blue and black and blue

Over the holidays, after finishing all my gift & other deadline knitting, I got antsy to work on a sweater again.  I recalled that I had a bunch of RY Cashsoft DK that I stashed from a 50% off sale last year, and began the search for a pattern.  I wanted a cardigan, that much I knew.  Poured over my large collection of Vogue & Interweave magazines, and found few appealing patterns in DK weight (5.5 sts/in).  What's up with that?

I found the "Deli" cardigan from Classic Cafe appealing, but I don't actually own this book.  So I decided to knock off the pattern.  I found an appropriate crocheted border in a book called 101 Crocheted Borders (although later learning the border of the original sweater is actually knit) and whipped up the stockinette sweater pieces in a couple of weeks. 

Here is the result - click for bigger.  Sorry for the chopped-off head on this photo, but I was suffering from a bad hair day as well as PMS-induced breakout.  Crocheting the border was quite fun, since I'm much more experienced with knitting than crocheting and enjoyed the challenge.  I figured out that all the crocheting took me about 3-4 hours, mostly on the train.

Meanwhile, I decided to resurrect a UFO from last year, the Fern cardigan from Rowan 36.  I had knitted all the pieces, and even sewed most of it together.  In the back of my mind, I knew that the reason I had stopped so close to the end was that I had gotten far enough to try it on and realized that I had probably made the wrong size and it would be too small.

But I ignored that little voice in my head, and sewed the remaining side & sleeve seam.  Yeah.  Wrong size, indeed.  It's not completely unwearable, but I probably would never feel comfortable in it (unless I lost 20 lbs, which won't be happening anytime soon).  So, I had my friend Sara try it on, it looks fabulous on her, and I'll be weaving in the ends and gifting it to her shortly.

No pic of that one, because I knit it in black Frog Tree Merino which, with my poor photo skills, looks like a black blob.  Just imagine the Rowan photo, only black.

I still really like the sweater, and want one for myself, so I've cast on in the large size in royal blue Berocco Ultra Alpaca, a yummy wool/alpaca blend.  Over President's Day weekend I'm going on a retreat with some UU young adults from NY & NJ, which I went on last year.  The knitting I brought last year was Fern number 1.  Wouldn't it be funny if I was knitting the same sweater a year later?  (No, just sad.)

Much other knitting going on... samples for my web pattern store (coming soon to a browser near you), lace for Aunt Kathy.  Bought some great cashmere & cashmere blends at School Products last month that I'd love to knit, and have been given a sample of a new yarn coming out later this year from J. Knits (you should be jealous! it's heavenly.)

My motto remains, "So much to knit, so little time............"

Comments

[Beth S.]

Your crochet-edged cardigan is lovely! :-)

[Knitting Bandit]

Your sweater looks great! Your crochet edge is so pretty. I can't believe you just "whipped" it up with no pattern. I, too, have sizing issues and stopped knitting sweaters. I always make them too big! I swim in them and they add another 20 pounds to the 40 I need to lose!