Kaino

Pattern: Kaino from Norah Gaughan volume 1

Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca in #6296

Needles: US 5 and 6

Mods: Added a few inches of length to the body and one inch to the armholes. Most obviously, I added sleeves. I took the sleeve cap shaping from Annikki from the same book.
I knew when I decided to make this that I did not want to use the little sleeves included in the pattern. No sleeves or long sleeves was my decision. I thought about it some more and further decided that I did not want any orphaned skeins of yarn hanging around. I have found the yardage requirements in this line of patterns to be extremely generous. I ordered the number of skeins suggested in the pattern for my size (6) and had enough yarn to lengthen the body and armholes and make two generous 3/4 length sleeves with a few yards left over.

In order to make the sleeves work out and end up with as little yarn leftover as possible, I cast on provisionally, knit the sleeve caps, and then knit down from the caps until I ran out of yarn. I used the sleeve cap shaping from Annikki in the same book. By chance, I lengthened the armhole to the same length in the Annikki pattern, so this seemed like very little work on my part. Unfortunately, the sleeve caps do not fit perfectly in the armholes. This may be due to my negligence in measuring row gauge, but the caps are quite long a fact that I suspected while knitting but did not bother to do anything about (knitter's intuition = 1, reason = 0). I also did a somewhat shoddy job of easing them in, particularly on the right hand side. This is not helped by the fact that the shoulders on this garment are quite wide. If I were to do it again, I would probably leave the sleeve cap shaping as is (and take more care with the sewing) but narrow the shoulders so that the seams sit closer to the tops of my shoulders. This is nitpicking, because I have worn this garment at least 5 times since I finished it two weeks ago with great compliments. The back is especially pretty with the long ribbing and the pointed neck band.

Once again you will have to listen to me rave about Ultra Alpaca. The yarn is incredible. It makes a nice firm fabric at a certain gauge but in this piece the gauge is looser than I have done before and the fabric is silky and drapey. This is a sweater that invites lounging, curling up, and wrapping around. The colors in this yarn have amazing depth and versatility as well. This color (whose name I have forgotten) is a combination of peaty brown, verdant green, and unexpected bursts of bright blue. Without close examination, you cannot read the individual colors but the overall effect is complex and nearly glowing.