Start to Finish: Pomme de Pin

I didn't post any progress on this sweater last week since I was knitting my way through the body. I made a couple of decisions about this sweater after reading through the pattern and referring to the schematic that I'd like to share.

If you've knit lace you'll know that something magical happens when it hits the water - it grows! Those crumpled stitches relax and the finished piece grows and opens up during the blocking process. This sweater is knit in an allover lace pattern so it makes sense that it will grow during the blocking process - both vertically and horizontally. The instructions for the body say to knit until it measures 17 inches but the schematic for the sweater also says 17 inches. If the lace pattern is going to grow lengthwise then I know that I need to knit less than 17 inches for the blocked measurement to match the schematic. 

This is where your swatch comes in handy! Your unblocked swatch measurement and your blocked swatch measurement will give you the magical number of rows or inches you'll need to knit the sweater to the correct length to match the schematic. My swatch is still MIA but I know that my swatch grew about an inch after blocking. Based on that information I decided to knit my sweater body to 15 inches and I'll rely on the blocking process to eke out that extra two inches. I'll use this information for knitting the sleeves since I don't want them to be too long. I've made a lot of progress since last week - I split for the fronts and back, knit the rest of one front, and am most of the way through the back. If all goes well I may have a finished cardigan by the end of January!