Stitch Slapped!

Sometimes I over think things. Aspinwall is a perfect example of over compensating.

The first Aspinwall (the navy heather version) was knit for Christmas last year. I had a horrible time getting into rhythm on the half brioche stitch in the round. I found it incredibly awkward to work and on top of that it was really biasing on me. So I only worked it for a few inches then switched to st. st. Matt loves this sweater (as a matter of fact, I was going to blog this yesterday, but he wore the sweater to work) and so I wanted to do an other in a different color combo, but closer to the original sweater.

The Aspinwall Revisited was approached with the issues from the first one in mind. Mainly, I decided to knit the lower section flat, then seam it. I had no issues with biasing and the stitch worked up quickly (k2tog is much easier for me than a p2tog). However, I got to the seaming and I realized that the st. st. side seams made the sides longer than the half brioche stitch. Hopefully, it will block more evenly. I figured it was a small price to pay for making the stitch easier to work and no-biasing.

I was dreading the sleeves, as I had a few inches of the half brioche cuff to do. Cast on... and it was a breeze. The stitch worked up quickly and it didn't bias at all.


So the question... did I do the first one incorrectly (good possibly. I might have misunderstood how to do the stitch) or is the single ply yarn a better choice for the stitch? Either way... my new knitting mantra: start with the sleeves! I can't believe how much easier this would've been if I had just started with a sleeve!