Wine&Roses Cardigan Finished

Wine&Roses cardigan, no pattern.  Mixed yarns. 

Admittedly not the best photograph.  Matilda's lack of arms does nothing to enhance the shaping at the sleeve cap or the sleeves themselves, which nicely hug the shape of an actual arm without being tight.  The problem here is the differing gauges and natures of the multiple yarns.   Unfortunately although the sweater shows off some of Matilda's asymmetricalities, mine today are even greater, so you will have to live with the armless wonder. We all have our vanities after all.

This cardigan started with several skeins of Indecita Alpaca Boucle in color #19 fuschia.  George and I were out driving around one day when we stopped at a little Alpaca shop and saw the yarn.  We both really liked it, but they only had a few colors, mostly brows that would have been unattractive on me.  The fuschia was the only color of which there was more than a couple of skeins in stock, and I thought I liked it so I bought a few skeins with the idea of making a vest.  As I knitted the vest I realized that I really hated the color knitted up; it was much too vibrant and strong, still, since George had picked the yarn I didn’t want to totally abandon the project so I started thinking about what other options were available.

I looked through the orphan yarn bucket. And found several skeins of this Gedifra Cicco, left over from another project.  The color was much more muted than the alpaca boucle and I thought it might tone it down.  I placed the Alpaca and the Cicco in a pile and then added everything that looked like it might blend in from the bucket.  After winnowing things down I ended up with 16 different yarns and it was time to start sequencing the stripes.  I had more Alpaca and Cicco so they got used more than once in the sequence.  Basically I used a six row pattern using  Cicco in the  3rd and 6th rows and  the Alpaca Boucle every 5th.  The other three yarns in each sequence would rotate between the other 14 yarns in the sweater for a total sequence repeat of 27 rows.  Sounds complicated but it actually worked very well

Needless to say, weaving in the ends was a daunting task and it took me six hours to finish just that portion of the sweater.  Even then, I did not weave in all the ends, but used a technique of knotting and making a short fringe, as discussed in Montse Stanley.   I also sewed a piece of one of the ribbon yarns used over the piece over the seam allowance on the fringed seams just to keep things flat, neat, and well secured.

It also took me a long time to settle on the button band.  I swatched many combinations of the component yarns before I found the perfect combination, using the Alpaca Boucle and this pretty bobbled yarn.  I have no idea what it is. 

The button band ended up being the perfect finishing touch, especially since I already had the perfect buttons.

Comments

[Liana]

I agree. Very pretty, and I think you will really love the splash of bright color when winter begins to seem endless. Beautiful inside and out.

[may]

Congratulations, Mardel!! It is gorgeous. I love vivid colors in it. Very cheerful. You will be reaching for this one a lot this winter. Also, I like your finishing inside, neat and tidy. I need to remember the method.