Garter Yoke Cardi

The past 2 weeks have been school holidays for us and while I was secretly hoping that holiday mode would result in an increase in knitting time, I was never really sure if I'd get this done within 2 weeks or if that was just wishful thinking. Looks like holidays are good for knitting productivity!and this isn't the only thing I've been working on! Guess it was all that blobbing around home with the kids.

I'm really pleased with how my cardy turned out. I know just about everyone on Ravelry has made one of these and for good reason. I really wanted something warm and wearable for "jeans at home days" and this pattern seemed perfect. Simple but with a few nice details (like shaping) it struck me immediately as something I would get lots of wear out of.



Excuse the little cling on at the side there

The Naturally Sensation was a dream to work with. Its a felted single with just a bit of halo, it knit up as an incredibly soft and cozy fabric - I even want to cuddle me when I'm wearing it! I bought this at our LYS sale in January, they only had this colour on sale ($4/50g) and even though it was described as "navy" - it is so much more prettier than that. My camera (as always) hasn't captured the colour so well but its much deeper in real life with a hint of purple. Very nice. Normally this is $10/skein so way out of my price range for a sweater's worth but if I ever see it on the cheap again I'd buy more as it really was lovely. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the skeins are 120m so I only needed a smidgen over 7 skeins for a whole jumper.



The pattern is a yoked/raglan hybrid - top down and seamless - which I do really enjoy knitting. It's so great to get to the end of knitting and just 'be finished' - not have endless seaming to worry about . I'm still pretty new at "me" knitting but my experience so far would suggest that for me, less is more, when doing the raglans. Once again I just increased until it fit and ended up (again) with a size smaller than what I measure. I have quite a narrow back and doing less increasing seems to result in a better fit. I did pick up some stitches under the arm and ended up with the number I would have had if I'd followed the increases for my size. Before blocking my cardy had quite a bit of negative ease and was a bit short. I eased it out just a little bit when wet and got an inch or so in added length. Yay for blocking ( it really does fix everything!)



Buttons from Spotlight! Button shopping is hard I think. I always agonize over what to get. I found the buttons of my dreams but unfortunately they had a nightmare-ish price tag so maybe if I make myself something that needs only 1 or 2 buttons I'll get some then! (They were silver with dragons on them). I'm pretty happy with the ones I got though and think they add a nice finishing touch to it, a nice mix between casual and dressy.



I made some notes on my Ravelry page but really didn't make any major modifications. The only thing worth mentioning was to add another set of increases after the waist decr/hip increase (as per the pattern). Unfortunately for me below my hips is where it all goes pear shaped (pun intended) - perhaps something to be said for sitting on your butt all day knitting?? - anyway I added some more increases so that there would be a little bit more ease if I wanted it buttoned all the way down. I'm still not sure which way I will prefer to wear it so at least this way I can choose and it will still fit nicely. The extra increases have made the bottom a little swing shaped (not that noticeable when worn) but I took a photo (above) so you could see. Other than that I just knit the pattern as was written.



Buttoned up? Or loose? I'm still not sure...
I think once I've worn it a bit it will ease a bit and not pull on that button

This is number 4 for me for NaKniSweMoDo 09 (That's National Knit a Sweater a Month Dodecathon) - the group the crazy people join up to! I'm still not sure I'll get to 12 but am pretty pleased to have #4 done before the end of the 4th month.

The observant amongst you might also notice I had my hair chopped off today! Its been long or long-ish for, what seems like, forever. Time for a change!! So far I'm really pleased with it (even if MissAlmost2 gave me some funny looks when I got home) - I feel so light!

Oh and once again thanks to M6 for the photography xx