No Kerfuffle Kuffel

About that sweater I was talking about (Kuffel by Alexis Winslow):

I worked through this project in fairly short order (read: enthusiasm for both the design and the materials). I bought the yarn directly from the Hudson + West website a little over a month ago just before everything went to hell, and thankfully the yarn arrived quickly. I chose to knit the third size which would give me about 12” of positive ease which felt crazy at the time, but I trusted the designer’s notes about fit, and knowing this deeper yoke profile works best with more positive ease, I threw any reservations out the window and just dove in.

Since this is a top-down sweater, I cast on provisionally starting below the neck band which is my usual treatment for top down construction. I do this to better control the neckband by picking up the provisional stitches later, and binding off at the top edge. Through experience, I found top down neck bands just don’t hold their structure in quite the same way as bottom up ones, so I make this modification to suit myself.

I got about this far before I went back and added the neckband. This is a new shape for me so I wanted to be able to try it on reliably as I went, so the final neckband had to happen right away.

Sewn tubular bind off is my new favorite finishing method, thanks to this lesson from my Felix Pullover last year. Pictured here is the lower hem in process, but you get the idea.

Back to the chart work, I sped through this part like a famished carbivore at an all-you-can-eat creme tea buffet (the one at Harrod’s of London comes to mind. But then again, when DOESN’T it come to mind once you’ve been to one?).

I took this opportunity to video my stranding practice to urge people to give up the notion that bigger needles help fair isle tension issues. If you’re curious you can find it posted on my Instagram IGTV.

And a few days later, I had a finished sweater. The deep yoke shape is new to me and it takes a little getting used to because the whole thing rises up in a belly-exposing way when I raise my arms, and I don’t think any of my coats would accommodate the bulk of extra fabric under the arms. But it’s super cute, and I think I’m going to live in this one for awhile.