Knitalong panelist Meg Strong dropped by my studio yesterday so I could take the finished photos of her Amanda (in the grainy rainy-day light) and it was all I could do to let her have the sweater back after she kindly permitted me to try it on. As I told her, if I saw this sweater walking down the street, I would totally accost the wearer, ask if it was hand-knit, take a photo, text with Anna about possible pattern choices, and inadvertently launch a whole knitalong in pursuit of that sweater. So there you go!

Meg kindly answered a few questions for us all—

You were sort of playing for both teams — Team Seam and Team Seamless. You knitted the body in one piece but then worked the arms flat, right? What was your reason for not knitting the sleeves seamlessly as well?

In my early days of knitting, I would consider patterns only that were written top-down, for one reason: terrified of seaming!  After knitting many a sweater that met that one requirement, I found they all would tend to fall off my shoulders as the day wore on.  With a little research and many a discussion with knitters that had many more years experience than me, the verdict was that seamed sweaters give your garment structure.  I wanted to keep the sleeves seamed for that one reason, structure. The seam will help keep the sleeve shape with all the tugging that goes on when putting a sweater on and pulling it off.

The decision to knit the body in one piece as opposed to seaming, as the pattern dictates, was made for a few reasons. In a previous post, I explained that I tend to not be overly excited about knitting the same thing twice. So I tend to work both sleeves at the same time.  Same for left and right fronts of a cardigan. The Amanda pattern incorporates these panels of the honeycomb cable, which creates a very rigid, dense fabric.  Knowing the fabric produced would be rigid, I decided to cast on for both left and right fronts along with the back, and worked the body in one piece.  The gamble paid off — the sides are stable, due to the stitch, and the sweater body isn’t “walking” around my body.

Are you happy with your choices? Were there moments in the knitalong where you wished you’d done something the other way around?

Absolutely! Happy with every decision I made!

You’re also the first of the panelists to have attempted a shawl-collar modification, which worked out stupendously — I am totally coveting this sweater. (And it fits me perfectly!) For those like you who had cast on the button-band “tab” along with the waist ribbing, and were thus committed to a vertically knit button band, do you care to share how you did it?

First, love this method of working a button band! The first sewn button band I worked was the Linney Cardigan from Amy Christoffers. I had no idea why I was doing what I was doing, just following directions, but after I wore the sweater numerous times, I knew why that button band was sewn on. It all goes back to structure — again, all the tugging that goes on when putting on a sweater and pulling it off. That button band looks every bit as good today as it did fresh off my needles.

My modification for the shawl collar began on the sleeve joining row. For specifics, definitely take a look at my project page on Ravelry. In general, I decreased 1 stitch at each edge, every other row, until I reached the “neck shaping” directive in the pattern, then continued working the pattern as directed. The actual shawl collar grew out of the button bands. I worked the button bands up to the point that my v-neck modification began, then began to increase 1 stitch, after working the established edge stitch, until I was satisfied with the width of the shawl. For me, that was after I had increased to 31 stitches.

You mentioned to me when we were taking these pics that you realized along the way that you don’t really wear crewneck cardigans, so it’s good that the notion of a shawl-collar mod came up as we were knitting. Are you happy with how it turned out? Anything you’d do differently if you had it to do over again?

I absolutely love my Amanda! I tend to knit items for the meditative aspect of our craft and rarely knit for the challenge. For some people, knitting miles and miles of stockinette fabric absolutely drives them nuts. I, on the other hand, am in absolute bliss. For me, Amanda was a challenge knit — not from a difficulty perspective, but it’s one that required brain power that I usually don’t bring to the knitting table. I will say, however, by the time I got to the yoke, I had the chart memorized and was able to allow my brain to wander and enjoy. I have this overwhelming sense of accomplishment when I look at this sweater. Seventy-five days ago, this sweater was nothing more than yards and yards of yarn — beautiful yarn, but yarn! I am always amazed at what one can create with two sticks, some string and desire. Amazed.

Oh, to the “anything I would do differently” question: yes, how about neglecting to do the first buttonhole and mis-crossing a cable? I would like a do-over on both of those. Who has a magic wand?

And will you be cabling again anytime soon?

Ha! I treated myself to a sweater’s worth of Windham from Jill Draper Makes Stuff, and thought for sure that I would cast on today for a nice relaxing stockinette sweater. I have spent the better half of the day perusing patterns, and every one I have considered for this yarn is, you guessed it … cabled!!

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Thanks, Meg! You can see more pics of Meg’s finished sweater on her Ravelry project page. And by the way, there are two more completed shawl-collar Amandas, that I know of: Trm26 on Ravelry and @wendlandcd on Instagram (and Ravelry) — both gorgeous!

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PREVIOUSLY in #fringeandfriendsknitalong: FO No. 1: Jaime Jennings