Swatchy time!

I’ve been working on swatches to try to figure out a solution to the collar problems I had with this sweater so I can knit a new version.

This was the main problem I had with the original sweater. I knew that garter stitch next to stockinette would curl towards the rev. stockinette side like on the above swatch and I thought that would work perfectly. Unfortunately, the stockinette curls too aggressively and the collar doesn’t end up with a nice fold.

Here we have swatch #1. It didn’t quite fold the way I wanted to before I blocked it, but the little hinge I made seems to sort of work after I blocked it. The stockinette does still sort of curl upwards. That was a big problem I had with the original sweater. It was always sort of coming open because the fronts curled out slightly.

I liked the way that the cable stood out when the body was rev. stockinette, but I might have to give that up.

This is swatch #2 with stockinette on the RS. I didn’t block this swatch and it actually doesn’t fold badly and it doesn’t curl outwardly if I shape it with my hands. The garter stitch does sort of stand up, but I think the sweater’s construction might prevent that.

The only problem with this guy is that the above picture shows what it really wants to do. I think it might just be the result of the stockinette curl up and blocking + being on a body might fix that problem, but I’m not sure.

In conclusion, I really don’t know what to do with this sweater. Neither of these swatches have made me feel particularly confident and I’m not sure what else to try. Maybe this idea doesn’t work unless you sew things down and fudge them like I did with the first version. I’m sort of thinking of just putting this yarn away until I can think of something better to do with it. I’m going to block the second swatch and see if it lays better, but I have mixed feelings about this being a stockinette sweater. Maybe I’ve just lost my knitting mojo.