Winter accessories

I went into McAree’s yesterday and immediately got told off by Cayt for not blogging enough. In my defence, I had been meaning to blog for ages, and had been saving up photos. But circumstances (and life in general) kept conspiring against me – I’ve just bought a new Mac, which I adore greatly, but it’s taken a while to figure out how to use iPhoto (can I just say it is my new favourite thing? It reads the RAW files straight off my camera, edits them in quite sophisticated ways, and uploads them as Jpegs to Flickr, which it used to take three separate PC programmes to do!). And then I’ve had router issues which meant that photos wouldn’t upload.But enough excuses; on to the knitting!

A few weeks ago I was in Nepal on a teacher exchange thing. We were lucky enough to get back to Kathmandu with a day to spare before our flight home, and we spent a really lovely day wandering around Kathmandu taking in the atmosphere and doing some shopping. I loved Kathmandu. It’s a fascinating city, incredibly busy and chaotic – to cross the road you have to dodge cars, motorbikes, cyclists and rickshaws – and I found the people to be really friendly. We were staying in Thamel, the most touristy district, and there were lots of shops selling pashminas, knock-off North Face gear, and various souvenirs including brightly coloured Nepali knitwear. My Dad had requested I bring him home a hat, so I ventured into one of the shops to purchase one.

I settled on a traditional Nepali hat in manly greys, and had a wonderful conversation with the owner of the shop about its construction. It was obviously handknit in the round, with a cosy fleece lining hand-sewn into it. I was wearing my much-loved Baby Cables sweater, and the shop owner said, “That’s not a Nepali sweater, is it?” Which led to a conversation about Scottish vs Nepali wool.

And here is the hat in question, which my Dad loved:

I had taken some crochet with me to amuse myself on our various flights (as well as my Kindle, which was fantastic). I decided to make a Calm Cowl, as it seemed relatively straightforward. An over-enthusiastic security lady at Kathmandu airport nearly confiscated it when I was on my way home, as she thought I might strangle someone with the yarn. I don’t think she’d ever seen crochet before, and she wasn’t bothered about the hooks, or even the safety pins I’d mistakenly left in my bag. My yarn and measuring tape, though, were apparently deadly weapons. Eventually, after some discussion, another security lady gave them back to me and I stuffed them back in my bag and scurried away gratefully.

I did get the cowl finished on the plane, and I’m really happy with it:

In the last couple of months I’ve finished off a few other winter accessories. I made a hat for my Mum:

It’s the Sprouting Cloche had from Brave New Knits. I was ill a couple of days after getting back from Nepal and fit for nothing but sitting on the sofa knitting, so I got this finished pretty quickly. The last few rows of the chart are wrong, and the final stitch count is off, but it’s fairly easy to “read” your knitting and work out you should be doing by that point. I sent it off to Mum along with Dad’s Nepali hat and she was really pleased with it. It’s made from Rico Baby, which is 100% acrylic. I’d never normally touch 100% acrylic, but Mum finds animal fibres scratchy, and this particular yarn is very soft. Definitely one to remember for future gifts.

After repairing Chris’s Manly Gloves (or, as friends have nicknamed them, his Fagin Gloves) at least 3 times, I decided it was time for a new pair.

These are the best ones I’ve made yet, in terms of fit. Good old Felted Tweed, and this time I went down to a 2.75mm needle for a nice, dense fabric.

And finally, possibly my greatest knitting achievement to date! Yes, I have finally made a beret that fits.

It’s my second Rose Red beret, this time in Shilasdair Luxury DK to match my Hawthorne scarf. I foolishly didn’t write down what needle size I used, but I think it was something in the region of 3.5mm. Definitely much smaller than my previous Rose Red, which I knit in Fyberspates Scrumptious on 4mms and which turned out far too big.

And finally, while I was looking up at the sycamore tree that towers over our garden with great excitement – it has buds on it!! It must be spring!! – Chris snapped this picture:

3 FOs in one picture! Rose Red, Calm Cowl, and my beloved Baby Cables and Big Ones Too.

Read Full Post »

At last: Manu!

After all the problems with gauge, changing my yarn choice and swatching like mad, I have finally finished Manu.

I ended up knitting it in Felted Tweed, which was ideal. It has the fuzziness and drape that the pattern calls for, but is sufficiently fine that I could get gauge after a fashion – I ended up knitting the XS size and it turned out about right after blocking.

