Finished: Creature Comforts Cardi and 198 Yards of Heaven

The Creature Comforts Cardi by Madeleinetosh was SO nice to knit. I enjoyed the oak leaf motif, and the stockinette sides helped things really fly by...it was only three weeks from start to finish! I think that is my quickest sweater to date. I have hardly taken it off since I finished.



This was knit with just over 4 skeins of Cascade 220, in Alki Beach (a discontinued beigey-gray)...the 5th skein was only needed for a few rounds of ribbing on one of the cuffs. I didn't make many modifications to the pattern: the cuffs are 1" longer than the pattern calls for, but other than that, it's just as written.

Though I LOVE it now, there was an "Oh, bummer" moment right after I seamed it up and tried it on for the first time...I really didn't love how it fit me at that point. The bottom edge was not quite wide enough to hug my rear end without bunching up in the front--I'll confess I got a little lump in my throat, worried that it wasn't going to look as awesome as I had envisioned. I fiddled with it a little, and found that if I stretched it out on the bottom, there, it would hang just right! So I pulled out the steam iron and blocked the bottom out about 2 extra inches on each side of the cable panel, and when it was dry the next morning I was much happier with the fit. Making the next size up wouldn't really have solved this problem, because the top fit perfectly and I wouldn't have wanted extra width there. This photo shows where I stretched out the bottom edge to make it fit around the hips.

My other finished project is the 198 Yards of Heaven shawlette, a free pattern by Christy Verity that I found on Ravelry. I am trying to decide if I am a shawl person or not--I see so many beautiful shawls on blogs and on Ravelry, but I wasn't sure if I could pull one off. So, I decided to try knitting a small one, in worsted weight yarn, so the time committment wasn't too great if I didn't really wear it (this was cast-on to finished blocking in three days flat!). If I end up wearing this one a lot, I am going to try my hand at a larger, laceweight shawl!

Also, after my last post about hating varigated yarn I decided I should give the last couple of skeins I bought a while back one more chance to win me over. This is 3-ply worsted weight, hand-dyed yarn from 100purewool.com--a pretty good sub for Malabrigo, as I understand it. It's Uruguay merino which comes in several weights as a singles yarn, and as a 3-ply worsted. It is the softest yarn I have ever worked with, and it has the nicest sheen to it! If you haven't tried it, I would really recommend it; I have used it a lot. My favorites are their semi-solid colors. So beautiful!

This colorway is called Verdes II, and guess what? I like it! The colors do not distract from the lace work too much, and it didn't pool much at all. I modified the pattern just a little to use up just about every inch of one skein, 218 yards: I added an extra 1/2 repeat of the lace pattern (so, 3 total) and skipped two rows of the border pattern.

Now I will just have to see if I like wearing shawls! I decided this particular one is my little tribute to the TV show LOST. My husband and I have been working our way through the DVD sets in the evenings while we wait for each week's new episode...the blues and greens really evoke the jungle and the ocean around the Island, and the lace pattern reminds me of tropical leaves. Maybe I will wear it on the plane to Maui this summer. ;)