Thursday, November 26, 2009

My New Cardigan

Well, that shrug I started for myself is done. It turned into more of a cardigan than a shrug, but I like to have a longer garment than what the pattern called for. Here's a picture:


The pattern is from Knitting Pure and Simple, "Summer Open Cardigan, #294. The yarn I used is Encore Colorspun (by Plymouth Yarns). I really like the yarn - it's very soft with subtle color changes and it feels like you're wearing a warm hug.
The pattern is pretty much the same as the other shrug I did - a top-down raglan - and again, well written. Since it called for a worsted-weight yarn rather than a super-bulky, it took a little bit longer to make up than the last shrug, but it still didn't take too long.

I shortened the sleeves to a short-sleeve and lengthened the cardigan to my hip rather than the waist. I did not do any decreasing in the body in order to have more coverage in the front (I like to be able to close a cardigan). The yarn had a very nice subtle striping, which made the garment more interesting to me (I LOVE color and changes in color and/or texture), and the yarn is soooo soft. I used just under 4 skeins of yarn with size 10.5 needles.

The problems I ran into on this is pattern is the front where I picked up stitches for the ribbing - it pulls up on the ends. I do not think blocking will fix this since the yarn is a wool/acrylic blend. Maybe the lack of shaping effected this? I could have also not picked up enough stitches along the bottom edges. Any suggestions from my reader(s) on this?

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