Knitting FO: Ribby Cardi

Really, I do have a good reason for taking 5 months to finish this most simple of sweaters: the weather. I learned an important lesson this summer.

(Cascade 220 + large knit project + summer in Nashville)*(short attention span) = abandoned knit project.

Here is my no-longer-abandoned, finally-finished Ribby Cardi!

Pardon the blinding sunlight!

And here's what it looks like from the back:

Project stats:
Pattern: Ribby Cardi from Chic Knits)
Yarn: Cascade 220 in blue and grey (heathered grey, I think). As per usual, I did a horrible job keeping track of the number of skeins (really not a suprise since I started this back in May!).
Needles: #5 and #6 needles (dropped down a needle size from pattern to get gauge)
Started: End of May, 2007
Finished: End of October, 2007
Mods: Yarn substitution (Cascade 220? Worked really well for this sweater). For the record, I picked the pattern version with the flat (not ribbed) front and the mock turtleneck collar
Will I make this again? Yes... but it's a long story.

Since it is just stockinette and ribbing, this is not the most exciting knit. I had a really hard time making it through the project. I think I might have turned into some kind of knitting adventure junky - cables, lace, colorwork, I love it all. Plain ol' knitting? Not as exciting. The thing is... this is probably the most wearable thing I've ever knit. The yarn is practical. The pattern is practical. The finished sweater is totally needed. Next time that I knit this, I know I can get more "into" the project. I'll throw in some stripes, do some color changes, and probably knit the body in one piece to avoid seaming and make sure everything is the same size. The pattern has plenty of opportunities to change things up - lots of different variations written right into the pattern.

The hardest part of the entire project? Adding the zipper, but mostly because I had never done it before. Bonne Marie Burns has a great tutorial on her website on how to do this, which was totally helpful. It didn't make it less scary though :) In addition to all of the normal aides for attaching the zipper described in the tutorial, I added in a glass of wine and a little help from a good friend of mine:

I've officially watched this movie so many times that I can do other things while watching it, only paying full attention during my favorite parts.

When I make this sweater again (or whenever I add a zipper to knitwear again), I think I might hand sew instead of using my sewing machine. I just felt like I didn't have quite enough control. Oh - and my zipper does have a little mistake, but I think this is more due to shoddy counting of rows on the cardigan fronts rather than any problem with zipper installation. Although I made the error glaringly obvious in that picture, in practice it doesn't matter that much because I don't zip the zipper that far (thank goodness).

I have another FO related to this sweater to show off, but it's still drying! Hopefully in a few days :)

Comments

[Erin]

That looks REALLY good on you. I may be inspired to make one for ME!

[Julia]

Cute!! I love the colors.

[Leah]

It's lovely! And the colors combo is fabulous! BTW, that is my all time favorite movie too!!!