OAL2016: Sparkly Coral Hetty Cardigan

It's a big day, folks! I've finally finished my entry for the Outfit Along and I'm ready to share it with you. I've participated in the Outfit Along all 3 years it's been going on, and I've managed to complete the challenge of knitting 1 sweater and sewing at least 1 item to be worn together two of those times (here and today's post). In previous years, the suggested sewn item has always been a dress with a cardigan, so while I didn't sew or knit that particular pattern, I would still make a dress and a cardigan. This year, they switched it up on us, making the official knitting pattern Zinone (a linen tee) and the sewing pattern the Hollyburn Skirt by Sewaholic. The Hollyburn was on the top of my list to make up this year, so I was keen to use the suggested pattern this time around, but being that I never wear pullover style sweaters (even if they are light weight) I decided to stick with my style and knit a Hetty Cardigan.

All this is to say that I actually made 3 items this year for this challenge (a cardigan, a shirt, and a skirt), and I know that would be an absolutely enormous post to talk about all of them. This first post will be about the sweater (the biggest part by far) and there will be 2 other posts over the next few days about the shirt and skirt. *Spoiler Alert* I love every piece and they are great basics that will match a ton of stuff in my wardrobe, so I definitely feel like this project was a success. I did use all the 2 months allotted (I moved during these 2 months, so I cut myself a break), but most of that was just with the sweater, then the shirt was an after thought. Anyway, onto what you're here for: My completed Outfit!

Here is the whole she-bang all together (complete with Swedish Hasbeens - I am a sewing blogger, after all) :) When I posted a quick picture of my whole outfit to the board on Ravelry, I got what might possibly be the best compliment of my life...

So if this outfit makes people want to ask me about books, I take that as a major win, lol. I do love recommending and reviewing books. I'm glad I achieved that level of Librarian Chic :)

My post today is all about the sweater. I've had the Hetty pattern for quite a while intending to make it up long ago. I just always pushed other projects forward. When the OAL came along I knew it was the perfect opportunity. We weren't required to make one of Andi's patterns to participate, but personally I just love how her patterns fit me - since I've made so many I already know what to do to make them fit me well. For this pattern I just lengthened the body (I have a long torso plus I like them to sit a little lower than my waist) and I spaced out the decreases more to accommodate the added length. I made up a size Large but I did leave off a couple of decreases to make the waist a little bigger (not quite up to the next size though).

Because this is all over lace it's just as pretty on the back as it is on the front :) I love how it fits on the back! Not too tight where it dips in at my bra in an obvious way (a pet peeve of mine). I won't lie - I did my fair share of mess ups on this project. The whole sweater is knit in the round, so when I joined the fronts to the back I kept knitting away ... only to realize several inches later that I left off one of the lace rows on the back! It wasn't crazy obvious since it's a fairly busy pattern and I contemplated just leaving it until I noticed I did the same thing farther up on one of the fronts - which means the fronts wouldn't match. Now THAT would drive me nuts because I could see it. Frankly I blame knitting this while watching The English Patient - Ralph Fiennes is pretty distracting in that movie, amiright? Anyway, out it came back to where I had 3 separate pieces so I could make them all match. There is still one other bad area that I didn't even notice until I was completely finished with the body of the sweater, but I don't think anyone would ever be able to tell unless I point it out and I will never tell!

The sleeves are just as lovely as the body, Ah, knitting perfection ... I did shorten the sleeves by 1 repeat just as my preference. It sounds silly, but just that extra inch or two can really make a difference in how warm my sweaters make me. Maybe it's all in my head, but still - I'm knitting it, I made it shorter.

As usual, I lined my button bands. This time around I decided to try using some printed cotton tape I got a while ago at The Sewing Studio. It was natural colored with black butterflies printed on it. It's not bad, but not my favorite. The tape has a bit of stretch to it, making it ripple between the buttons plus it just doesn't have that stable heft of ribbon that makes it easier to button up. So this can stay, but I won't use it again...

