Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Cardigan Challenge Continued

I'm now on my fourth day working on mom's cardigan, and it's been a breeze so far!

I wound up going with size 8 needles for the main body (7's for the waffle-stitch borders). The 8's give me a gauge of 4.8 stitches and 6.5 rows per inch, which is a bit on the small side - the stated gauge is 4.5 stitches and 5.5 rows per inch - but I've had no trouble adjusting my stitch counts as necessary.  The swatch I did on 9's was slightly over gauge, and I didn't like how loose the fabric was, so 8's it was.  The drape and texture are perfect!

My only complaint so far is that the skein of Comfort is not a continuous strand - there's been a knot in each of the first two balls.  I attempted Russian weaver's joins, but it's an 8-ply yarn and the joins were just too messy and knotted, and it's not like I can spit splice a synthetic, so I had to go with the traditional double knit-in, which means slightly lumpy areas and more ends for me to weave in later.  Hoorah.

But, I've just finished decreasing for the waist, working even for a little bit, then going to increase back out for the hips.  Then - on to sleeves and button bands!

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