Friday, August 14, 2015

My Orange Cardigan

So, I did not finish the second sock this week. Shame on me, I know. But I did finally finish a cardigan that I started in February and I am pretty happy about that.


This cardigan took me forever to finish knitting because the pattern gave me absolute fits. It's Ann's Cardigan from the Knit Pick's website. The finished product is adorable, and I'm happy with it, but I had to modify the front and the sleeves to actually get it to work. 

The front I changed the rate of decreases to shape the v-neck (decreased every RS row instead of every fourth row) because when I followed the pattern I ended up with the front three inches longer than the back.  That could just have easily been my guage as the pattern though. I always check horrizontal guage but I rarely check verticle. Bad me, I know, but length is easier to adust on the fly then width (side note: it was a good thing I checked on this sweater because I had to go down two needles sizes before I got gauge so either I knit really loosly or the designer knits tight).

The sleeves were really what gave me fits on this pattern.


I'm really happy with the way they turned out, but it took me four trys to get them right. I ended up working my increases into every 10th row until I had 99 sts on the needle. The pattern didn't have steady increases and I think the furthest apart the increases were done was every 6 rows. The sleeves as written were seriously oddly shapped and I could have fit both my arms in one sleeve. 

I ended up just sort of guessing how to shape the sleeve cap, and I pretty much just got lucky that it worked. To shape the sleeve cap I: BO5 at beg of next 4 rows, work decrease (k2 ssk…k2tog k2) row 12 times every RS row, BO 2 sts beginning of every row 6 times, BO 4 sts at the beginning of next 4 rows, BO remaining sts.

The sleeves maybe ended up a little long, but I like to be able to cover my hands with my sleeves so that doesn't bother me in the slightest. 

Like I said, it may have been some extra work but I am happy with how it turned out. here is a picture of the back so you can see the lace design there.


I do have to take a moment to praise the yarn. It's Knit Picks Gloss Fingering in the colorway Masala. The color is a beautiful rich orange and the yarn is soft and warm. I would totally buy this yarn again. It's pretty reasonably priced for a wool/silk blend (and oh boy can you see the silk in the luster of this yarn). The only thing I don't like is that it's hadwash only because it might felt, but what's a little handwashing in the grand scheme of things?

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