Knitting Knit - basic stockinette sweater for 60cm

I thought it would be fun to knit up some of the older patterns here with broken image links, and post some notes and pictures of the results -- here's my first one:


(Modeled by Mish, Volks SD10 Dark Gentleman Michael)

Overall review: excellent basic drop-shoulder design, good proportions, lots of potential for customizing! There are a few problems with the pattern, though they aren't hard to fix.

Problem #1: the sleeve shaping. This is what I got when I knitted the sleeves exactly as written:


Arms don't bulge out that way at the forearm; something's backwards here. I took the body and sleeve apart and reknitted the sleeve with the shaping reversed. The rewritten instructions look like this:

Sleeves (x2)
CO 24
1-10 K1 p1 ribbing
11-58 stockingette increasing on rows 15, 25, 35, 45, 55
as so: K1, M1 work across till 2 stitches remaining, M1, K1.

Alternatively, pick up and knit 34 stitches from the joined front and back pieces (17 stitches on each side of the shoulder seam). Decrease at each end of the 5th row, then every 10th row four times (24 sts remaining); work 3 more rows plain. Work 10 rows of K1P1 ribbing.

Then the sleeves make sense:


Problem #2: With fingering-weight yarn on 2.75mm needles, the 28-stitch neck absolutely will not fit over an SD-sized doll's head if the pattern is knitted as written, no matter how loosely or tightly the knitter works. The neck opening would need something more like 36-40 stitches to stretch that much. Either plan on removing your doll's head, or change the neckline in your favorite way (by picking up more stitches around the neckline opening, by knitting in a button or snap placket at the back, etc.). I decided to remove Mish's head, because I like the look of the close neckline on him.

(Possible) Problem #3: The pattern assumes that anyone knitting it up knows that each piece must be bound off when it's finished, and then the pieces must be sewn together. That will be obvious to any experienced knitter, but new knitters will want to be aware that there's still the final assembly left once the knitting is done.

 

Very nice little sweater. The directions are clear which is always a good thing. Good job.

 

THANK YOU for the photos and corrections! That was SO KIND and helpful! This sweater pattern is so nice, I'm glad you resurrected it! I hope you'll resurrect more in the future, as your time permits!