I had a little drama with my buttons (when don't I?). I brought the completed sweater with me to The Sewing Studio sale on the 4th of July in hopes of finding some buttons. Man did I ever find the perfect ones! Look at those! They are the perfect color, the perfect size, they have a shank, and they even have a little sheen to the top to go with my yarn. There was only one catch: I made 10 buttonholes and the store only had 9 buttons. Ugh! I was left with the choice of either a)using a decorative button for the top one or b) re-knitting the button hole band AND the neckband (since the neckband comes last, it had to be taken off to make any button band changes). I deliberated for over a week, but in the end I just didn't love the look of the 1 button being different. I took an evening and pulled out the neckband and the button hole band and re-knit them.

I wanted to work from my crazy stash of yarn and pulled out this because I thought it would be a little fancy. It's Muench String of Pearls that I grabbed for a crazy clearance price from Jimmy Bean's Wool over a year ago ($10 for 10 skeins!). This was a stupid cheap deal so I bought it with no idea what to make from it (I have a purple colorway as well). It's 70% cotton, 20% rayon, and 10% polyester which is a pretty strand of iridescent thread that is twisted into the yarn. I was worried it would be too glitzy for me, but once it's knit up it's a very subtle sparkle (as you can see from these photos - the only photo you really even see it is in the one of the button band). I love how it came out and since this is cotton PLUS it's lace this is a great sweater to wear almost year round in Florida. Plus THE COLOR! I love this color. It's a very bright color in real life, but it still very wearable for me. This did make it a bit challenging when picking a fabric for the skirt to wear with it, but that's a tale for another post :) It's also worth noting that this yarn is a chainette weave, but it is wound like a tape yarn (meaning it's flat like a fettuccine). I was worried it would stay that way and knit a strange texture, but my gauge swatch showed me that after blocking it puffs up nicely - which the full sweater did as well. Yay gauge swatching!

So that's my Hetty cardigan :) If I hadn't been for the Outfit Along, this might have never come to pass. It's the sweater I never knew I wanted, lol. It's a comfy, pretty cotton sweater in one of my favorite colors. What's not to love?!

And since you've stuck around this long, here's a swishing photo (*swish*). I will post about the skirt and shirt throughout the week, so check back for more details!


Sweater Summary:
Yarn: 9.25 skeins of Muench String of Pearls yarn - $12.00
Pattern: Hetty by Andi Satterlund - $5.50
Notions: 9 buttons - $1.50, 41" butterfly printed cotton ribbon - $1.40, coral thread - $0.25
Time: 1.25 months (while moving)
Total Cost: $ 20.65

Project Planning - Outfit Along and More

Friends, ever since finishing my Ginny Cardigan, something has been missing in my knitting experience. It will sound strange to a non-knitter, but I just wasn't as enthused by my current projects and always felt like something was off. It took some time, but I realized that I miss being in the middle of making a sweater. I had a sweater shaped hole in my life! Such a hole can certainly be filled with my crazy stash of yarn and patterns, so I took to Ravelry (man, I love their organization of your library) and started checking out sweaters I had planned out when I purchased yarn as well as trying to match stashed yarn to patterns. It was quite the planning extravaganza. There were two clear winners that skooched to the top of my pile though, so I decided to swatch both of them and see how things went with each.

The first is the ever lovely Alecia Beth cardigan by Justyna Lorkowska. I fell in love with Gosik's example photo (above) a while ago and I bought enough Cascade Heritage in Navy to make it up from during one of Craftsy's sales (no joke exactly a year ago is when I bought this yarn). I love Navy blue, and I know that a navy cardi will work well in my wardrobe as is plus it will go with a ton of projects I have planned to sew. I managed to get gauge straight off, so I decided to just cast on :) I got a decent way down the back yoke before I realized that I didn't read the instructions correctly and had to pull half of it out, but it's an enjoyable pattern and I already have the little cables memorized. This project is really just what I was needing, so I'm glad I decided to start it.

