Interesct Cardigan by Norah Gaughan in Geilsk

I recently finished knitting a sweater that was a VERY long time coming.  It was almost two years ago that I gave up on my first project with this yarn, Geilsk cotton/wool, and started working on this project.

The pattern is Intersect, a Brooklyn Tweed pattern by Norah Gaughan.  When I first saw this pattern, I was immediately drawn to the shape and the select use of cables.  All of the project notes said how fun and unique the construction was, so that also drew me in.  I made a modification to the shape at the hem to make it more of a streamlined silhouette from the original design.  I love how this turned out.  It doesn't add bulk at my bulkiest area.

This was a LOT of knitting!  I'm lucky that I got so much of this yarn when I purchased it with no pattern in mind.  It is fingering-weight, and  there were MANY cable crosses in this design.  I think it turned out beautifully, though, especially the back!  

The construction lived up to the hype as well.  It was constructed top-down with very clear steps that made sure I never got bored.  Well, maybe not bored, but definitely discouraged at the slow progress at times.  I'm so glad that I stuck with it, though, in fits and starts until I realized all I needed was to knit the stockinette sleeves and attach them.  After the drama of the cables, they seemed to fly off the needles this January!  

Butterick 5794 Sweaterdress

Well, I just realized that this pattern is out of print, which is so sad!  This is a great pattern, and it's kind of unique, not the kind of thing you can easily engineer from another dress pattern.  It has a lot of great details.

The pattern is Butterick 5794.

I made basically the black version with pink's sleeves, but I raised the neckline a couple inches (for warmth!) and added long cuffs to the sleeves instead of finishing them with elastic.

I raised the neckline a bit, because I have a store-bought sweaterdress with a low cowl neckline, and I am always cold when I wear it.  I like the higher neckline for a dress that is supposed to be warm.

I am really happy with the sleeves and the gathers.  They are both such fun details that make this dress so interesting.  

The fabric is from the recently-closed Gorgeous Fabrics website.  It is a different color of the same fabric I used for my green Arenal sweater top.

The only thing I would do differently if I make this again is lower the waistline one inch.  It's in a strange place that's lower than empire-waist but higher than my natural waist.  

Let's end on one more shot of those pretty gathers!

Brickyard by Elizabeth Doherty in Brooklyn Tweed Loft

I don't know if you remember way back in September when I said I was going to knit a Brooklyn Tweed sweater.  At the time, I decided to knit Keaton, and I even bought the appropriate amount of Loft yarn in a similar color.  Mine is the color Birdbook.  I knit up the front and back and half of one sleeve before deciding I didn't like it and went searching for another pattern.

I ended up knitting Brickyard by Elizabeth Doherty, and even though this isn't a pattern from Brooklyn Tweed, it turned out beautifully!  I was a bit concerned because the pattern suggests a yarn with drape to accentuate the A-line shaping.  Loft ended up being just fine.  The gauge is a bit loose, and I made my A-line shaping less dramatic than the pattern's.

I am pretty shocked to find this is comfortable for me to wear next to skin.  I wear a t-shirt underneath, but it doesn't bother my neck or wrists.  I have a ball of yarn left over, and I am thinking of knitting a matching cowl that I can wear when it is really cold.



This sweater is so easy to wear, and it is so warm, even though the yarn is fingering weight.

This was really fun to knit.  The instructions are super detailed, and all the shaping comes together perfectly.  I love this braid detail between the textured and stockinette sections.

The big reason I didn't go with Keaton was that I felt it didn't show off the tweedy yarn to its best advantage.  It wanted to just be a big expanse of stockinette stitch, and this pattern was perfect!

Helene Cardigan by Jalie

Hello!  This is the Helene Shawl Collar Cardigan by Jalie.  This is actually my first Jalie pattern, and I really like it!  I also bought this pants/shorts pattern, but I haven't tried it out yet.

The fabric for this cardigan is from Pennie Fabrics in Sarasota.  It is a navy boucle textured knit with very little stretch, and it has brick red flecks in it.  Very unique and cool.  

The neatest feature of this pattern is the pockets.  The design makes them super easy to sew.  This went together super quickly with just my serger and coverstitch machines.

I need to dig out the camera remote.  I don't know what I did with the timer that made me look yellow.  I'm a little blurry,, too, which I blame on the camera focusing on the trees behind me.  Someday, I'll get this taking pictures of myself thing all figured out.

I like that the line of the pockets continues around to the back.  I like details like that.  Plus, the seamed pieces give the back great shape.

I will definitely be making this again, both for me and for the nieces.  It's a great basic.  Here's a little detail shot of a pocket:

Cascade Falls Cardigan knit in Rowan Merino dk

Ever since I finished my Georgetown Cardigan in light gray, I have wanted a similar open cardigan in dark gray, because one gray open cardigan is never nearly enough!

