Cascade Yarns
Sierra
80% Pima Cotton
20% Wool
Teal (Color 434 -- Lot No. 1732)
100g/3.5 oz per skein
191 yards
(I'm using 5.0mm needles U.S. size 8 i think from knittingneedles.com in a 17sts/22 rows guage)
I'm off to a good start with my Girl Friday Cardigan. The fabric is turning out beautifully, except for the snagged stitch in the 5th row of the ribbing (Thanks to my kittens whom were fighting over the fabric while I was cooking dinner). The pattern is pretty easy to memorize, and knits up fairly quickly. The biggest problem I've had so far has been right at the beginning (yes, in the ribbing ><) attempting to get perfectly even tension among my stitches. I had to rip out, re-cast on and re-knit the first few inches of the ribbing several times. I think I did it like 4 times. Finally I just threw my hands up and decided I had to get this started so to hell with tension. Turns out, that was the right move and I was able to produce even stitches that met my standards. That snag in the middle is glaring at me though. Darn you Kat and Simba!!!! I hope I can fix that up during blocking.
After a few repetitions of the pattern it was easily memorized and not too difficult to knit. So far, this project is going fantastically. I started with the back piece (Shown in the first image) using the number of stitches of a medium sized cardi (81 stitches). This piece will be fantastic to have for the fall as part of my "back to school" collection. I deliberately used a yarn that was on the light side (the yarn I actually used was equivalent to a light worsted weight) made up of mostly Cotton, blended with with a touch of wool. I want this cardi to be wearable with jeans and comfortable enough to wear all through the fall. Speaking of the yarn, I am reminded of the month long search I engaged in to find the perfect yarn for this. My "stash" is literally overflowing and my boyfriend has literally forbidden me from bringing home another inch of yarn. With this being said I had to get ride of a couple balls before I could buy the yarn for this project and even then when I brought my bag home I was met with "More yarn? Where are you going to put it hon!?" and I had to promise I would knit the cardi right away and use every last bit of yarn. I rounded up a few of my least favorite yarn scraps and knit up several dish clothes that I gave to my mom and grandma, and kept a few for my own sink. They turned out to be surprisingly useful, a little boring to knit, since the pattern is super simple, but they look nice and are handy to have around the kitchen!
(Current Progress, about 9 inches in)
A really cool thing about this project is that it introduced me to the Knitted Cast On method. I knew (conceptually) how to do this cast on but I had never actually tried it. I have in the past, favored the traditional cast on but really fell in love with the K.C.O. and after this project will probably use it waaaaaaaay more often. Its nicely elastic and blends in well with the rest of the pattern and looks really finished. Because of this, I am going to feature a section on cast-ons in KnitSpiffy magazine in the the Fall edition.
(Knitted Cast On)
The Fall edition is going to be tons of fun! I've got a whole bunch of wonderful ideas ready, I'll give you a few sneak peaks here, but keep a look out for the zine in August.
Watch my progress at http://www.ravelry.com/people/hfoolwm
