The Start of Making Waves

I have started a new cardigan. I have been watching Mary Annarella's work for a while on Ravelry. I had noticed her sweaters were lovely and in fits and colours that I loved. (She was one of the first people I friended so that I could follow all her projects.)

I didn't notice at first that she designed most of them. But when I saw that the pattern for this design was just coming out, I knew I had to have it. I really like the ruching trim detail even though I know it will be a big tedious pain in the butt. But totally worth it.

It also happened that at the same time, Amy at the Red Purl had a completely gorgeous shade of red in Fleece Artist's Saldanha (a lace weight merino wool) that would work for the pattern. Lucky me!

I cast on the last day of April just in time for the "red" month of Project Spectrum. The cardigan is knit from the top down, and I have all the shoulder and neckline shaping done. I tried the project on quickly when I got to the bottom of the armholes to make sure the armholes weren't too tight. Once that was done, the sleeves were put on waste string and the back and front were joined.

I have now finished the waist shaping and wanted to try it on again to make sure I was headed in the right direction. The big advantage of working from the top down is that you can put all your stitches onto a string and try your piece on at any time.

It is a big advantage, but I also find it to be a pain in the butt. It takes too much time to put the stitches onto a waste string, and then to put them back onto the needle. But I have to remember that it's all to save time later by preventing reknitting because of a bad fit. The problem is I think I'd rather do more knitting than spend time trying on the piece. I know...that is a rather immature way to look at things so I try to test the fit as often as necessary. (If I worked on cable needles I would probably be able to try it on with the needle in, but I like straights so I'm stuck with transferring to a string.)

Enough talk. End of the story is that I tried it on tonight and tried to see what it looked like from every angle:

The fit seemed good. I still have to add the trim to the front edge and it needs to fit with a little negative ease so that there's enough pull on the hook and eye closures to keep them closed.

And I'll just throw this one in because I thought I was having a good hair day:

Ok, quiet in the peanut gallery...I do consider this a good hair day so pipe down.

I hadn't really thought about my progress on this sweater, but looking ahead in the pattern shows me that I don't have that much more to do on the body. I could be about half way since the sleeves are 3/4 length. Oh wait...there's a lot of knitting in that trim. Ok, so maybe I'm a third of the way...

It would be nice to finish it this month for Project Spectrum, but I'm not going to push too hard on it. No matter how far I am, all I can do is keep knitting. That's the only way to get it done! The lace-weight yarn is a little thin for my taste (for how easy it is to knit, I mean; it looks great) but I am using my bamboo straights and that is always a pleasure.