The Autumn Leaves Batarang

I thought you'd enjoy seeing what the Autumn Leaves yoke and sleeves look like all blocked out. It reminds me of a red, wool Batarang. The lower edge in the picture is the front edge and the yarn ends hanging down are my center back line.

You can see the back neck shaping which is very important in keeping a sweater from falling back on you when you wear it. We've all had sweaters and tops that migrate back on us all day, no matter how many times we pull them forward. This is due to a lack of back neck shaping. (Usually that's the cause. If there are extremely heavy embellishments on the back of the sweater, like a real boat anchor, no amount of back neck shaping will solve the problem. In this situation, I highly suggest not purchasing a sweater with a real boat anchor attached to the back. Just a little public service announcement from me to you.) The curvature of our spines at the top of the back, where it joins the neck, will automatically push down on a neckline that is straight across from shoulder to shoulder, resulting in the dreaded Cardigan That Makes You Fidget With It All Day or the highly dangerous Pullover That Tries To Choke You. By dropping the back neck about an inch below the level of the shoulder line, you compensate for the natural curvature of the spine and avoid these terrible sweater conditions.

Another interesting thing with this sweater is that the majority of the sleeve decreases (it's knit from the center back to the cuff of the sleeve on both sides, so the sleeves are shaped with decreases instead of increases as a standard cuff-to-shoulder knit sleeve would be) appear on the top of the sleeve. The designer worked shoulder decreases into the design and of course those ran along the top of the shoulder, and then just continued down the sleeve with decreases, giving you a sleeve with a standard shape, but the decreases are not in the usual place. I've never knit a sweater in this direction before and I keep finding myself fascinated with the shaping details that provide the necessary fit to the curves of a human body, but are in unexpected places on the knitted garment. (For those that are curious, the pattern is Summer Solstice.)

In non-knitting news, Caleb got his expanders put in yesterday and he's not too happy about it right now. He doesn't seem to be in very much pain, but eating is difficult and of course there's a learning curve for all of us as to what he can and can't eat. He's also frustrated because he has to relearn how to eat, how to speak, and how to swallow Advil. His teacher knows what's going on and is being very understanding while he makes these adjustments. I'm hoping that by the first of next week, we'll have most of this worked out and will be eating more than oatmeal, yogurt, and pudding. Does anyone know any good broccoli milkshake recipes?