I considered designing my perfect cardigan - set-in sleeves, open front, longish length, and a pretty cable right at the opening.  Then, after an exhaustive Ravelry search of the pattern options already out there, I found exactly what I was looking for:  Cascade Falls by Amanda Scheuzger.

My cardigan is very close to the original pattern.  I just changed the construction a bit.  It is designed nearly seamlessly, with the body worked bottom-up in one piece, and the sleeves picked up and knit down.  With this heavy merino dk yarn, though, I wanted the strength of seams to help it keep its shape, so I knit this in pieces and sewed them together.  My sleeves are, as always, several inches longer than the design.  After blocking, they grew even more in length, so now I have the unusual (for me) luxury of fold-up cuffs!

The gorgeous, soft yarn is Rowan Super Fine Merino dk, which appears to be discontinued.  That is a crying shame as this is a lovely mid-weight merino.  Yes, I am sure it will pill.  Most soft yarns do.  However, I will be ready with my de-pill-er, and it is an inconvenience I can live with for next-to-skin softness.

You can still find Rowan Merino dk at various online shops, but I can't find this color, Suit, anywhere.

Estonia in Ewe2Yarn Iceberg

Hello!  We have less than one week left until we officially leave Florida.  Things are, of course, a bit nutso here, but very exciting, too.  I finished this sweater a few weeks ago and am loving how soft and cozy it is.  

The pattern is Estonia by Vera Sanon.  It is a basic top-down raglan (no more of those for me in cardigan form, but a pullover is ok) in stockinette stitch.  The interesting detail is the Estonian Braid at the neckline.  The pattern also uses this stitch for the cuffs and hem, but I used simple 1x1 rib for those areas.

The fit of this is great - form-fitting but not tight.  The sample is shown in a semi-solid tonal yarn, so that is what I used, although it does look more variegated than I expected.  My yarn is Ewe2Yarn  100% merino in a colorway called "Iceberg."

Here is a better look at the Estonian Braid neckline.  It was less fiddly to knit than I expected.

Featherweight Cardigan by Knitbot in Ewe2Yarn + No-Pattern Elastic Waist Skirt

Well, I did it again.  I have gotten super behind with my posting.  Good news is there will probably be a flurry of posts for the next two weeks or so.

This is a 2-fer because the skirt is as simple as it gets.

The cardigan is the very popular "Featherweight Cardigan" by Hannah Fettig, also known as Knitbot.  I do mean popular.  Right now, there are 8,490 projects in Ravelry, but that will go up as soon as I post mine!  The beauty of this pattern is its simplicity.  If you look through the projects on Ravelry, you can get so much inspiration to customize it for yourself.  I wanted the basic version, though, since my yarn is fun.  It is hand-dyed by Ewe2Yarn.  The colorway is called Herb Garden.  

The finished sweater actually reminds me of camo, which is fun.

 The only downside to this sweater, for me, is the raglan sleeves.  I must have shlumpy shoulders or something, because raglans always seem to slide down my shoulders.  Super annoying.  I am going to add raglan-sleeve cardigans to my no-no-knit list along with single-ply yarns. (Single-ply rant here.)

 

The skirt is simple, but it sat half-finished in my sewing room for months.  It is just a rectangle seamed together to form a tube, and then fold-over elastic is stretched and stitched on the top for a waistband.  The reason it sat for months is that I made it too big at first.  I added too much ease at the hips and it was not very flattering.  The idea of unpicking the elastic, making the skirt smaller, and then re-doing the elastic was just too much.  Finally, I decided to just cut off the elastic and put on new.  Much easier.

Here is a look at the waistband.

I used a narrow-hem foot on my sewing machine for the hem.  The finish looks nice, but it was a super slow process getting the edge to go into the foot evenly.  I definitely need more practice with it.  The fabric is a poly charmeuse from Pennie Fabrics in Sarasota.  I love a nice border print, even if it is polyester!

Newsom Cardigan by Bristol Ivy in Berroco Corsica

If there's one thing I've learned from these particular photos, it's don't photograph a blue sweater against a blue wall.  Duh!  Anyway, I can't stomach a re-shoot at this moment, and I have such a backlog of projects to photograph that I am accepting these as "good enough."  I hope you will, too.  :-)

This is the Newsom Cardigan by Bristol Ivy.  This is such a cool design.  You start at the center back hem and increase to form the V-shape on the back that extends around the underarms and forms the front raglan sleeve shaping.  This was a pretty quick knit, too.

The yarn is Berroco Corsica, which is 90% cotton/10% cashmere.  Lovely to knit with and to wear.

This did require some pretty aggressive blocking at the back hem where the V comes to a point, but I was able to get it nice and flat.  Unfortunately, you can see the lines formed by my drying rack.  Oh well.

