I had hoped to have another project finished by the end of May, but that isn't happening. This isn't really a problem because I am really pretty happy with the way my current project, a cardigan, is turning out, even though I am pretty much making up the pattern as I go.
I am calling this project New Orleans although that is not the name of the pattern. I'm not really following the pattern anyway, or I am using it as a only rough guide so I suppose this project is a bit of a collaborative mix.
In the photo above you can see a glimpse of the cardigan in its current state. The body has been sewn together and the first sleeve knit and inserted. I am currently knitting the second sleeve, after which I will figure out how I wish to finish the edges and place the buttons.
This is the sweater I started in April and fretted about ripping out in this post,. It is knit with three strands of yarn held together, two strands of Lana Grossa's novelty cotton blend, About Berlin Spotty, and one strand of a sequined nylon thread, also by Lana Grossa, called Diamante. I am knitting it at a fairly loose gauge on size 10 needles. I picked it up again the second week of May, reknit my gauge swatches, and redesigned the sweater, keeping only the pattern stitch.
The original is a fairly straight boxy sweater, which sounds lovely, but I wanted something more fitted. There are basically two reasons for this. First, although the loose gauge makes this sweater wearable in our hotter Tennessee weather, it also tends to snag and I am terrible about snagging sweaters. Secondly the fabric, although open, is also heavy and I did not like the way the sweater hung. One thing I have learned is that although I don't mind loose, boxy, or flowy clothes, I want them to stay in place, wherever that place may be.
Because I was experimenting with a more fitted sweater, I also experimented with some fitting ideas, using a draft of the fit muslin I was working on for sewing projects. I made the back fairly close fitting, taking a vertical dart in the center back at the waist, which I have done before. But I also did a few things that were new, namely using a stitch marker to mark the center back which is asymmetrical, and I made the armscye and shoulder shaping different on each side, corresponding to my actual body.
You can see the back, pinned for blocking above. As you may see in the photo above, much of the difference between the right and left back is taken up in the difference of the armscye shaping.
The fronts were easier, more equivalent in size, although the armscye shaping was different on each side. I also added short row shaping at the front above and below that eyelet pattern that runs across the bust line. This was done so that the eyelet stripe would continue horizontally across the front, matching the back, and not pulling up due to the need for additional length. I think my final result looks pretty good so far, although it took me a couple of attempts to get something that worked and looked balanced. I suspect that there will be some fiddling with the front edge and button placement as well, but I am happy enough with how this is coming along that I am looking forward to the challenge.
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