I’ve added this post to Unraveled Wednesday link party – with thanks to Kat for hosting!
As a reminder: my starting point was the Cody cardigan (Ravelry link) and I’m using Lion Brand Mandala and Papatya Love (My Happy Place link) solids – but was excited to discover that the Papatya mandala cakes were the same yarn as Lion Brand, just with a different name and price tag.
We had to go via a few different stops before we were done. The Strait of Stockinette caused me far fewer problems than predicted in my last update. I was really motivated to get this finished, and six inches in plump DK yarn turns out not to be that much once you put your mind to it. So we sailed through that quite satisfactorily.
I got through attaching the sleeves no problem at all, picking them up from the stitch holders and joining into one big round (which wasn’t really a round, more of a semi circle). This held no fears cos I’ve made jumpers this way before, and I actively enjoy it. Plus! This pattern was worth buying, even if I strayed from it, because it gave me the most lovely raglan join – smooth and sturdy, not like the casual rope ladders I’ve turned out before.
Ah, but up ahead was the Port of I’ve Done the Decreases Wrong. Shortly after taking this photo I realised that I was decreasing far too sharply and was going to run out of stitches if I carried on. So a bit of unravelling ensued, and some reconsulting of the pattern, before starting those decreases again (but doing it right this time).
Then the neckband. I didn’t enjoy the neckband. The final part of it is knit in two halves which are grafted together, and for all I consulted instructions on how to kitchener stitch ribbing, it didn’t come out well. But since it’s at the back of my neck I let ‘serviceable’ take the place of ‘good’. Then the grafted-together parts needed attached to the body.
I did indeed haz join and actually I was pretty happy with it (though again, the fact that I wouldn’t see it while wearing the cardi was a factor). That was the least enjoyable part of the project apart from, of course, sewing in ends – but using the yarn cake did reduce those, which was good news.
Using this pattern as a jumping off point has made me feel more confident about writing my own pattern – not for distribution, I wouldn’t be at all confident in sizing up and down, but for my own use. I have a rainbow yarn cake I bought on impulse and I’m thinking stripes with grey or black – but probably grey since I have plenty left over from this project. I used the whole mandala cake and just a smidge over two balls of grey, so there’s plenty left since I over-ordered. Plus knitting from stash always feels very virtuous, doesn’t it?
The Crafty Yarnster 