Yes, folks. The time has come.
I am going to knit a cardigan.
If I don’t do it now, when everyone is at home and I can ask EVERYONE QUESTIONS ALL THE TIME, then when can I do it?
Now is the time. It is the spring of our discontent but it will be the SPRING OF THE CARDIGAN.
So first up, what pattern?
I chose Hannah Fettig’s Boothbay Cardigan, because it can be knit in pieces and them seamed.* I definitely wanted to do one that was knit in pieces so that if something went horribly awry, I could rip out that piece, and not the whole thing. I’m not that great at frogging (ripping back ) to a certain point and then trying to pick up the stitches. So, a seamed knit it was.
Images from Hannah’s website, Knitbot
I didn’t want a brown cardigan so I chose a medium heathered grey, which is one of my favorite colors just because I think I look good in it! :) And it goes with a lot of other colors, as well, so it can be worn a lot. It’s Quince and Co Lark (the suggested yarn) in Kumlien’s Gull. (picture at the top of the post)
A few things, before we really get into the cardigan goodness:
When you’re knitting a garment you obviously have to choose your size. There are various ways to do this. The way I did it for this was measured my upper arm, and then chose the number on the schematic that was closest to this.
A schematic looks like this:
So, you want to take the number that is closest to your actual measurements (I am generally going up here) and you also want to look at the ease, which is listed in the pattern. Ease is either positive or negative. Positive ease means the garment fits more loosely; negative ease means it’s more form-fitting. This cardigan has a positive ease of 2.75”. So knowing that, I also chose the higher number for my garment, because I want he cardigan to be able to go over a long-sleeved t-shirt or a dress.
Knowing your measurement determines how many skeins of yarn you need to get. In my case, it was 17, and I threw in an extra one for swatch purposes.
Once I wound all the yarn (as you can see above, it was a lot of yarn), today (Monday) I cast on to knit the swatch. Gauge is fairly imperative when knitting a garment! So I had bought an extra skein just for swatch purposes.
BIGGEST SWATCH EVERRRRRR
The swatch was then blocked (ie, it took a bath!), and is drying.
Once it’s dry, I will check the gauge. If I’m bang on, it’s good to go. If I’m not, then I will knit another swatch with either larger or smaller needles, depending on which way I’m off. The book gives instructions for this, which makes me very happy! The fact that Hannah puts in so much good information in her book is one of the other reasons why I chose it for my maiden cardigan voyage.
So, that’s the beginning of Cardigan Adventures! Stay tuned….
*Hannah’s book Home and Away (from which Boothbay comes) is full of lovely projects, and all of the cardigans and sweaters can be made either seamless or without. There are also really useful essays in the book, so I highly recommend picking this up!