This is a great layering cardigan for fall, when the weather is still pretty warm here.  The raglan sleeves stay put on my shoulders, too, which isn't always the case with this shape.  I could see more of these in my future.

Manzanilla Sweater by Joji Locatelli

I tried something a little different this time.  I took these photos on my phone instead of with my regular camera, and I uploaded them to Blogger from there.  The funny thing is they look pretty good on my phone, but the colors are totally different on my computer monitor.  They look more washed out and over exposed on my computer than they do on the phone.  Let me know what you think.

Anyway, this is my Manzanilla Sweater.  The pattern is by Joji Locatelli, from her e-book The Authentic Collection.  

The yarn is Malabrigo Silky Merino in the colorway Jupiter, and that is the perfect colorway name for this.  It totally looks like all the colors from a photo of Jupiter, emphasis on that big red spot.  I chose this yarn because that is what is recommended in the pattern, but I didn't realize when I ordered it online that it is a singly-ply yarn.  A little explanation if you aren't familiar with yarn construction:

When yarn is spun in a mill from wool (and silk, in this case), it is pulled out and spun into a strand.  Often, multiple strands are then twisted together to make the final yarn.  The final yarn can be described by the number of strands.  A yarn with 4 strands twisted together is a 4-ply yarn.  Sometimes, though, and in this case, just one, thicker strand is used, and it is called a single-ply yarn,

Ok, anyway, I have decided that single-ply yarns are not really my thing.  The small amount of twist and fuzzier texture means they pill easier in the finished garment and just take on a general fuzzy appearance, and, even worse for me, they pick up animal hair like velcro!  My Seacoast sweater, coincidentally also by Joji Locatelli, and knit in a worsted-weight single-spun yarn, is the worst for this!  I always look like I rolled around on the dog.  So anyway, much as I love this finished sweater, I know I will not love all the time spent with a de-piller, and I will carefully stay away from the single-spun yarns in the future.

Yarn discussion aside, this design is fantastic!  I love the cabled detail on the shoulders and sleeves.  I sized down one size from the recommendation based on my bust for two reasons.  I like a more body-conscious fit than is shown in the pattern, and I thought the yarn was super-wash, which has a tendency to grow (It is not superwash, in fact; are you noticing a pattern?  I really didn't do my homework on this yarn!).  In the end, the body and armhole fit was perfect, but the cuffs of the sleeves were quite snug.  While blocking, I really stretched out the cuffs, and I push them up right above my elbows, and they are fine now.  The only change I made from the pattern was to eliminate the split hem.  I used a regular ribbed bottom.

Overall, I am really happy with this sweater.  The fit through the body is perfect, and it will be a great sweater for fall.  I am considering making this again.  I would definitely use a different yarn - one that is plied and solid in color, to really show off those cables!  Maybe I will do the larger size, too, and just bring it in at the waist a bit.

Snoqualmie Cardigan by Brooklyn Tweed

Ok you get exactly ONE modeled photo of this because the day I took it, it was about 100 degrees out.  We will not discuss why I made a big wool, cabled sweater in summer in Florida.  Some things are better left un-analyzed.  

I actually started this when I stumbled across a knit-along started by Closet Case Files designer Heather.  My plan was to finally make some CCF Ginger Jeans (the low-rise version, of course, because high-rise pants are not welcome here) to wear with it, and I still plan to, but it hasn't happened yet.

The pattern is Snoqualmie by Michele Wang for Brooklyn Tweed.  I would have loved to use the Brooklyn Tweed yarn (like I did for my Cusp) but it so wasn't in the yarn budget, so I went with EcoWool, which turned out to be an excellent substitute.  The wood buttons are from my local JoAnn Fabrics.

I can't wait for fall (which should arrive here in about four more months) so I can use this as my throw-it-on coat.

Georgetown Cardigan by Knitbot in Berocco Fioro

This is the Georgetown Cardigan from Knitbot's (Hannah Fettig's) Home and Away book.  You can also buy the cardigan pattern by itself.  This book is a treasure trove of simple basics.  It also contains the pattern for the Lesley pullover I knitted in the spring.

The yarn is Berroco Fiora, a mix of cotton, rayon, alpaca, nylon, and wool.  I was drawn to the cotton content for my warm climate, and I hoped that the other fibers would help it retain its shape.  I am very pleased with the result.  The elbows do eventually bag out a bit, but that is only after several wears, and after washing, they spring right back.  The color is a light gray called Georgia, #3805.

I bought this yarn at Roxy's Yarns in Tampa while out with my mom.  I told her I wanted to make a gray cardigan, and she encouraged me to keep it simple so I would wear it a lot.  Excellent advice.  I have brought it on my travels this summer and am wearing it constantly.