finished!

She is finished!

This cardigan seemed to take forever, so I was surprised to see in Ravelry that she took two months, exactly.  Which is actually pretty good for me.  Maybe its because I didn’t really enjoy knitting her.  Luckily I am very happy with my finished cardigan!

dodgy self-portrait

 She’s come out quite a snug fit, but I think that works with the style.

The pattern is Emilie, by Elin Berglund.  I used the specified yarn, Collinette Jitterbug, in the Vatican Pie colourway.  It really is the perfect red.  Bled like crazy when I blocked it though.

blocking

 I made a few minor modifications…  Firstly I didn’t bind off the underarm stitches, instead keeping them live on waste yarn until it was time to pick up the armhole stitches.  Given the fitted nature of the cardi I was worried binding off would result in puckering.

I also didn’t knit the wraps when doing the short-row sleeve cap.  The pattern said to, but I didn’t really like the way it looked, so went back to not knitting them, as per Audrey in Unst.  I’m really happy with the way the sleeve cap looks now.

Final mods were around the button/hole and neck bands.  The pattern has you knit the neckband, then the button/hole bands, but I did it the other way around.  It meant the top buttonhole is actually on the neckband.  To make this work I chose a double yarnover buttonhole, in the “ditch” of the ribbing.  From what I’ve heard these buttonholes can stretch a little, but these bands are knit so tightly that I think it will be fine.  I ended up with 13 buttons in total, which is probably good considering how fitted this thing is (no gaping at these girls!).

I really love the buttons, from the wonderful Newtown button shop.  Selected and purchased in five minutes while Mark and the boys circled in the car.  Nothing like a bit of pressure to help you make a decision!

i love my buttons

 This cardi wasn’t exactly a labour of love- just a long slow labour with no epidural.  I’ve written before that I had issues with the pattern.  It probably says more about me than the designer, but I found the instructions confusing at times, particularly where they differed for the various sizes.  I probably should have read through it all a few times then highlighted the bits relevant to my size, but to be honest I’ve never needed to do that before.  I’m a working mumma, I’m usually good at multi-tasking and the whole “at the same time” thing.  But sadly not this time.  I also has problems with the lace pattern, it looks great but it didn’t flow nicely and I kept messing it up.  Even though it only went over six rows I was more than halfway through before I could dispense with the charts.

The photos aren’t great (home hair and no makeup required headless photos.  Yes, I really am that vain) but if you could see my face I am smiling.

happy new cardigan