I can’t truly evaluate the CotLin U-Neck sweater until it’s been washed because I already know the gauges will change, and hopefully the FO, like the swatch, will stabilize after two laundry cycles.

Off-the-Needles Measurements

The prewashed measurements look good:

• Chest: 35 in
• Hip: 40 in
• Sleeve Circumference: 10.5 in
• Back Neck: 5 in (inside edges of neck ribbing)
• Yoke Depth: 10.25 in (including neck ribbing)

My ITR gauges in color 4 (the solid color) were identical to what I swatched originally: 26.5 sts and 32 rows per 4 inches. Hopefully the entire sweater will behave the same in laundering as the swatch did.

The Fit

I ignored the little voice in my head that kept telling me to allow for the fact that the neck ribbing would fill in some of the neck opening, partly because I was completely paranoid about not having enough yoke depth for the sweater to fit comfortably. As you can see from the photos, the back and side neck rise quite high.

Now, that extra height doesn’t bother me, because I like my neck (and shoulders) to be warm. And some of the height should be lost in laundering as the stitch gauge loosens and the row gauge tightens. But still, the next sweater will take into account that some fabric will be added at the neck in the finishing.

The circumferences and lengths all feel good even in the prewashed state, so the aforementioned gauge changes should actually improve the fit overall.

After Laundering

It went through the washer and dryer just fine, though I will admit to shining a flashlight through the washer door to see if there was a big pile of yarn developing. 🙂

The first laundry cycle changed the measurements, as expected:

• Chest: 37 in, so 2 in bigger
• Hip: 43.5 in, so 3.5 in bigger
• Sleeve Circumference: 11 in, so 0.5 in bigger
• Back Neck: 4.5 in (inside edges of ribbing), so 0.5 in narrower
• Yoke Depth: 9.5 in (including neck ribbing), so 0.75 in shorter

It did not occur to me to measure the total length before I threw it in the washer, but the final length from top of neck ribbing to bottom edge was 22.5 in.

I will take these measurements, stitch counts, and row counts into consideration as I make the next sweater in this series of adventures.

Though I’m not best pleased with the way colors 4 and 5 were dyed, even the Big Guy said that wearing this sweater with jeans will help disguise the fact that the bottom two colors’ dye pattern was different from the speckling of colors 1, 2, and 3.

I will also admit that I made this first sweater in this set of yarns, because I looked at it as a test garment. If it wound up being a failure for whatever reason, well, I really liked the CotLin value pack’s other set of yarns better anyway, so I would be able to apply the lessons learned to the yarn set I wanted to truly get right.

Even so, I think this sweater will be quite wearable, a pleasant weight for those cool days that may or may not need a jacket, especially while running errands in a sun-warmed car.

Yarn Usage

The total yarn used was close to my predictions.

• Color 1: 62.72 g (9269 sts, so 148 sts/g)
• Color 2: 75.16 g (10306 sts, so 137 sts/g)
• Color 3: 89.68 g (12381 sts, so 138 sts/g)
• Color 4: 79.83 g (10806 sts, so 135 sts/g)
• Color 5: 67.52 g (9198 sts, so 136 sts/g)

I can’t account for getting about 8 percent more stitches by weight out of color 1 than with the other colors, but at least the discrepancy was in my favor!

And no, I have no idea what I’ll do with the leftovers.

August 28, 2019, Updates

The sweater weighed almost exactly 379 g, while the yarn usages add up to 374.91 g. I can’t account for that discrepancy, though I did forget to weight colorway 2 before I started using it, so I could only estimate its weight by taring the needles, markers, and yarn used for colorway 1. I seriously doubt that tared weight was 5 g off, though.

After the second laundering, almost all the measurements changed compared to the first laundering. Hopefully, sweater #1 is now stable.

• Chest: 38 in, so another inch bigger
• Hip: 44 in, so another 0.5 in bigger
• Sleeve Circumference: 11.5 in, so another 0.5 in bigger
• Back Neck: 4-5/8 in (inside edges of ribbing), so 1/8 inch wider
• Yoke Depth: 9.5 in (including neck ribbing), so unchanged
• Back Length: 22.5 in, so unchanged

I’m exceedingly glad I’ve designed sweater #2 to be narrower in the chest and hips. The question is, Did I go small enough? We shall see.