Ply and Burl

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Planning for the Cobblestone Sweater

Call me old fashioned, but there was no way I was going to touch the curse of the pre-marriage sweater. Not that we weren’t tight — the hubby and I are very dedicated to each other. But I’ve seen it in action, and you just never know!

But now that we’re married, Man Sweater, ho! I’m getting ready to cast on Jared Flood’s Cobblestone sweater over the Christmas holidays. In preparation, I’ve been trolling the web for tips on how to best execute it. I wanted to try it top down, and I wanted to avoid the jog line up the back of the garter stitch yolk. Thanks to the internet, I’ve now got a plan:

1. Top-down, bottom-up hybrid
I wanted to do this top-down, but The Thrifty Knitter argues for a hybrid approach. She thinks that decreases are less bulky than increases, so doing the yolk bottom-up would look nicer. She suggests doing it first, then casting on the sleeves and body to the bottom and knitting them top-down so you can measure as you go. My plan is to cast on using the Provisional Cast On so I can pick up live stitches to continue (video here).

2. Avoiding the jog
For some reason, I find the line up the back of the yolk supremely irritating. The yolk just cries out “knit in the round!” but the line makes it look like it has a seam. Icky. Thankfully, Kathryn Ivy explains the Jogless Garter Stitch which will fix the problem.

That’s the whole plan for now… will keep you posted or check in on the project on my Ravelry page!

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