The Aran Honeycomb Sweater is finally complete!

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Final Steps

Weaving in Ends

Since my previous post, I (very slowly and tediously) sat down and wove all of the ends in.

That part wasn’t too difficult, but there were quite a few loose ends due to the multi-part nature of the sweater.

Neckband

I had been considering whether I should undo the neckband bind-off since it came out a bit tight. I ended up deciding not to re-open it and just let it stay as it was. That turned out to be a good decision because the collar loosened a bit over time! Even though it’s still somewhat tight, it’s not difficult to get my head through anymore. And also the tightness of the collar actually makes the fit more snug overall, which I think is a good feature for a sweater to have 👍

The pattern also called for the neckband to be folded and sewn down, but I just did this with the yarn itself and it turned out pretty well!

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Final Thoughts

This was definitely a fun project and very straightforward to follow!

The pattern document itself was very well-written and nicely formatted too.

Also, since the cable patterns here aren’t very difficult, it’s a good project for beginners to get into cables.

Ravelry Link

Here’s a link to my project on Ravelry:

• https://www.ravelry.com/projects/mihirthecableguy/honeycomb-aran

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Happy to finally get this WIP out of the way 😮‍💨

On to the next project 🚀 !!

I haven’t posted at all yet this year! Can you believe it??

In the meantime, I was slooooowly getting the seaming done, and now I’m nearly finished!

While I was getting the seaming done, I was a bit worried about whether my pace was even. Also the sleeve cuffs seemed like they might end up too tight, but I’d say everything turned out fine.

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Remaining Steps

Weave in Ends

Lots of loose ends to weave in and hide in the mesh…

Not too difficult, but far from my favorite part of any project 😩

Fix Neckband

When I finished the last knitting step and bound up the neckband, I didn’t do it very loosely. So now the collar is a bit tight, and I may have to reopen it (snip ✂️ snip ✂️).

The neckband is also supposed to be folded inwards and sewed to its bottom, so that it becomes half its current height. But I think this will be difficult to do with the bind-off being tight, and it’ll probably make the collar even tighter. However, I’ll push off the decision on reopening the neckband until I’m done weaving in the rest of the ends.

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Almost There!

Time to weave in those ends!

Here’s hoping I don’t procrastinate again and end up posting months from now… 🤞

I’ve just completed the neckband, seen here:

It’s a pretty simple twisted ribbing (so didn’t take too much time)!

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Last part is the seaming to close up the whole thing 😩

Once again, it has been some time since my last post!

The separate pieces of the Aran sweater had been sitting around while I procrastinated the seaming.

But with December ending soon, I’m hoping to get it done within the year 🫡

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I’ve just completed the seaming for (almost) all of the slanted boundaries where the raglan-style sleeves link up with the main front/back pieces. One seam (the back-left) is left open to be seamed later on.

Here’s what it looks like now:

Now things are a bit tidier since all 4 pieces are connected up into a single item.

There are still loose ends everywhere though 🥲 gonna be fun weaving those in at the end.

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Seam Technique

I think my seaming generally comes out okay, but I could definitely work on that in the future.

To be honest, I’m not even sure I do it correctly, but I like the way the slanted boundary came out here so… 🤷‍♂️

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Neckband / Collar

One of the last steps is making the neckband, which needs to be done to all the pieces at once.

That involves picking up the stitches that had been left on stitch holders, as well as picking up new stitches from any closed/cast-off edges.

I started on that and have done a bit of it, so hopefully that part will be done in a few days.

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After that little neckband digression, the last part will be to seam everything up and weave in ends.

Then I’ll finally be free from this project and done with the year 😭

It has been a while… but I’ve returned to finish up the Aran sweater I’ve been working on!

I was a bit distracted with the Swan Shawl project that I picked up in the meantime 😅

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All Pieces Complete

I finished the 2nd sleeve, so now all of the pieces of the sweater are complete!

I considered washing and blocking the parts to make them fit the measurements, but I was a bit worried that it might end up stretching it out and making the sweater baggy. The pieces already seemed to have the right measurements, so I felt that washing was unnecessary. So I ended up just pinning them to confirm they were the right size and make them fit the measurements neatly.

