Knitting -- bottom up proof of concept

So in a previous post I said that bottom up or top down, a raglan is a good way to use up leftovers. And in the photo album I listed the post you are reading now, as Taking My Own Advice. So here I used up some old Wool of the Andes worsted. All the motifs are from Mary McGregor's edition of Robert Williamson's collections of patterns he copied from his customers in the 1920s.

Here we are with the body and sleeves all on one needle. It's 358 stitches in worsted yarn and very heavy.

The yellows at the bottom are leftovers from my first Fair Isle; the bright orange is leftover from a jumper that wore out over the last 10 years. The dark gray is from a jumper I still have, and the black from a replacement for a worn-out jumper. White you always have with you. The lightest gray was left from my houndstooth vest. The other 3 colors were bought to carry out the pattern.

The third band up from the bottom is what you might call subtle if you were being kind, and muddy iif you were being critical. I knew that from the spreadsheet planner but I went ahead because a) the yarn vendor didn't have another gray to fit between the darkest and lightest grays and b) it was a different level of contrast compared to the yellows at the bottom, one in the black and a different one in the darkest gray. The two top grays both have "pumpkin" for a contrasting color. In the one case, the background borrows some of the warmth of the pumpkin and looks more like taupe than like gray. In the other, there's higher contrast plus it also is limited to the same  motifs as the two bottom  bands.

So here is the underarm with pumpkin colored yarn holding the stitches. When I finish I'll turn it inside out and knit these stitches together.

Here it is with the yoke on. I tried to follow that strong center line the whole way up to the neck but the decreases made it hard. Also in case you can't tell, the orange sparkles don't line up the way they did on the first Fair Isle jumper.

This is the back view. Two things. First, there's more white under the neck than there is on the front, because I did a mid-back elevation. Second, on the right side, notice the dark gray blob before the X. That's because of increases that widened the sleeve but didn't leave room for another X next to the underarm "seam". I showed you examples of this waaay back with the first Fair Isle jumper.

I still have some yarn left and I will remake the sleeves, adding the circular motifs. 

There is one more advantage to raglan. When you knit in the round you want to do steeking at the armholes so you can keep knitting in the round. That works for wool because it hackles, and when you cut the steeking it doesn't unravel. That doesn't work with silk, cotton, or linen. (or acrylic) If you work these fibers in raglan, you can work in the round bottom up.  The yarn in this top is merino, cotton, and polyamide, and it is not spun like typical yarns; it looks as if the strands were knitted! It would not work with steeking. It has a lovely hand, and it's the first peach-colored yarn I've seen in years. It's also fairly cool and would be good for late spring tops.  While Yarn.com tags Alta Moda Cotolana as worsted, do your swatch; it actually works more like a DK. 

I have a replacement jumper to knit and some socks to work. Then I can do the bottom up raglan in brioche that I was talking about.