Check out those pleats:

I made the pleats roughly symmetrical – there were 23 pleats on the size I made, so I worked 12 in one direction and 11 in the other. It doesn’t look too noticeable that the changeover isn’t right in the middle:

I ended up using part of an extra ball of yarn, because I had to make the sleeves quite a bit longer than the pattern said. I love the effect of the sleeves puffing out around the wrists. And I love the pleats. I can’t quite make up my mind about the pockets – they’re not terribly flattering for my shape, and they are very baggy. I’ve also noticed that one is slightly longer than the other! I will probably go back and fix that at some point. But for now I’m wearing it proudly!

Read Full Post »

Easter holidays

I’m back to school tomorrow – probably minus a few colleagues and pupils who will be stuck on their holidays due to the volcanic ash! So I thought it was time to share my holiday crafting.

During the first few days I had a bit of a crafting marathon, and my main goal was to finish the Clothkits skirt I started, ahem, nearly two years ago. And I am delighted to report that it is, at last, finished!

Apologies for the lack of head in the photo. It wasn’t a very flattering picture! Finishing the skirt wasn’t that hard, after all – the side seams are a bit wonky, but a bit of judicious pressing took care of that. I’m particularly pleased with my hand-sewn blind hem. I’m now torn between ordering another Clothkits skirt, or making a trip through to Edinburgh or Glasgow to investigate proper patterns and fabric at John Lewis. Incidentally, that’s my Wicked sweater in the photo above – the sweater was originally knit to go with this skirt, but it’s been finished for so long it’s gone a big baggy and pilly in the meantime!

I have also resolved my Manu dilemma. I realised (with help from various commenters, thank you!) that I was never going to get a practical gauge with the Cashcotton. So I caved, went out and bought some Felted Tweed in a lovely pale green. And a 3mm needle gets me, after washing, a gauge that should work if I make the smallest size (why is my tension so loose? It’s crazy! But at least it’s consistent). And I’ve now finished the body and am about to cast on for the sleeves:

Quite a few people have commented on the 16.5 inches of plain stocking stitch, but I didn’t find it dull. I’ve recently discovered that I can quite happily knit garter or stocking stitch while reading (it has to be something that stays open by itself, but that makes newspapers and magazines quite handy) so I happily knit away while perusing the paper or watching TV of an evening.

A few days ago I decided to wash some of my most-worn winter woollens, and I managed to prise Chris’s birdwatching gloves away from him for long enough to wash them too. I knit them for him in November 2008, and he has worn them almost constantly except for at the height of summer! And I realised that they were starting to fall apart:

The thumb and index finger on both gloves was coming apart. Upon closer inspection, it looked as if the yarn had quite simply worn out from heavy use – the strands were weak, and broke easily, and it looked as if the cast-on edge had just worn away. So I decided to fix them. Luckily, my refusal to throw away any yarn meant that I still had a tiny ball of leftover Felted Tweed from when I made them in the first place.

I snipped one of the stitches a row or two beneath the worn part of each thumb/finger. I carefully unpicked that strand, effectively “unzipping” the top few rows from the rest of the glove. I picked up the resulting stitches onto a magic loop, and knit up until the digit was back to its original length.

Ta da!

Observant readers will notice that the thumb and forefinger don’t exactly match the original fingers. This is because the gloves were knitted fingers-down, while the repairs were knitted glove-up (if you see what I mean). So the new cast-off edge doesn’t match the original cast-on edges. I did try Elizabeth Zimmerman’s “cast-on cast-off” from the Knitter’s Almanac, but I think I did it wrong or maybe didn’t pull it tight enough, because it looked a bit weird.

I’m quite proud of myself nevertheless and Chris is pleased to have a new lease of life for his gloves!

Read Full Post »

Another FO, and a challenge

After I finished my yellow Ishbel shawl, I still had something like two-thirds of the skein (Posh Yarn Sylvia in “Wheatfield”) left. So I decided to make a lacy pair of gloves to go with it. The pattern choice was a no-brainer – Ysolda’s Veyla pattern, which I’d already made once (and worn all winter). As the yarn was laceweight, I used two strands held together. I also beaded the lace pattern using the amber-coloured beads I’d also used for Ishbel. A few days ago I finally got round to sewing on the buttons and blocking them, and here they are:

The colour doesn’t make them the most practical gloves, but they’ll be great once the spring weather gets going properly (it’s been raining for two days solid here!).

