The Garter Stitch Cardigan

So I finally managed to snag my photographer for a few minutes, tonight, and get a few shots of the completed garter stitch cardigan.

This cardigan was a really simple knit -- not much for shaping or anything -- but is pretty satisfying once it's finished. The whole thing is garter stitch, so I didn't have to purl once the whole time: great tv and pub knitting. And it's a nice light weight, since it is made of sock yarn.


When I decided to make this cardigan, I went to my LYS and poked through their sock yarns for a while, trying to find the perfect one. They had the yarn called for in the pattern (Garnstudio Fabel) but not in a colour scheme that appealed to me. I found another one that I liked, but alas, not enough in stock. Then I fell in love with the colours in this Supersocke. The combo of greens with pinks has always been a favourite of mine, and these ones really pop. The repeat is nice and long, so I knew I would get beautiful stripes.


Turns out that the length of the repeat was a blessing and a curse. While it looks great on one half of the cardigan, and on the opposite sleeve, the body of the right side got a little funky. The repeat wasn't long enough to stripe there (since every row goes all the way from the front hem up over the shoulder and down to the back hem) so it started to pool. As I mentioned in a previous post, I started to alternate two balls at that point, to try to minimize the pooling. It worked well, but the stripes along that side still were very thin and random, rather than nicely defined like the rest of the sweater. I could obsess about this, but I'm choosing to look at it as a design element, instead.


The one alteration I made with this cardigan was to narrow the sleeves a bit. I mentioned somewhere along the way that they were way too wide and baggy, so I narrowed them by a bit on the first side I knit (right side.) Then I just revamped everything a bit to account for that, and measured twice (or three times) as I replicated my changes on the left side. Frankly, I made it a bit harder than it needed to be, but I like the sleeve as it is now: a bit loose but not hanging in my soup.

The sweater is finished off with a cute little crochet edging out of a double strand of bright pink alpaca. I am not much of a crocheter, but it still went fast, and I am really proud of how it turned out. I think it makes a nice finish (and of course is silky soft.)


Lastly, I thought of some sweet buttons I had in my sewing box, for a sewing project that I gave up on long ago. They were the perfect shade of green and really look fantastic on this. Blissful.

Quiet Moments

I generally like my life to be calm and comfortable... what can I say: I'm a Taurus. Sometimes life can be crazy for a while (like if your noisy messy workplace renovations are coming to a middle, and your home is a maze of boxes because you're moving to a new bigger place...) but there is always sanctuary -- a quiet corner with a cup of tea and some knitting.

In the past few days I have turned this:


into this:


I'm pretty happy with the progress. This piece is the right side of the cardigan. The section at the bottom of the photo is the sleeve, and the sections jutting out either side are the front and back. (Yes, it's a bit of an unusual construction.) I am alternating two balls of yarn at this point because shortly after I did the increases to make the front and back sections, I noticed that the number of stitches was just enough to make the stripes start to pool. You can see on the top photo that I was getting most of the lighter colours on one end (the front?) and most of the darker colours on the other. I started another ball of yarn with the light/dark in opposite places, to try to minimize the contrast. Seems to be working. I have several more inches of brainless garter stitch before I need to worry about any sort of neck shaping. Thank goodness, because more complications are really unnecessary in my life right now.

Knit, Knit, and ReKnit

It's snowing outside. Can you believe it? I'm distracting myself with some good knitting.

Ever since the latest Drops patterns came out online, I've been coveting one sweater in particular. Unfortunately I have been on a yarn diet for a while, as I try to knit my stash down to a reasonable level, so I couldn't buy the yarn I need for the cardigan.


Then my birthday came. I got some cash (which will help me pay off my extravagant loom purchase) and some yarny gift certificates. Still waiting for yarn in the mail from one of them, but the other one was for my LYS, so I spent it forthwith, on the yarn I needed for this cardi. Instead of the Drops Fabel sock yarn the pattern calls for (they just didn't have any nice colours of that yarn) I went with some slightly pricier Supersocke yarn in a colour that is so me. You will also notice some alpaca for the edging of the sweater, and a Norah Gaughan pattern book and row counter bracelet in that pile of swag. It was a good trip to the store.


Having finished my socks in record time, I started swatching for the sweater. I did a generous swatch with US4s and frogged it, then did another generous swatch with US5s and got gauge. I frogged the second gauge swatch, cast on the sleeve and knit four or five inches, and realized that the pattern suffers from a common problem with large sized sweaters: the sleeves are voluminous well beyond necessary. I find that it is often the case with sweaters that are in multiple sizes -- the designer adds inches to the sleeve along with inches to the bust/body of the sweater, and big girls like me end up with sleeves that are unreasonably flappy (albeit good at camouflaging jiggly upper arms.) So I frogged the beginning of the sleeve, and cast on one last time with 14 fewer stitches, which seems to give me a more reasonable sleeve. Since the cardigan is knit in only two pieces, the right half from side-to-side and the left half from bottom front to bottom back, it will be more tricky than usual to make alterations, but I think I'm up for it.