knitted: yummy warm cardi (Vine Lace Cardigan)

We interrupt the look back at 2008 to show how I started 2009. A new cardigan! For me!

pattern: #77 Vine Lace Top-Down Cardigan from SweaterBabe.com
yarn: Lamb’s Pride Bulky, in Pine Shadows (a heathered dark green, difficult to photograph), 6.5 skeins (roughly 800 yards)
needles: size 11
cast on: December 27
bind-off: January 3
modifications: didn’t add the pockets, didn’t increase the sleeves as much as the pattern called for. I followed the pattern for the first sleeve but found it so bulky and slouchy that I changed what I did for the second. Later I went back and redid the first sleeve.
notes: This is my second SweaterBabe pattern (the first being the Fabulous Lace Inset Cardigan, my first ever cardi, made in September 2006) and I have to say that this pattern is much easier to follow than that one, partly because this one is a top-down seamless knit. (The other one was still a great pattern, but I don’t care for directions that essentially tell you to knit the right side the same as the left except in reverse – especially if that includes shaping plus lace.)

I love the lace panels on this!

I didn’t do a full wet-block on this sweater because I didn’t want to add any length or width at all, and was afraid with the bulky yarn plus the mohair that a wet-block mind end up stretching it too much. So I just pinned it out and did a spritz block, with some help:

I really only pinned out the waist and button band. In retrospect, I should’ve paid more attention to the collar, which obviously needs a little blocking. That’s the great thing about blocking, though – you can always go back and do more.

Which I will, once I can ever manage to take this baby off. Because the best thing about this sweater, aside from the fact that I think it is totally gorgeous, is that it is the warmest thing I’ve made.

Hope you’re staying warm where you are, too!