Now, I have a challenge, and I could use any advice that might help! For ages I’ve been eagerly awaiting Kate Davies’ Manu cardigan pattern. I bought some gorgeous, soft, fluffy RYC Cashcotton from Cucumberpatch in the “Red pepper” colourway:

I refused to let myself start on Manu until I had finished Morning Echo, but as soon as the buttons were sewn onto the latter I grabbed my needles and got swatching.

And…my loose gauge strikes again. The gauge given by the pattern is 6 st and 8 rows per inch on 3.75mm needles. I didn’t even bother with the 3.75mm needles, because I always have to go down a couple of needle sizes. And I swatched. And swatched. And swatched. And eventually gave up when I got down to 2.5mm needles, because it was getting ridiculous.

The upshot: the best I can do is 5 st per inch on 2.5mm needles. No way am I getting down to 6 st. And my maths tells me that even if I make the XS size, at that gauge it’s still going to come out too big for me.

Option 1: Make something else out of the Cashcotton, and either forget about Manu for now or make it out of a different yarn. Thanks to the wonders of Ravelry, I was able to search for patterns in my gauge tagged with “sweater” or “cardigan” and the following candidates for a Manu-alternative stood out: The Tea Leaves Cardigan from Madelinetosh, Flair from Knit and Tonic, the Honey Cardigan (probably the front-runner for me), the Minimalist Cardigan from Interweave (scroll down) or Siena from Yarn Forward (Ravelry link).

If I were to make Manu in a different yarn, I initially thought I’d just make it out of Cashcotton 4-ply. Probably not in red, but I quite fancy it in a nice dark green (much like Kate’s original one). But the 4-ply doesn’t seem to come in any colours that fit the bill. And I don’t know of any other drapey, fluffy yarns that might work. There’s DKs such as Shilasdair, Felted Tweed, etc – but there’s no guarantee I’d get gauge with them either!

Option 2: Do some serious fiddling about with the pattern and try to work out how to knit a non-existent size XXS, which will hopefully then come out the right size for me with my 5 st per in gauge (this would mean knitting an entire cardigan on 2.5mm needles, but I think I love the combination of pattern and yarn enough to do this!).

So I’ve gone through the pattern and worked out the measurements at every stage up to the yoke for my ideal size at the correct gauge. Then I worked out how many stitches I would need to get those measurements at my actual gauge. In theory, that only leaves the problem of working out how to do the short-row shaping on the yoke, which I’ll tackle when I get there.

Decision time…While I think the Honey Cardigan would look lovely in my yarn, I love the Manu pattern. I love the Cashcotton. I think I know enough about sweater construction to make the pattern and yarn work together at my gauge. I think I’m more-or-less decided to try to give it a go (2.5mm needles! Eek!). But any advice or thoughts at all are most welcome!

Read Full Post »

At last, Morning Echo!

Remember this?

Jaeger Extra Fine Merino in “Peacock”, which I bought…well, quite some time ago, just after it was discontinued. It’s been lurking in my stash for ages, waiting for the perfect pattern to turn up.

I finally settled on the Morning Echo cardigan from Yarn Forward magazine, and started swatching a couple of months ago.

Problem No. 1: I just couldn’t get gauge. Even though the pattern is written for Rowan Calmer DK, the suggested gauge is 26 st, and I couldn’t even get that on 3mm needles (which gave a very stiff fabric that I didn’t like). So I settled on 3.25mm needles for a more drapey fabric, with a gauge of 24 st, and cast on for the next size down. I substituted the yarn-over buttonholes in the pattern for sturdier 3-stitch, one-row buttonholes.

Problem No. 2: My row gauge was also off, meaning if I worked the body shaping as instructed by the pattern the body would have been too long – the design of the cardigan is relatively cropped, and that’s what I wanted. So I missed out one of the decreases and one of the increases, making the shaping more gentle and making the body come out at the right length.

Problem No. 3: From the underarm up, the pattern is written in pieces – two fronts, a back, and sleeves knit flat and seamed. I decided to knit it all in one piece, and knit two sleeves in the round with no problems, increasing every 2.5 inches until I had the right number of stitches. Then I realised that I had no idea how many stitches to hold for the underarms. Fortunately, a friend had a copy of Knitting Without Tears, which soon set me right (8% of the body stitches – which worked out as about 14 stitches)*.