The other pattern I have in the works is Ishnana, a relatively new pattern by Ysolda Teague. Isn't that cable pattern fantastic?! I just love it. Ever since I first saw this design, I wanted to make it with 3/4 sleeves. About a month ago I made a lucky find on Ravelry (seriously, I love their trade/sell function a bit too much) when a fellow knitter was selling her wool since she discovered she was allergic (knitters everywhere shed a light tear for this unfortunate soul). She had 3.3 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (which I had just used to make my Smocked Guernsey Socks and loved) in the Kerfuffle colorway which is a neat tonal grayish purple color. How great is the name of this color?! It was just meant to be. I had a little extra money from selling some yarn on ebay, so it just all worked out and now I have a sweater worth of this lovely yarn. I swatched for this pattern and got gauge straight off :) Alecia Beth won out in the "which gets cast on first" contest, but this one will be close behind it I can assure you. Also, that example photo from Ysolda makes me realize my need for a mustard yellow cardigan - I need to get on that soonish too!

Of course right after I get going on a new sweater, the Outfit Along was announced, lol. I've participated both years in this fun challenge so I definitely want to keep it going this year. The challenge is to sew and knit a complete outfit - it can be whatever items you want, but you must sew a garment and knit a garment that coordinate and can be worn together, and you must do it all between June 1st and July 31st. I tend to have terrible things get in my way when I commit to any timed large project like this, so I know that both of the sweaters I mentioned above are out of the question (my last fingering weight cardigan took me over a year to complete since I constantly set it aside for other projects). Knowing this, I decided to make something in worsted or dk weight. The official knitting pattern is Andi's newest design, which is a linen lacy t-shirt style, but I live in Florida and no matter how light a yarn is, I still need the option to take it off - especially in the summer. I've made several of Andi's cardigan designs before, so I knew I wanted to stick with one of hers so I know all the fitting changes with no additional work - laziness for the win! I've narrowed it down to the following ... I think ...

I need to keep this a stash buster project, so I'm thinking of using some of my Muench String of Pearls yarn I grabbed for a crazy cheap price last year from Jimmy Bean's Wool. It's a cotton yarn with an iridescent stripe woven in and I think it will make a fun and slightly dressier piece. I choose this coral color (instead of the grape colorway, which I also have in my stash) after taking a look at my finished sweater color palette. Folks, I seem to only make things in blues and purples, lol. I need to branch out from my cool tones and sedate neutrals. This coral is certainly brighter, but it's still a color I wear frequently so a lot of things in my wardrobe will go with it. Now to just decide which pattern to make! I've had Andi's Hetty pattern on my list to make for years but just haven't got around to it quite yet, so that's a solid option. I think the lace will go well with the dressier yarn. I also would love to make another Miette cardigan though, and that is the pattern I originally intended this yarn for when I purchased it. Decisions, decisions ... I may have to swatch the yarn before I make my decision and see how it looks with all over lace verses in stockinette and that can be my deciding factor. I have plenty of other yarns in my stash that would suit these patters, but all of them are either acrylic (and not the soft kind) or wool (way too hot for Florida summer) or already set aside for different projects or cool colors. 

While I'll be going rogue on the sweater for the OAL, I will be sewing up the official pattern: the Hollyburn Skirt from Sewaholic patterns. This was a fortuitous choice for this challenge since it was already on my pattern pile to be made up next. Huzzah! I just need to match up a fabric that will go with my chosen yarn. I'm sure I have something, but I haven't been at my new place to shop my stash yet. If I get more sewing time then is probable, I will also try to make a shirt. It will probably just be a simple t-shirt, but that is all tentative since I don't realistically have all that much sewing time right now.

So yeah, lots of project planning is going on 'round these parts. And this is just the sweaters :) I've planned countless animals and socks and whatnot that I know will be sometime in the far distant future. I'm finally using Ravelry's Queue function like it was intended, so I now have a list of about 16 sweaters waiting around for me to make them, lol. Considering I average about 5 sweaters a year if one of them is a smaller project (like a vest or a bolero), that should take just over 3 years ... except when you factor in how many are going to be in fingering weight and then you can add another 2 years to that, lol. Yeah, my stash is ridiculous, I'll admit it. I am constantly looking for new deals though. It's a sickness I tell you. I've fallen pray to the old adage that those who can't do, plan. I can't devote much time to my creative endeavors due to my living situation, but I am a crack shot project planner! I guess I'd better stop typing and get to work :)