Feather Weight Cardigan

I'm happy to report that darling daughter is over her flu! I was really worried. I'm getting over my eye infections (in both eyes). They've been burning, itching and watery. I'm happy to say that no one else has got the eye infection...and I hope they don't! Through it all, I was still able to get a lot of knitting done. Nothing was going to stop a woman on a mission...and that was to get my Feather Weight Cardigan done!

I started on the Feather Weight Cardigan sometime this month. Pattern here: http://knitbot.com/knitbot-patterns/. I had purchased those 2 skeins of malabrigo lace weight yarn for a different project but when I saw this cardi, I knew that this was the one I was going to knit. At first, I thought I was crazy knitting a project with such a "thin" yarn. After the first initial row, it was okay. I knew it would be slow going but it really wasn't that bad. The raglan increases went quite smoothly. I put the sleeve stitches on scrap yarn. The body of the cardi went well and I did the last 2" in a moss stitch. I really like the look of the moss stitch and I had never used it before. I thought the sleeves would go quickly but I was wrong. It turned into a big headache and I almost gave up on this project!

Metal DPNs and lace weight yarn are not a good combination! It took me quite a few days just to do a few inches. My stitches were falling off the needle! The needles were awkward to maneuver and my stitches looked so sloppy! If only I had a LYS or even a craft store near by where I could buy a size 6 needle, 12" needle. I did find one in my stash but it was 16". I was going to use it because I was at my wit's end! I figure if the sleeves turned out big it would be okay. Once I slipped the stitches off the DPNs and onto the 6" circular needle I was so much happier. It was a relief because now the knitting was going so much faster and I was back on the right track. I actually finished both of my sleeves in 2-3 days.

The final piece of the cardi was the collar. I always knew I wanted to do something different. I wasn't sure what. At first, I was going to do an all lace pattern but I decided against it. I saw this stitch, Fagoting Rib in the August issue of Knit n' Style. It reminds me kind of like an "eyelet" pattern. It was simple enough ~ K, yo, K2together for pattern. After picking up the stitches (which was easy enough), and working 2 rows, I started the fagoting rib. I then added 3 pattern repeats of the garter stitch with stockingnette stitch in between and ended it with the fargoting rib. At first, I was going to just do stockingnette stitch after the fagoting rib but I needed to add some contrast to it. It just didn't seem to flow! I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but there was no turning back. I hoped for the best! Finally, knitting done! I have the 3" (instead of the 3 1/2") for the collar. I bind off "very loose" especially around the 2 front edges so it can be stretched during blocking. After a light blocking, the cardi is a good fit. As an afterthought, I made a crochet i-cord to tie in front. Finished!!!!!

I enjoyed this cardi. The pattern was excellent, easy to follow and understand. It's so nice to not have to struggle through a pattern!!!!! The yarn was nice to work with and my first lace weight project is now complete! :)