Sweater Report: Norge Pullover

So I have a bunch of knitting pictures that I've sort of been sitting on for a while. In part because I don't take pictures very often, in part because the pictures are of poor quality, and in part because I'm not terribly fond of the sweaters that I have left. But lots of people always seem to like this sweater, so here it goes.

I've always called in my "Norge sweater," but it's just a really really simple norwegian style sweater, with a few minor modifications. Here's the basic shot..

Yarn is Classic Elite "Montera," that I got on cones at Susan's Fiber Shop. It looked like it was pretty old stuff. It's single ply wool/llama mix, and frankly, not quite as soft knitted up as I wanted it to be. And a good deal heavier than you'd expect. The patterns came from the "Traditional Scandivaian Knitting" book, and the shape was/is my own.

Though it's probably the simplest sweater I've done that has color work in it, it was like my 2nd or 3rd color work sweater. I set in the armholes a little bit, and you can see that in the final. I also got to do short rows, which is nice.

Here is a detail picture of the pattern:

Things I learned from this pattern:

• Do cuffs in 2x2 rib, 1x1 is too elastic and doesn't cuff enough. So it's sort of limp.

• Shape the back of the neck on a sweater. It's it can make or break a sweater.

• Never make a sweater collar longer than 1.5 inches, particularly in crew neck sweaters.

• When in doubt use the sleeves to build on and accent the body pattern. Simplify it perhaps, but never have it be totally different.

• Get used to using yarns designed for stranded knitting, like shetland, and don't get all fancy on the process. Really. Works out better that way.

  • Corollary: Accent patterns, don't well.