Astoria by the Seaside

The Astoria sweater is named after a little seaside town in Oregon, USA. This is a lovely top down, raglan sweater pattern designed by Marnie MacLean.

I used Cascade 220 wool as opposed to the superwash - but that's OK as long as I don't accidentally throw it in the washing machine and shrink it!

Notes:

This is a "fitted knit". That means it hugs the body. There are darts in the front and the back for bust/waist/hip shaping.

There were a few knitter defiined glitches - my own fault really for misunderstanding the pattern. Marnie was great though and steered me back on the right path several times. I hasten to add that this was my first top down sweater, and my second only attempt at stranded work.

The great thing about a top down sweater is that you can try it on as you go!

Marnie gives lots of extra instructions to custom fit this garment for a fuller bust, shorter/longer waist, larger/smaller hips.

Sleeves

I actually followed the pattern closely until the sleeves!

The first sleeve was a super-sized headache. Beware stranding on the sleeves! I used four dpns (4.5mm) for the stranded motif in the body of the sweater, and did the same for the sleeve. I'd almost finished the sleeve and decided to try it on. Bugger, the sleeve was a little tight. Not uncomfortably tight, but still more than I like.

So I frogged it and knit it again using 5mm needles. I knit down to the elbow again, and tried it on. It fit better, BUT I didn't like the looser stranding. It just looked wonky to me!

So I frogged the sleeve again. This time I photocopied the stranded motif for the sleeve and redrew the sizing lines to accommodate four extra stitches under the arm. I knit the stranded motif on an 80cm x 4.5mm circular needle using the magic loop method. Much better.

I also knitted one less set of repeats and decreases for the sleeve length.

Neckline

This was also a bit of a struggle. As predicted early on in my knitting, the neckline was way too big/loose.

I picked up the number of stitches suggested in the pattern and used the suggested needle size - although there was no way that 190 stitches were going to fit on one 12" circular!

I added extra rows, but it was still loose. So I frogged it back to the picked up stitches point and asked for advice through the Tips and Techniques Group on Ravelry. Together with some advice from Marianne and Diana, Marnie (the designer), and a tip from the Yarn Harlot, I ended up doing a crocheted cast off.

She turned out well, and I'm one happy little Ozzie!