Teri,
I know exactly what you mean about the swatches and then actually starting the project. I suspect my tension changes a bit once I settle into a project, in comparison to my actual swatching! I am contemplating going back to this project at some point!
The Carbeth was great fun to knit and surprisingly speedy using the Chunky(UK)/Bulky(US) weight yarn. I hadn’t knit a sweater in this weight of yarn and it was amazing how quickly I had it finished. I was just looking at the Carbeth Swansong and thinking how lovely it looked. What colour will you choose for your Carbeth when you cast on? Happy Knitting, Nicolette
Oh I love your Carbeth and I especially love the length. I don’t think I can pull off a cropped Carbeth, but I still want to knit the pattern. Thanks for showing that it is possible. I love your colour…just gorgeous!
Thank you Anna, You will enjoy knitting the Carbeth! It is also a sweater I love wearing. I didn’t knit it with as much positive ease as the pattern suggested mainly because I was lengthening the body. I wasn’t sure if a lot of positive ease and the longer body would work for me with the chunky(UK)/Bulky(US) yarn. You’ll enjoy knitting this sweater though! Happy Knitting, Nicolette
Oh my so beautiful, and looks so cosy. Interesting yoke, but works well. I love the colour of the yarn. What a time to have your heating die, hope you are cosy now,Kate x x
Hi Kate, Thank you! Yes much cosier now just as Spring seems to be arriving. Nicolette x
I always have problem making ssk looks neat too. Suzanne Bryan has a YouTube channel and in one of them she explained why ssk never looks pretty compared to k2tog, and offered some solutions. There are other YouTube videos offering ways to counter this problem too, the easiest I remember is just knit the next row of the ssk through back loop.
Your sweater is very lovely!
Hi Min, Thank you. I’ll have a look at Suzanne Bryan’s youtube channel. It is always interesting to find new ways of doing the left leaning decrease. I’ve used your solution when knitting socks but my problem with the Carbeth was that I was doing the SSK decrease on every round of the yoke and it used the previous SSK in the next one. It is a great sweater and lovely to wear. Happy Knitting, Nicolette