Problem No. 4: Stems from Problem No. 2, namely, my too-large row gauge. The raglan decreases in the original pattern weren’t standard, even decreases (ie, decreasing equally from the body and sleeve every other row). After a lot of maths, I realised that there was no way I could work the decreases as specified in the pattern and not end up with an armhole that was about 8 inches deep! So I gave up on knitting a raglan and returned to Knitting Without Tears. With Elizabeth Zimmerman’s help I converted it to a yoked cardigan.

Problem No. 5: I knit the neckband as instructed in the pattern, and sewed it to the bound-off neckline. I don’t think there was anything wrong with my seaming, but it looked awful. The seam created a ridge between the stocking stitch and the lace pattern where there hadn’t been one anywhere else in the cardigan. In addition, the yoke was too long and the neckline was way too high (halfway up my neck!). So I ripped it back, made the yoke a couple of inches shorter, and knitted on the neckband to the live neck stitches after the last yoke decrease row. On one side I attached the neckband by working P2tog on the wrong side to join the last stitch of the neckband to the body. On the other side I continued working SSK on the right side as I had been doing all along to shape the v-neck. Then I grafted the two ends together (again using Knitting Without Tears – with help from EZ I was able to graft the first bit in garter stitch to match the buttonband, and the second bit in stocking stitch).

Voila, an entirely seamless cardigan!

The buttons were from John Lewis, and I think they finish it off beautifully. I haven’t blocked it yet because I can’t bear to take it off! In an ideal world there are still a couple of changes I would make. I would ensure the graft at the back of the neck was squarely in the middle, because I didn’t measure properly and it’s slightly off-centre. I think I could also have stood to start the yoke decreases a little earlier. But all things considered, I’m immensely pleased with it, and I’ve learnt such a lot about sweater construction while knitting it!

I do have another FO to blog, but I’m just going to go and revel in the glory of having finished this cardigan for a while first!

* Knitting Without Tears is a fabulously educational book and I can’t believe I’ve not read it until now. I promptly ordered my own copy. It’s full of fantastic information about knitwear construction, and there are so many useful little nuggest of wisdom. I think I’ll be using it a lot.

Read Full Post »

Spring is in the air!

I’m hard at work on a cardigan at the moment – Morning Echo from Yarn Forward magazine. I’m knitting it in some Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK that’s been in my stash for ages. I’m not going to say any more about it just now, though, because what with various gauge issues and mods it’s worthy of a post of its own – when I finally finish it!

I did, however, get a quick FO fix with Woolly Wormhead’s Weekender Beret, also from Yarn Forward. On a trip to Edinburgh to hang out with a friend I bought a lovely green skein of Rowan Cocoon from John Lewis. I cast on for the hat mid-afternoon the following day, and finished it that same evening while watching the Winter Olympics Canada/US ice hockey final. It seemed very small at first, but the pattern was absolutely right about blocking it – a good wet block and drying it over a dinner plate made it fit almost perfectly. In fact, I think it’s the best fitting beret I’ve knit so far. Now, of course, I’m thinking of getting more Cocoon for a matching cowl…

I also got some new yarn a couple of weeks ago:

It’s Posh Yarn Sylvia in “Fierce”, and I’m vaguely planning a Whisper cardigan in it when the spring is a bit more advanced.

Speaking of which:

Spring is finally making an appearance in Scotland!

Read Full Post »

Winter crafting

Remember the zigzag Noro sock I blogged about recently? I ran into a problem with the yarn. It wasn’t knots, the thick-and-thin crazy Noro spinning, or even bits of twigs. It was the colour. And given that colour is really the only reason to buy Noro…well, I wasn’t very happy.

See those pale coloured sections on either side of the black stripe? And in the little ball of yarn next to the heel? Those are sections where it appears (to my admittedly inexpert eye) that the skein hasn’t been dyed properly. It’s a weird pale pink that I think is the base colour of the yarn, because it doesn’t match the colourway and it never becomes part of the colour repeat (so the colour never goes entirely pink – you just end up with unattractive flecks of it through the project).

I emailed the shop from which I had ordered the skein, who replied very promptly and said that this effect was visible in several skeins in their stock, and that therefore the skein wasn’t defective and they couldn’t do anything about it. Hmm. But they did give me the contact details for their distributor, who I emailed. They, in turn, have asked me to return the skein to them. I was expecting to be asked to send a photo (to confirm that it was worth sending it back) and now I’m thinking that it’s probably not worth the trouble and cost of sending back one skein when there’s no guarantee that it’ll be replaced or refunded anyway.