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Last Steps

All that’s left to do now is seam all of the pieces together.

That’s definitely my least favorite part of the project 😔 might take me a few attempts.

Oh and I also have to knit the neckband to finish up once everything is connected up.

Here’s the latest update on the Aran sweater…

I’ve just completed the first sleeve!

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Seems like it came out well!

Just looking at the unattached sleeve, the width and taper come off as a bit questionable to me.

But I figure it’ll make sense once I fit the individual parts together and see how the raglans fit.

Also, this is similar to what the sleeves on my previous cardigan project looked like, so that’s reassuring.

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Cables during Increases/Decreases

I did have one issue come up while knitting this sleeve.

The pattern called for increasing and decreasing stitches while maintaining the pattern.

This caused minor conflicts whenever the twist of a cable happened at the same time as an inc/dec.

Check out these examples:

On the left, you can see the cable twisting directly into a decrease.

On the right, you can see that the braid couldn’t start until enough of the increased sts were added.

For those situations, I had to decide whether to…

• Hold off on the cable, so that the inc/dec could happen without complication
• OR perform the cable twist and ALSO inc/dec (which is a bit finicky to handle simultaneously)

I made those decisions as they arose, and I think it generally turned out fine.

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Luckily, these happen at the inner seam of the sleeve, which means they won’t be very visible.

Anyway, the seaming will eat up a bit of the width, as the edges will get curled in.

That will hopefully help hide those confusion spots 🤷‍♂️

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The last piece is the other sleeve, which should be similarly easy.

What I’m reeeeeally dreading is seaming the pieces together 😒 _{(my least favorite part of any project)}.

Another update on the Aran sweater…

In addition to the back piece, I’ve now completed the front piece!

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Initially, I was working 4 rows per day, which was about 1/2 of an inch per day, but that felt too slow, so I doubled the pace!

I had one mishap in the middle panel where the yarn broke and unraveled a bit, but I managed to salvage it and tie it up before any serious damage happened. Luckily it affected one of the behind cables in a cable-cross, so the issue is obscured a bit by the front cable of the pair.

Hopefully no more unraveling happens in the future though 🤞

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Next up are the sleeves!

Just a quick update on the Aran sweater…

I’ve completed the back piece!

Overall, it came out pretty well _{(apart from that one mistake, but let’s not bring that up…)}

Next up is the front piece, which should be similar.

In my last post, I’d started off the back piece of the sweater with a twisted rib, ending with increases interspersed throughout the final WS row of the ribbing.

Now we’re getting into the fun part! ~~> Those delicious CABLE panels 🧶

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Here’s where I’m at so far:

My tension at the cabled sections was initially unstable, but it evened out once the pattern was established.

The cables are looking pretty clean, if I do say so myself!

I’m only about a third of the way through this stage of the pattern. Since the row-counts for the 3 cabled sections are 4, 8, and 18, the panels do match up nicely on multiples of 4, even though the 18 messes that up. I’ve just been keeping track of rows in a notebook so I don’t get mixed up. Plus I’ll definitely want to have the same row-count for the front piece, so good I’m keeping track.

Luckily it has been easy to go into auto-pilot once the pattern for the cable panels was established. This portion of the sweater continues like this until the point where the raglan sleeves would be joined in. After that, the pattern is continued, but worked with decreases at the sides for the sleeves.

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Minor Cable Issues

I’ve noticed a few places where the cables look a little bit messy.

The boundary K st of a cable will sometimes be loose because of the P st before or after it:

This seems to mostly happen at the outermost st of a cabled panel, rather than the internal ones.

I remembered reading about a tip for this specific situation in this book by Judith Durant:

She suggested two possible fixes:

• Use a bit more tension on those boundary sts, to counter the loosening between K/P sts
• Purl the subsequent P st tbl to twist it and add some tightness

I’m trying out the second option since it has worked for me in the past, and it’s a more concrete fix than adjusting tension, which can be wishy-washy.

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I typically don’t prefer to make tension changes when I’m midway through a pattern, but I don’t think anyone (except for me) will really notice such a small change, especially after washing and blocking everything out.

At least it’ll be a good test!

I’ll figure out whether that improves the appearance of the cables and reduces looseness.