The Battle of Cardigan

My Ginny cardigan is finally finished, after a bit of a struggle.

First I had to block the crap out of it to get the "ridge pattern" stitches at the waist and shoulders to lie flat:



Once again I will declare my love for my blocking board.

Then after I had all the pieces sewn together, I realized I should have added short rows at the bust. The cardigan looked okay when I left it unbuttoned, but looked funny and too short in the front when buttoned. I wanted to button it. What to do? Add those f-ing short rows in kind of like an afterthought heel, I decided. Yikes!!! It took me a couple of nerve-wracking tries but I managed to make it work. Maybe if I feel like it I'll write a post about what I did. However, I advise everyone to add short rows as you are knitting the front like a sensible person would do.

Despite my trials and tribulations, I love this sweater and can't wait to wear it next fall!



Pattern: Ginny by Kim Hargreaves from Thrown Together
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed in Paisley
Needles: size 4 and size 1.5 Knitpicks metal
Modifications: Knit size 34 above waist and sleeves and 36 waist and hips. Made sleeves about 1" shorter. Added short rows at the bust.

I have to agree with other people who have made this, the torso is kind of short. Fortunately, so I am. If you are not leprechaun or fairy-sized, I recommend lengthening the body.

Here's a detail of the lovely distressed horn buttons I found at MJ Trim:

Tweed Madness

I had a touch of the Tweed Madness about a month ago, which resulted in my purchasing some pink and red tweed yarn:


Some Rowan Felted Tweed and Rowan Scottish Tweed 4ply.

I'm using the Felted Tweed for a cardigan, it's Ginny by Kim Hargreaves.


This is the back. I have one front finished as well, and now I have stalled out on the second front part. . .My tweed madness needs to return if I want to get this all done in time to wear this season!

The story so far

My current crop of knits-in-progress, randomly arranged. Clockwise from the top left, there's a hat (Relm by b r o o k l y n t w e e d in Knitpicks Swish Worsted), a sock (Evening Stockings from Knitting Vintage Socks in Panda Silk), a sweater (knittingschooldropout's Garter Yoke Cardigan in Skye Tweed), and another sock (Garden Gate by Emily Johnson in Socks that Rock Lightweight & Dream in Color Smooshy Sock).


Perhaps you spotted my new favorite stitch marker:



It's actually a zipper pull that someone sweet bought for me at Kid Robot!

Adventures in Tweed

I finished my Tweedy Aran Cardigan last weekend, after a slight hiccup. . .maybe more than slight since I ended up re-knitting both sleeves. . .Here's what happened:

I was knitting away on the collar when I realized that I was going to run out of yarn. I considered making the collar smaller, but I decided against this because the size, although large enough to feel at home in the 1970's, seemed a good proportion for this sweater.

My next thought was the sleeves. I could probably take a half an inch off their length and not miss it. As I further inspected my sleeves, I noticed that they didn't really match the shape of the pattern's schematic drawing. My sleeves got wider much sooner than the drawing indicated.

I figured out that my gauge had changed, and I was knitting more rows to the inch than the pattern called for. So I decided to try re-knitting the sleeves, this time making increases every 8 rows instead of every 6 rows, and then also going with the half-inch shorter plan once I was done with the increases. Two days later I had sleeves that looked much better and more than enough yarn to finish the collar and use to sew all the seams. Hurray!



This sweater is like a warm hug.

Pattern: Tweedy Aran Cardigan by Norah Gaughan for Interweave Knits
Yarn: Beaverslide Fisherman Weight, color is called Swift Current (thanks to Pam and Amber!!)
Needles: size 7 and 5 addi turbos
Buttons: 1" mongoy wood from M&J Trimming

I'm a blocker

I am really glad I bought a nice blocking board kit a few years ago when I first started knitting. It was kind of expensive but worth it. My Tweedy Aran Cardigan pieces definitely needed to be blocked, especially the back piece:







The pattern comes with detailed schematics, so pinning everything to the correct dimensions was easy. I sprayed the wool with water and now the whole room smells like a wet dog.

I'm knitting the second sleeve now. I hope to have this project done in time for winter. Jimmy and I are going back east for Christmas, and then we're going to the Grand Canyon for New Year's, so I will actually be somewhere cold!

Who knew?

Of all the new projects I've started recently, only one has really stuck. Was it Joy or RPM? Nope. What can I say, they just didn't do it for me. My fingers must have been itching for more twisted stitches. . .

Instead, here is the back of Interweave Knits' Tweedy Aran Cardigan by Norah Gaughan:




I'm knitting it with Beaverslide Dry Goods 2-ply fisherman's weight yarn. The color is Swift Current, which is a heathered blue-green with white flecks. There are some really beautiful cobalt blue flecks in the yarn as well.

My gauge was way larger width-wise, but about the same length-wise, so I'm following the directions for the next size down from what I want. I wanted some positive ease in the fit, so the finished bust size should be 42 1/2", but I'm knitting according to the size 38" bust directions. So far it's working.

I also rearranged the pattern a little bit. To set up the back, I did this:
10 sts of fancy rib, 10 sts of twisted rib (ending with a purl st), Chart A, Chart B, 8 sts of fancy rib (starting and ending with crossed sts), Chart B, Chart A, 10 sts of twisted rib (starting with a purl st), 10 sts of fancy rib.

The extra purl stitch in each twisted rib sections help the Chart A sections stand out a little more.

It's a pretty fast knit although those fancy ribs are killers on the fingers! The little finger on my left hand is probably the strongest it has ever been. I'm ready for Olympic little-finger wrestling, rarr!