So I think I’m just going to frog the sock, cut out all the offending bits, and make something else out of it. After all, I do love the rest of the colourway. I’m not really looking forward to frogging a whole stranded sock, though – too much potential for tangles!

After my disappointment with the Noro, I returned to my previous project, a nearly-finished Ishbel shawl in Posh Yarn Sylvia. After all, you can’t go wrong with Posh Yarn for colour! I also decided to bead the stitch between the yarn-overs on chart D with some gorgeous amber-coloured seed beads I got on Ebay. I used the dental floss method, which was simple and worked really well. The beads don’t show up brilliantly on the photos – I’ll have to take some close-ups sometime. But, voila:

I love the brightness and richness of the colour – the large photo is the one with the most accurate colour. It’s full of rich golden and tawny yellows. It’s also amazingly light – I only used 38g of yarn (I worked the small stocking stitch section, the large lace section, and used Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind-off as I found the bind-off in the pattern too tight). I think I might double up some of the leftover yarn and make a matching pair of Veyla mitts.

I have also finally got round to sewing the “eyes” on my Owls sweater, and here it is:

I love it! I rarely make patterns in the exact yarn or colour recommended by the designer, but I just loved everything about Kate’s original grey Owls, so used exactly the same yarn: Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky in Steel Grey Suffolk. No mods – I knit it exactly as the pattern said. And I love it. Here’s pic that shows off the owls better:

It’s snuggly and warm but because it’s so close-fitting it’s stylish and sexy. I wore it for work with a flouncy knee-length grey and pink skirt, grey tights and black knee boots.

And I finally got the sewing machine out again! After some faffing and reading the manual because I couldn’t remember how to thread it or how to wind a bobbin, I managed to make my Clothkits fishy cushion in a few hours over last weekend.

I even made buttonholes! On the machine!

How proud am I? Next weekend it’s the turn of the skirt. I will get it finished!

Read Full Post »

Finally, some FOs

My honeymoon sweater (which I finished knitting while on honeymoon!) was finished a couple of weeks ago, but I only just got round to getting photos this morning.

While I didn’t love knitting it, and I ended up ripping most of it out and adding a bunch of modifications, it’s turned out an immensely wearable sweater and I’ve been slipping it on most evenings and weekends since I finished it. The pattern is Cayman (Ravelry link) from Yarn Forward magazine, issue 15. The yarn is Rowan Summer Tweed. I love the yarn – when washed it becomes wonderfully soft and it’s ideal for a casual sweater like this. I’ve already blogged about the pattern – it had no shaping and I wanted it to look more shapely (like in the picture in which the model is lounging artfully in a chair). I also didn’t like the way the ribbing changed from twisted rib to plain rib on the body and sleeves.

In the end I made the following mods:

• I added waist shaping, and from the waist increased up to the next side so it wasn’t stretched across my hips
• I started the ribbing on the body and sleeves an inch or two later than the pattern suggested
• I did away with the twisted rib (except between the raglan increases) and just used plain rib
• I used a single crochet hem as the double crochet edging was pulling too tight

I nearly got rid of the split sides, but they were a feature of the original pattern that I liked the look of. It’s not the most flattering style on someone pear shaped like me, but I still like ‘em.

While on honeymoon I cast on for Ysolda’s Hap Blanket. I made the whole thing out of Artesano Aran, which is incredibly snuggly and soft. I had to buy an extra skein of red just for the bind-off – my loose gauge strikes again! But I found the colourway on sale at Natural Knits for Nippers, so I bought two. I’m planning a hat out of it – maybe yet another Gretel, or something slouchy like Ysolda’s new pattern, Ripley.

I finished the blanket on Friday evening, and promptly used it to snuggle under while chatting to Helen on the phone.

The scalloped edges haven’t blocked brilliantly – I was impatient for it to dry, so instead of pinning it out very wet I put it through a gentle spin cycle in the machine. But I don’t particularly care – after all, just how cosy is this sofa?

I seem to recall mentioning exciting new yarn in my last post. Well, here it is:

It’s Posh Yarn Sylvia (a silk/merino blend) 4-ply in “State” – full of gorgeous pinky purples. It’s going to be a Laminaria (inspired by Princess Pea’s fantastic pink Laminaria – I’d never paid much attention to the pattern until I saw that!) and maybe an Ishbel Beret.

