I think all sweaters should be knit with the intention to minimize the amount of work require to finish it after everything has been knit. Take for example this Olivia cardigan. The pattern called for knitting the two fronts, back and sleeves to be knit separately, seamed up and then you pick up a bizillion stitches for the neck and also for the two sleeves to finish those respective areas. Too much work I say! So I radically simplified it so that I can knit this in class with the minimalist amount of thinking.

I arbitrarily decided the number of stitches I needed for the sleeves after knitting the written 91 stitches for the sleeves and seeing how humongously poofy it was. I did about an inch of garter stitches for the cuff and then switched to stockinette. I spaced out a bunch of increases to give the sleeve a little poofyness but not as much as the pattern called for. Some straight rows were knit before decreasing the sleeve to the written number of stitches.

The fronts and back were knit together up to the sleeves and then I did raglan decreases until I got it down to the number of stitches being picked up in the pattern. I then did a bunch of garter rows, added a button hole, decreased some more, knitted a few more garter rows, decreased again before casting off. And voila, a perfectly fitting sweater that I put minimal brain effort into (all my brain effort went into studying.)

This has to be my most nonchalantly knitted sweater. All my other sweaters I worried about getting the sleeve decreases correct. Constantly counting the stitches. This one was very different. I was confident that this will turn out alright, no worries that it won’t fit me properly. I guess that has a lot to do with having knitted a SWATCH! *gasp*. I was all anti swatching in my last few sweaters which caused me to constantly worry that it won’t fit me. So from now on, I’m gonna swatch!

Pattern : Olivia by Kim Hargraves
Yarn: Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool, 6 skeins
Needles: Size 3
Time to Knit: about a month
Gripes: I may have to move the placement of the button, its a bit wonky.
Ravelry Page for this