FO: Vivacious Vianne Cardigan

I finished a sweater! And it didn't take me a year! It's a miracle! But seriously, after making my Dahlia Cardigan I needed a fun project that had no real deadlines or anything, and this Vianne fit the bill perfectly.

This is Vianne by Andi Satterlund. I've had this pattern ever since she released it, but I had never got around to making it up. I really love the style and it was always on my radar but I just never quite had the inclination. The coolest feature of the pattern is the lacy back.

The lacy and open back makes this kind of the perfect design for hot Florida. It also means the sweater is super stretchy given all that open space - I could've probably sized down for this one, but it's fine enough like it is. I really enjoyed the knitting on this and it was easy to get the knack of the lace pattern. I will confess - I messed up on the upper back but I didn't notice until I had already almost finished the back. I will never tell where the mistake is, lol.

Speaking of mistakes - I made a little snafoo on the front that set me back a bit. I had joined the fronts to the back under the arms and was about 2 inches down the body when I realized I was working a different row of the lace pattern for the right and left front. The problem with this is that the lace swoops are supposed to mirror each other, and my mistake meant that one side was a full 4 rows longer than the other side, so it would not have matched when buttoned up, which would've made me crazy because I would see it all the time like a big shining beacon of failure, lol. I have no idea why I went so far before I caught this, but I decided to just rip it back out, undo the extra rows on the one side, and ptu it back together again. This set me back a few nights of knitting, but not a huge deal considering I am much happier with the finished sweater.

Here's a close up of the lace on the front - I just love it. Also, let's talk about the real star - the yarn. I bought this yarn from pattern designer Emma Welford in July of 2017 during a destash she posted about. She had 3 skeins that she used part of and unraveled, so I got this for a steal of a deal. The yarn is Fyberspates Vivacious DK in the Sunshine colorway, and I think that is the perfect color name. I love the effects of hand dyed yarn - the subtle flecks of darker and lighter tones throughout the finished piece - but generally I'm too cheap to pony up the dough for this fancy of a yarn. That's why I love second hand so much! I loved working with this yarn and it's just the perfect yellow color. So thank you, Emma, for not wanting to finish the project you bought this yarn for! Anyway, because I only had 756 yards of this yarn, I knew going into this project that it wouldn't be enough to make the sleeves 3/4 length as designed.

I had no idea how far I would actually get to make them, especially considering I added 1 inch to the length for my long torso. So I knit the body, then the neck band, then weighed what was left and divided it into 2 identical balls so I could be sure I made the sleeves the same length. Well, that left me with only 25 grams of yarn for each sleeve and that included unraveling my gauge swatch to make the ribbing. It was a close call, and on my second sleeve I was using any and all of my scraps just to finish the bind off. It was a lot of ends to weave in, but I got there in the end. I actually made one sleeve completely, but it was so comically large on my arm it looked ridiculous so I pulled out until the short rows and added a lot of decreases. This sweater isn't designed to have sleeves this short, so I'm sure there is a more technically "correct" way to have done this, and even now the sleeve is pretty loose, but it's done and I don't care that much, lol.

I already had the perfect color of my beloved rayon petersham ribbon in my stash (I get it from Britex and order several projects worth at a time to justify the shipping cost), and even though it wasn't quite as wide as my band, I made it work. In truth, I may not have needed this reinforcement on this particular sweater since it's not very tight (so I won't look like I'm hulking out of my sweater), but I still like the extra stability it adds to the button holes.

So to make it work I just lined the edge up with the picked up stitches for the band and it worked ok. It was a bit of a head scratch getting the buttonholes in the right place since they were off center, but not too bad, and they are all perfectly placed to help prevent my very rounded buttons from slipping out.

I've been trying to stay all stash lately, so I went with these basic white shank buttons. I have a whole tube of these I got for a few dollars, so I'm sure you will see these again. They are wonderfully smooth for this yarn though, which makes them kind of perfect.

And the more realistic shot of how I usually wear my sweaters. Actually, this one may stay buttoned, but I will probably use it both ways. Also you can see how big the sleeves are in this photo. Ah, well. 

So there you have it - a new finished sweater and in a truly fantastic color :) I look forward to wearing this all fall and winter to add a bright pop of color to my life when needed. I'm not sure I can really say "I'm back" with my knitting, but it has been nice to crank out a cute project in a short period of time again. Yay for knitting!

Summary:
Yarn: 3 skeins of Fyberspates Vivacious DK in the Sunshine colorway - $35.00 (second hand)
Pattern: Vianne by Andi Satterlund - $5.60
Notions: 5 white buttons - $ 0.25, yellow thread - free, yellow rayon petersham ribbon - $3.00
Time: 1.5 months
Total Cost: $43.85