Aran Wrap Cardigan

Yesterday we woke up to a snowstorm.  It’s really only our first or second storm this year, which is highly unusual for this part of the country.   I know I have complained about too much snow in the past (especially last year), but I have been waiting for this for months!  We have pretty much had a brown winter, so I am enjoying the winter wonderland.  All the schools are closed and I am content to hole up in the studio today.  I would also like to get out and snowshoe at least once before it melts away.

In other exciting news, the strike-offs for my Seaside Cottage line arrived.  This is the first time I have seen the prints on fabric, so it is always interesting to see how they look on fabric, compared to just seeing the digital files or the cads.  As you can see, I have been going through and making a list of the changes I would like worked on.  They always need a little tweaking, so this is just part of the process of getting the colors right.  Sometimes they need a lot of tweaking, so I am glad to see the list is short.

I also have a knitting project to share.   I think it has probably been 3 months since I have blogged about any knitting, so that is quite a dry spell for me.  I usually do my knitting at night, and early on in my pregnancy I was tired and headachy by about 8:30 and it really seemed to cut into my knitting time.   It’s pretty pathetic, I know.  I have never been the type to just sit around at night or just do nothing, but I have to admit that’s what I did many of the nights.

When I did start knitting again, I decided I needed a bit of a challenge.

One with just a few cables . . .

I decided on this cardigan – with both horizontal and vertical cables.

The yarn is Vintage, by Madelintosh.  The colorway is called Tart.  It’s a beautiful hand-dyed red, with some black dye added in for depth.

The pattern is the Aran Wrap Sweater from Vogue Knitting, Fall 2008.  (Ravelry link here).   I loved all the cables across the back of the sweater, which is what first drew me to the design.

My only issue was the front of the sweater.  It is really cute styled with a belt, as shown in the pattern.

But, when I started looking at everyone’s projects on Ravelry, I could see just how much excess fabric is hiding under that belt.  I knew that would drive me crazy – as I would constantly be rearranging everything.

This issue kept me from starting the pattern, until I saw the September Sweater on Ravelry – I particularly liked this link on Ravelry.  The following pictures are from that link.   The back is quite similar to the Aran Wrap Cardigan.

But look at the front – cute and simple, without all the excess fabric.  I decided to try to combine the two patterns.  This turned out to be much more challenging than I thought.  After several false starts, I finally got the stitches cast on.  It was quite slow going, as I had to re figure everything as I went along.  It took forever and many times I put off working on it because it just hurt my brain! (remind me never to do this much changing to a pattern again!)

So, after something like 5 months, I finally have a finished sweater. 

It’s hard for me to tell if I like the sweater, because of the bump.  I can’t tell if it fits or not – and a large, cabled sweater and a baby bump don’t exactly flatter each other, if you know what I mean.

This side profile shows just how far that bump sticks out and the cables seem to make it look even bigger!

I’m guessing I will end up adding a button closure, but I will decide next fall when I can start wearing it.

This picture shows a close-up of the cables that wrap up and around the neck.  I have since taken the left side apart and redone it.  This is a 16 stitch cable, which means it isn’t symmetrical.  I was wondering about it as I was working it on, but once it was done I could see that it needed to be redone.  The cables now match so you don’t see that awkward line of purls along the left side as shown below.

I am SO glad to finally have it done, so I can start something smaller . . .  and blue.

(I’ve already started two baby sweaters and finished one hat.  They are so quick and addicting that I am really enjoying the smaller projects – and it won’t be three months until my next knitting post 😉 ).