Darn it all, my fun and easy sweater is giving me grief. This is my simple pullover in the crazy-bright Locura Fluo yarn, and I thought I could just knit along and let the colors fall wherever they wanted to. That worked great until I got past the yoke and joined to work the body in the round. Two things happened at the same time: I started a new ball of yarn, and I settled into the body stitch count. I think my stitch count is just the right number to make the yarn start pooling in a stripe-y way, which isn’t how the yoke looks and isn’t what I envisioned.
At first I thought, oh I’ll just disrupt it, and I broke the yarn and rejoined a couple colors later. Duh, of course it fell back into the pooling after the first round. I joined a second ball and started alternating the two, and all that did was alternate the pooling colors. So now I’m fussing with it the whole time, trying to adjust my gauge enough with each row to prevent the pooling. Some rows I intentionally knit tightly, the next I’ll knit more loosely. In other words, it’s not the simple mindless knitting I expected.
Honestly, I wouldn’t even mind pooling (in theory) except that it seems like it would look so much different than the yoke. But maybe I should just give it a whirl, and knit several rows without trying to prevent the pooling and see what happens.
What do you guys think? Embrace the pooling, find a different pattern, what do I do now?
bonnyknits 
I feel your pain! I would knit a bit more and see how it feels with the pooling – you might be able to live with it. Good luck! Love the colorways anyway – cheerful yarn!
Thank you! The happy colors might just balance out everything else.
I would knit from different balls of yarn (and/or maybe different ends of the same ball of yarn) to disrupt the pooling at least a little. However, I wouldn’t worry about trying to change up the tension, and if there was striped pooling I’d just accept it. It’s possible that it won’t be as bad as you are fearing, or that you’ll end up liking the pooling/stripes.
Thanks! I like the idea of trying different ends of one ball. I might try that when these balls run out.
Definitely agree with the suggestion to do two balls at once, especially if you can knit them in different directions. You could maybe switch up the # of rows you do with each skein. Right now it doesn’t look too crazy – yes, it’s different from the yoke but the pooling isn’t too bad. I also tend to like to add some a-line to my sweaters by increasing on either side of the armpit stitches, which i found helped a little with the pooling on my love note. If you don’t mind adding in some shaping (waist shaping would work too!) that could help as well. Trying to change up the tension feels like more trouble than it’s worth, and you might not like how it feels in the finished sweater.
Thank you! I like the idea of different number of rows. And A-line shaping might be just the thing!
2 balls and using helical knitting is what I would use to break the pooling if it was annoying me, but I don’t tend to mind pooling on my own projects. Changing the tension I would definitely not do as I suspect you’ll get puckering on the tighter rows and it won’t lay flat. If you google helical knitting there’s lots of YouTube clips on how to do it.
Thanks, Liz! I definitely agree with the puckering–I was starting to see a little bit of that.
It really does look pretty as is, I think! Though if you don’t like pooling I can see where it would bother you. Doing some shaping is probably the best bet for breaking it up I think.
Thanks, I’ll ponder shaping after I try it on! I’ve never done shaping in a sweater and I typically am nervous about doing modifications in a sweater pattern, but for something as simple as a stockinette body, I think I could manage!
I would embrace the pooling. I don’t mind pooling and I find I don’t have the patience for fussy knits these days. But you do you!
I don’t typically mind it, as long as there aren’t two sections drastically different, so I might be okay with it here.