Video: Christmas Lights Sweater in September?

 

I made a Christmas Sweater in July  August  September! lol This sweater was meant to be done in July, but you know life. Come and see the particulars of my very first crochet garment (I know, right?!) and learn tips and tricks for this fantastic FREE pattern from Hobbii - The Christmas Lights Sweater. Click the video below to watch now!

Video: All the Sweaters I've Made Part 3

It's time for another installment of all the sweaters I've made over 13 years of knitting :) Head over to You Tube or click the video below to watch.

Video: Every Sweater I've Made - Episode 2

 

It's that time of the month again ... where I tell you about sweaters I made years ago lol. This time I'm talking about my:

• Ishnana
• Agatha
• Florist Bolero
• Chuck
• Endearment

I'm giving the whole rundown of each - what it was like to make, if I liked the pattern, what yarns I used, and how much I wear them. Click below to watch this month's episode :)

Video: Small Changes = Different Sweater

 

Did you know that you don't always have to buy a new pattern to make the sweater you're dreaming of? I had a specific look I was going for with my Crazy Rainbow Cardigan, but I wasn't finding any patterns in my stash that ticked all the boxes perfectly. Instead of buying a new one, I just found a pattern with the bones of what I wanted and then with a few easy alterations, I now have a sweater I love. Head over here or click through the box below to watch the video on My You Tube Channel.

FO: Crazy Rainbow Cardigan

 

It's finally finished! This cardigan was a labor of love ... that I kept setting aside for other holiday projects lol. It turned out really great though, so I'm glad we finally got there.

This project started with the yarn. I got this La Bien Aimée Sock yarn second hand, so I was working with a limited amount from the beginning. I searched through patterns online for a fingering weight, fitted, cropped, set in sleeve, plain stockinette cardigan to no avail. I started looking in my pattern stash with fresh eyes of what could be changed to make it plain and landed on the Criollo by Justyna Lorkowska. This pattern had cabled ribbing as the main feature, which was easy to change, and I like her grown on set in sleeve method, so it was the winner.

The body was smooth sailing. I ran out of the first skein of yarn just after splitting for the sleeves, so I started alternating the two remaining skeins from there out. I did end up with some color pooling, but that was unavoidable in such a crazy yarn as this, so I'm fine with it. Funny that I wound up with a black hole in the middle of my back though. I tried out the cabled ribbing on the bottom, but it looked too crazy in this yarn so I just changed to 2x2 ribbing.

I didn't want to add a perpendicular line to the front of the sweater by using the variegated yarn for the button bands, so I dug in my stash and found this Valley Yarns Charlemont in Black that I used on my Emelie Cardigan years ago. It was the perfect color black and I think it worked out really well. I also changed the neck band to be 2x2 rib and added a button. I did end up reknitting one of the sleeves after this was done. I didn't like the look when I had alternated every row, so I pulled back and alternated every other row and it looks much more consistent with the rest of the sweater.

For the buttons, I came across these long neglected book shaped ones in my stash and thought, "Why not?" I bought a whole tube of these in The Sewing Studio clearance for like $2 probably 8 years ago and I've never found anything to use them on. What better time to use silly buttons than on a silly sweater? They were the right size and blend in with the black while still standing out just a bt from their shiny texture. They look much better on than I even anticipated.

So that is my crazy rainbow cardigan :) I've been wearing this a lot since finishing it and I'm honestly happier with it than I thought I would be when I started. Yay for fun surprises!

I've also made a video review of this sweater on my YouTube Channel if you want to see more particulars :) Scroll down to the bottom of this post for a direct video.

Summary:

Yarn: 2.67 skeins La Bien Aimee Sock yarn in Chihiro and No Face colorway - $45.00, 0.19 skeins Valley Yarns Charlemont in Black - Free

Pattern: Criollo by Justyna Lorkowska

Notions: 12 book buttons - $0.50

Time: 3 months

Total Cost: $45.50

FO: Mohn Cardigan

I am so excited to show off my finished Mohn Cardigan ;) Before I get fully into it though, I have a crazy announcement - I created a YouTube video about this pattern review!