Read Full Post »

More wedding crafting

Last winter I knit a small rose brooch (Ravelry link) from some leftover Fyberspates yarn. Mum loved it, and made me promise to knit several for use as buttonholes and corsages for the wedding. I’ve been working on them on and off for ages, and today I finally finished them:

There’s no particular code regarding purple vs blue or pink vs blue hearts – there are enough for everyone at the top table, immediate family, and people giving readings. Everyone can just pick the one they like. (The background in that photo is the white board I bought to make a big seating plan – I’ll be keeping that after the wedding for knitting photography purposes!)

In non-wedding-related knitting, I cast on a couple of weeks ago for Cayman (Ravelry link). It was very much an impulse knit – it was the first day of the summer holidays, and I was sitting outside my favourite coffee shop in Stirling reading Yarn Forward magazine, and I thought, “That’s a nice sweater. It would be good to slip on in the evenings on honeymoon.” And luckily (or perhaps unluckily) McAree’s is right across the road from the coffee shop. And before I knew it, I’d purchased a whole bunch of Rowan Summer Tweed in a lovely pale sage green.

So I cast on, and promptly realised that the artful manner in which the model is slouching in a chair in the photo disguises the fact that the pattern has no shaping other than some ribbing. So I added some waist shaping. The ribbing also changed from a baby cable rib to plain rib after a couple of inches (I guess this would add a bit of shaping, but the ribbing starts below the natural waist), so I decided to make it all baby cable rib because I thought the transition looked weird in the photos. I also omitted the short-row shaping on the collar, because I didn’t want the collar to be so high at the back.

Here’s my progress so far:

I’m very happy with the fit and the shaping (if my swatch is not lying then it should gain a bit of ease when I wash it) and I think the weird ruffling around the collar will go away when the collar is properly sewn down at the front, sleeves are added, and it’s blocked. But I’m not happy with the ribbing.  Because I’ve kept it all in baby cable rib, it pulls tighter than it should over the hips, leaving the split sides (which you can’t see in the photo) gaping and looking very unflattering across my belly!

The current plan: frog back to the stocking stitch portion, knit a couple more inches in stocking stitch, then switch to plain 3×2 rib (abandoning the baby cable rib altogether) and knit it a couple of inches longer than it currently is. A plain rib should have a bit more ease than the cable rib, but I’m wondering whether to stick in a more increases as well.

So I’m looking for advice, dear readers! What should I do with the bottom of this sweater to make it more flattering? Is my plan of a longer stocking stitch portion followed by plain rib a good one?

Read Full Post »

Packing? What packing?

I should be packing for the Big Move, but I’ve been procrastinating by uploading pictures of my latest FO.

Pattern: Liesl by Ysolda Teague

Yarn: Lousia Harding Grace Silk and Wool

I’m pretty pleased with this. My maths told me that, according to my stocking stitch swatch, I should be knitting a size 42 to end up with a garment that was actually a 34. My lace swatch was really stretchy, however, so I ignored my maths and went with instinct. I cast on for a 38 and I’m delighted to report that it fits me perfectly. The sleeves are a wee bit snug, but they’re perfectly comfortable.

It was very much a matter of just knitting until I ran out of yarn. I put the body on some scrap yarn when I judged it to be the minimum acceptable length, and then worked the sleeves. Then I went back to the body and just knit until I ran out.

The buttons I got from my local craft shop (very local – just downstairs and two doors down!).

I love the fact that they match the feminity of the cardigan, while blending in with the colour of the yarn, so the overall effect is completely neutral (and will thus match nearly everything!). The top one sticks up past the neckline, which annoys me a bit, but that’s due to the placement of the buttonhole rather than the button. If I knit this again (particularly in a DK weight yarn) I’ll put the buttonhole on row 4 rather than row 2.

Because it’s a lighter weight yarn than the pattern calls for, the three buttonholes end at a higher point on the cardigan than ones in the photos on the pattern. I think that’s fine here, because it’s a cropped cardigan and I’m not very well-endowed! If I had bigger boobs I think it would make me look top-heavy, and if I knit it again I’ll make sure it buttons up across the chest, rather than above.

All-in-all, I’m very pleased with it!

Read Full Post »