Tomten! (the directors cut)

This is the second Tomten I’ve knit and the first for an adult. What follows is a brief run down of the project. I picked up the yarn at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool show from Chris at Briar Rose. ( Insert gushing sigh here)
Every time this sweater was pulled out in public to knit I ended up giving out the website. The colors are gorgeous and the yarn was a delight to work with. I used approximately 10 skeins of Beth Ann. Using a US size nine needle, I alternated between skeins at the end of every row and ended up with a few small remnants. I over estimated how much yarn I would need to complete the project and have a few extra skeins in my stash. I’m sure to come up with something to do with it on Ravelry. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

My source, the indispensable, The Opinionated Knitter (page 42 – 43). (Insert another gushing sigh) I used the same numbers for my sweater as written in the directions for the kids version. My blind following resulted in a sweater that was a wee too narrow for the Scandinavian shoulders I possess. By the time this revelation had sufficiently sunk in I had already knit both sleeves. Poo. The thought of ripping back to what amounted to the very beginnings to adjust for the necessary width made me cringe. So I knitted on – sure I would come up with a solution – or gift the sweater to a smaller person in my life. In the end I decided to add a button band of sorts across the whole front edge of the sweater. This had the added benefit of adding much needed length to the collar.

The collar features some fancy mitre work. Another bit of EZ genius. I decided the collar would be mostly open and put the mitre on the inside so it would be visible when worn. For a reference check out pg 84 of The Opinionated Knitter. I decided early in the construction of this sweater that the closure would be a zipper, a first for me. For some reason I thought it would be tough. Guess what? Not that bad. The sewing of zipper was a bit futsy. Totally worth it in the end. I followed the online tutorial I found here. The basting was absolutely necessary. I decided on a double separating zipper so I have the option to wear it just closed in the middle for that jaunty single button across the chest look. I picked up some lovely grograin ribbon that I will sew on top of the zipper band at some point. Here’s the sweater inside out showing my basting stitches for holding down the zipper while I hand sewed it on.

The whole sweater perimeter is finished with a two stitch I-cord. It makes for a lovely finish for the garment. After I knit the additional girth with the pseudo button band I cast off in I cord. I then cruised around the bottom of the sweater picking up stitch and making the cord. I added an extra non attached row of I-cord to get me around the corners nicely and grafted the two stubby ends together using Kitchener stitch. I have no idea where I started or ended now that I examine it. I was able to hide the stitches for the zipper inside the I cord making the hand stitching nearly invisible. I fear the bottom edge may be a bit too tight – but I can always change that later.

Spring is approaching, despite the dumping of a few inches this week. I find my Tomten the perfect weight for walking the pooch, counting the robins, in our balmy 40 degree weather.