Not-So-Shrunken Cardigan
Wendy Bernard
Alpaca with a Twist- Baby Twist (8.75 oz / 549 yards)
Dark brown, Color #0294
Size 34

Posts:
February 8, 2006
March 1, 2006
March 5, 2006

As you can see, I added about 7 inches on length on the body- to make it a full size cardigan. I increased gradually after the waistline, adding probably 12 stitches overall. The sleeves are cropped and end about halfway between my wrists and elbow.

I also changed the edging- doing a seed stitch border instead of a rolling one on the collar, sleeves and bottom edge. I like it much better, especially because I am on a seed stitch binge at the moment. And really, does anyone want a rolling edge on the bottom of a cardigan? I do not want anything rolling in that area.

I ended up not crocheting the ruffles and instead picked up stitches, doubled the number in the next row and knit for a couple rows. I could not understand the crochet directions in Wendy’s pattern but that is probably because I don’t speak crochet. I am really happy that I did the ruffles though- it gives the cardigan an extra bit of quirkiness that I think it needed. It looked a bit too conservative for me without the ruffle.

This alpaca is gorgeous – it drapes beautifully and feels so wonderful to knit with and to wear. I ended up knitting it on size 5 needles to get gauge for the body and size 2 for the borders. (one size smaller than the pattern for each) I used mostly all of the two skeins that I bought at Rhinebeck- with only a palm-size ball left over.

It is really a warm sweater that is not too bulky and I have worn it almost every day since I finished it. Very exciting to have a sweater that I enjoy wearing as much as I enjoyed knitting it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 9th, 2006 at 12:29 am and is filed under Knitting Album. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.