After I frogged the garter yoke cardi, I wanted to knit the cropped cardi (ravelry link) from the same Knit.1 Fall/Winter 2008 issue. I was fascinated by the construction technique of this pattern, and I really got inspired to knit it after seeing Nakia's FO. I don't have any bulky yarn in my stash, so I decided to combine two yarns - the pink yarn originally destined for the garter yoke sweater, and some Cascade 220 white yarn from my stash. It's still not as bulky as the pattern's yarn, and my gauge is 2.5 stitches/inch instead of 2, so I decided to knit it in the largest size. Also, I wanted to alter the pattern to cut down on the flaring at the bottom. It took me a while to digest the pattern and figure out if my changes would work because of its unique construction and because both stitch and row gauge are important to sizing. I'm very pleased with the result.
The pattern knits up as two halves, so I could try on my first half, and it's a great fit! Even with the finer gauge, my garment is a fairly loose knit, so it drapes more than the modeled version. This is a good thing because I think the one in the magazine looks a little stiff.
I ended up casting on 6 stitches less than the largest size, taking the stitches away from the bottom segment. I decreased only 1 stitch on the decrease row, then added 2 decreases on each side of the sleeve because I ended up with more sleeve stitches due to the narrower bottom. I also did a couple of more rows on the sleeves, decreasing on the shoulder side.
It's really a fun knit because the sweater magically shapes up as you go, and each row has fewer stitches than the previous.
No comments:
Post a Comment