The final installment in my Olympic finishing marathon:
Pattern:
Garter Yoke Cardi by Melissa LeBarre
Yarn: Handspun Romney from the
Hello Yarn Fiber Club, colorway "Timber",
spun up last summer during the Tour de Fleece. I had about 1100 yds total, but I didn't use anywhere near all of it. Maybe 200 yds left? I might need a matchy match hat for the winter...
Needles: US 6/4.0 mm
Gauge: 18 sts/26 rows per four inches. A bit off on the row gauge for the pattern (26 vs 28 rows), but I don't worry too much about row gauge these days. Particularly not for a top-down, raglan sweater that I can try on as I go.
Start/finish: 26 June - 17 August 2012. Knitting was finished last week, and buttons located and purchased, but it took until today for me to sit down and finish off the last bits.
Comments/mods: an easy to follow, straightforward pattern, for the most part. I must admit to not paying huge attention to many things (like stitch counts for sleeves), given that its a pretty basic top-down raglan sweater, but I did make a few modifications. I set apart the given number of stitches for the sleeves, but when I picked up stitches to knit the sleeves down from the top, I added about an inch's worth of stitches - 13 years of rowing has left me with some pretty big upper arms (still - WTF muscles? It's been 12 years...), and the given measurements for the pattern were going to be too tight. As it is, the arms are still quite close fitting, but not uncomfortably so. I kept the non-existent shaping of the arms, and finished with jogless garter stitch in the round.
In these pictures (in which Devil conveniently cuts off the top of my head - think she's trying to tell me something?), the sweater looks a bit too tight when buttoned up all the way. I'm not sure that's an accurate fit - trying on a heavy, warm wool sweater and doing pictures when it's approximately 80 degrees out, does not lend itself to spending much time getting everything perfect (which also explains my partially-headless state).
It's also good unbuttoned. I think this is going to be a great sweater this autumn (aka approximately 2 weeks from now when the British weather gods realize that their deal with Lord Coe has expired and they don't have to deliver sunshine every day anymore...) - the Romney, while I was initially concerned about the scratchy factor, has bloomed into a lovely, cozy, cushy, slinky fabric. It's not merino certainly, but I tried it on over a tank top for the pictures without any undue itchiness. Result!
The buttons: I went back to the LYS/button heaven while the girls were at camp one day last week, and spent about 45 minutes looking at buttons. The owner was most enthusiastic about helping me choose. I ended up with some gorgeous orangey-brown Italian buttons that really tie the autumnal color scheme together well.
I got all fancy schmancy and actually did a grosgrain ribbon backing for the button band.
It certainly made sewing the buttons on a lot easier, so I may be forced to do this again in the future. I didn't find any good photographic descriptions of how to do this online, so I took a bunch of pictures of the process. I'll try to put together a photo tutorial and post it next week.
In conclusion: great fiber, fabulous spinning, fun and easy pattern to knit, imported buttons - loved it, would knit again.
