Sunday 21 December 2014

Traktorineule

October 2014

My little boy loves tractors. He's not the first, and he won't be the last. But as I prefer to make my knitwear as appealing to him as possible so that we don't fall out, I've been scouring ravelry for this sort of thing for quite some time. If he's still into that sort of thing next year, then I might have a go at this one. I'm sort of hoping he will have moved on to dinosaurs, though. Or pirates. Or space.

The tractor chart used in this jumper is from this Finnish website, but I preferred the way it had been deployed in nupsi’s version, and so I copied that. This project was improvised, save for her notes and the chart from Novita.

This is a 4-ply jumper knitted on 2.75mm needles (and 2.25mm for the ribbing) so my gauge was probably roughly about where it should be.


George is nearly 3 in this picture, and this will fit him until he is nearly 4, I think. Based on a nicely fitting jumper of his, I was aiming for something measuring roughly: chest 27”, length 16”, sleeve seam 10”.

In my gauge, that was 104 stitches. I worked 2x2 rib for 6 grey rows, 2 red rows and then 6 more grey rows. I started the first tractor 10 stocking stitch rows up from the end of the ribbing and 35 stitches into the row. The second tractor is on row 92, and I started armhole shaping on row 105.

To make the armholes, I cast off 6 stitches twice then 2 stitches four times.

I made the neckline on row 128, by casting off the middle 35 stitches and then decreasing 5 stitches at neckline side on the next 2 rows. I wouldn't recommend that, though - I didn’t like the shape this gave me, and tidied it up a bit with short row shaping in the neckline rib. Even then, I still don't like it much, but it's wearable. I Must make something less wide next time.


The shoulder shaping started on row 148.

For the sleeves, I cast on 56 and worked in rib as for body. Then I worked even in stocking stitch, increasing 2 stitches on the 3rd and every following 8th row to 10”. I shaped the arm cap by casting off 6 stitches twice then 2 stitches four times and then 1 stitch at the start of every row until there were about 36 stitches left. At that point I decided that the arm cap looked a bit big, so speeded up by decreasing 1 stitch at each end of every row until 18 stitches were left. They seemed to fit into the armscye pretty well.

Pattern: 71. Traktorineule by Minna Metsänen / improvised
Yarn: King Cole Zig Zag in 49 Clerical (gray) and 761 Ruby (red)
Rowan Pure Wool 4-ply in Avocado 419 (green) and 454 Gerbera (yellow)
Rowan Wool Cotton 4-ply in 495 Marine
Amount: 2 Skeins of main colours, scraps of others
Needles: 2.25mm and 2.75mm
Size: 3 - 4 years
On ravelry: here

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