Field Sweater Helpful Videos For Making the Grains

The Field Sweater, by Camilla Vad, is pretty popular and very beautiful. The pattern I am knitting is a pullover, but a cardigan pattern is also available. 

I’ve continuously seen some form of this sweater all over Instagram. The yoke is textured with “grain” pods, which are made by wrapping the yarn to create a bump. However, it’s not that simple.

This is a top-down knit and I quickly knit the neck ribbing, which is basic. As I read over the grain rounds I became a little confused and went in search of videos.

My yarn choice is Knitting For Olive fine merino combined with Soft Silk Mohair (also by Knitting for Olive). Both are in color Dusty Moose, which is a gray brown color. Bought at an end-of-year sale, I’ve never knit with this yarn before. (Now that I have begun the sweater, I absolutely love this yarn.)

Video Help For Knitting the Grain

The Making Grains tutorial by Mostly Knitting is the first one I watched and it is very easy to understand. She covers how to do the rows that make the smaller grain. (There is also a Large Grain to make further down the yoke – she covers that also in another video – Making the Large Grain.)

The grain is a bunch of stitches that make a texture around the yoke. Each grain takes many rows to accomplish. The directions are written out, row by row, in the pattern, with the “grain” part written as “make grain”. Making the Grain and Large Grain is also explained on the first page of the pattern directions. HOWEVER, it is helpful to watch someone actually knit this grain stitch.

After watching the videos I’m questioning whether I want to try these textured stitches using two yarns held together. In fact, I was debating whether or not to knit this sweater at all! 

Knit a Little Swatch

The only way to know if I would be able to manage this pattern, while holding two strands of yarn together, (or even one strand) was to try it out. I don’t want to get into the yoke area only to find that I hate what I am attempting, mess it all up, and then be sorry. 

So I knit a little swatch which is similar to the one shown in the video. The strands of yarn were carried across the back to mimic knitting in the round. I knit up to Round 13 and did 2 increase rounds.

Some of my strands were too tight so I cut them after the swatch was washed. *After knitting this swatch I realized I had accidentally used a smaller needle size than I should have! Chalk it up to bad eyes and tiny print on needles.

Use Stitch Markers

In the video, linked above, the knitter uses stitch markers to separate her two example sections of the grains. As I started the grain sections, I separated each section with markers. It’s a lot of markers, but will help me with this intense knitting project.

Knitting Combinations

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

As we knit, each round will have its own combination of stitches. Some rounds are fairly simple, and some will be a struggle – for me.  Using a cable needle and knitting many stitches together, slipping stitches, yarn overs – and other types of increases, are all needed to create this interesting texture. For any semi-experienced knitter, these stitches are not difficult. And that is how I have to look at it going in. Knit one small section at a time and hopefully keep mistakes contained…!!

Many Thanks to Mostly Knitting

Thanks to Mostly Knitting – link goes to her YouTube channel – and her excellent video tutorials that seem to answer the many questions knitters have concerning the Field Sweater pattern. 

I think the pattern itself is well written, but in places, not as well explained as it could be. For example; “pick up the strand between the sts and knit it tbl” could be stated as “make one left” – see how it’s done in Mostly Knitting’s video “Round 9 of the Field Sweater“. There are two ways to pick up that strand, and if you do it wrong, you will be making a hole.

So far I’ve seen three different ways that the yoke increases are made. I guess it’s kinda fun to change things up. I like knowing that I can look up a video for help with this intricate knitting project. Onward I knit, with more to come.

Here’s my progress…

When I began the yoke texture (making the grains), I realized that going slowly is key. Having markers for each section is very helpful. As I finished up a section, I would go back and count the stitches to double check. As the yoke expands, the sections do as well, and there is more and more to do for each one.

I began knitting using a wooden Lykke circular needle (24 inches), but switched to metal Chaio Goo (32 inch) in Round 27 (photos below). The metal needle made things much easier!

Making, and Closing, the Large Grain

Later in the yoke: Making the Large Grain is part of Round 27. And closing the grain in round 29. See the easier way to close the grain, or knit all five stitches together, this in this video.

Making the large grain is not as difficult as knitting the five stitches together through the back loop. 

When I got to the last row that completes the Large Grains, I ended up using the cable needle to hold the five stitches that were to be knit through the back loop. The cable needle is smaller than my knitting needles leaving larger loops to pick up.

I am enjoying this knitting project. The directions are very good, and completely written out. Having the additional videos is very helpful as well. 

Weighing In

On the designer’s page for the Field Sweater page there are 145 comments (at the time of this writing) and many are angry words aimed at the designer for not including much larger sizes. In some opinions, this pattern is not size inclusive.

The measurement goes up to 142 cm , or 55 inches around. That seems pretty inclusive to me. Here’s the thing, if a designer only wants to go to a certain size, it is his/her prerogative. This is HER business. She is in control of her pattern size configurations. I’ve never written a pattern, but I’m sure a lot of math and figuring goes into creating the various sizes. Just like politics, could we please leave the size inclusive bickering out of knitting?

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