Sunday, October 14, 2007

Tangled Love

I love this sweater. It's completely done, and I love it! It turned out just about exactly as I'd hoped it would. I wore it to church this morning, and the lady next to me reached out and touched it (she asked first, don't worry).

Pattern: Tangled Yoke Cardigan, IK Fall 2007
Yarn: Knitpicks Palette in Garnet heather
Needles: US 3 circs for body, US 4 dpns for sleeves

I didn't have any major issues with the pattern (nothing that I can remember, which means either there really wasn't anything or I forgot). I did mess up my gauge; I made a swatch at the beginning, which is why I used size 3 needles instead of the recommended 5's, but it didn't work. My finished cardigan is nearly a full size smaller than it was meant to be. This is okay since it's still wearable, if a little snug, and I'm trying to lose weight anyway. Either I knitted the swatch really loosely or mismeasured...since I unraveled it, I can't tell for sure.

This yarn was great for this pattern. I was a little worried, since I couldn't find any references to people using Palette for clothing (except in fair isle patterns), but it turned out really well. The sweater is nice and light, warm but not hot, and the cabling shows well. The only caution I would have for people is to make sure that it looks good at the gauge they're knitting it at--the fabric is perfect for me, but then I used size 3 needles and apparently made the whole sweater at a tighter gauge than I was supposed to. On size 5's, I'd want to make sure that the fabric isn't too loose to look good. And since I used about 6 1/2 balls of yarn, the total yarn cost was under $15.

The sleeves are a little long, but I like them that way. Initially, I had ladders from the dpns, but they pretty much disappeared after blocking. I'm not crazy about the buttons I picked. I'll have to keep an eye out for something better, but that's easy enough to change later on.

Have I said that I love this?











Monday, October 8, 2007

Almost a Cardigan


I'm getting so close with the Tangled Yoke cardigan! I finished the cable, which was definitely the most difficult cabling that I've done. I really didn't enjoy tinking rows that were 400+ stitches...and I certainly had to. Undoing those 5-stitch decreases when I did them in the wrong place was pretty miserable too. A few lifelines would have been a pretty good idea.

I think it looks a little small for me here, but it's still on the needle (32", rather than the suggested 40"), which isn't really long enough to let the sweater relax all the way without stitches falling off. Once it's finished and blocked it should be fine.

Now I just have to learn how to do short rows!