I feel like our attention have turned to video instead of blogs ever since the feed readers shut down years ago, and since I enjoy watching content like this on YouTube myself, I decided to jump right in and start making videos. I plan on doing regular posting there and I will always link the video here as well. My channel is also called ShowandTellMeg and I will post content basically just like I blog aboutm so please subscribe if you are interested :)

Ok so the Mohn Cardigan! This is the first design released by Engineering Knits who is a vintage making YouTube creator I love to watch. She purchased this physical sweater as a vintage piece and it was so popular on her channel that she tried to find the original vintage pattern for people to make one of their own only to come up empty handed. So she looked over her finished item and created a pattern to replicate it, then she graded that out into a modern size range and released it for all of us to enjoy and I think it is just the coolest thing.

I did have to make some changes to my sweater - first off, I knit the body 2 dot repeats longer than written. I have a long torso - this is a standard alteration for me. I also like a more fitted waist look than this was designed to give, so I knit a 38 inch size when I have a 40 inch bust. I figure the bust area can stretch a bit and it will help the waist be closer to my actual waist measurement. I also had to make extra decreases at the sleeve head to avoid poofyness, which was not entirely successful. Looking at the example photos from testers and whatnot, this doesn't seem to be an issue for other people, so I chalk this up entirely to some unknown mistake I made when knitting that first sleeve. The second sleeve did not have the same extra section of stitches but it still had a bit too much ease and gives a bit of a poof. I'm still not really sure what I did to have that happen, but oh well. It's still cute :)

I don't know why all my back photos turned out so blurry, but here it is. I used Knit Picks Upcycle Alpaca Blend Sport yarn for this because they had a crazy sale the week of Black Friday and had this yarn for $2 per skein. I bought a bunch of different colors so I was able to lay out different combos and see what I liked. I settled on Sapphire for the base with Black Pearl and Arctic for the dots and I really like how this turned out. I've actually never knitted with alpaca before because everyone always says it's so warm and this is Florida, but this is a blend of wool, alpaca, and acrylic so I thought I would give it a try and it's really not too bad heat wise since this is a sport weight.

I worked very hard to make sure that all my dot rows lined up across the sleeve area. I feel that this is one of those extra details that you don't really pay attention to when it's done well but that would look super off if you didn't line it up. I had to keep counting the bobbles on the example photos and counting back to make sure I started with the right colored dot on the sleeves since these were knit bottom up, and it was a bit stressful but it worked out fine so it was worth it. I also love the jaunty little collar! My hair covers it most of the time, but I think it's a fun little detail.

I did stabilize the button bands with petersham ribbon as per usual. Some of the other versions I've see showed that this button band is very stretchy so the buttons seem to be pulling if the sweater is more fitted. Petersham ribbon solves that problem and I think it just cleaned everything up so nicely.

Realistically this is how I will wear the sweater in real life and I like how it looks unbuttoned as well. I wore it to church the morning after I sewed the button bands and it was comfy and cute - a little warm but then everyone turns on the heat right now so I'm withholding judgement until I get to wear it in a normally air conditioned place.

So that's my Mohn Cardigan :) I love how it turned out and it was so fun to knit! I still can't believe I finished a sport weight sweater in just a month and it's entirely because I always wanted to just get through the next color row. If you like the look of this sweater, I hope you give this pattern a try, and if you want to learn more of the details please check out my video review and let me know what you think over there!

Summary:

Yarn: Knit Picks Upcycle Alpaca Blend Sport 3 skeins in Sapphire, 0.53 skeins in Arctic, and 0.53 skeins in Black Pearl - $10.70

Pattern: Mohn Cardigan by Engineering Knits - $8.00

Notions: 1 yard Petersham ribbon - $6.50, 8 buttons - stash

Time: 1 month

Total Cost: $ 25.20

FO: Belladonna Cardigan

Now that I've posted all my Christmas gifts (and I finally got pictures of this), I can finally post about my last make of 2023 - The Belladonna Cardigan. I had a goal to finish this before the end of the year, and then I got sick on Christmas, which facilitated several days where I only wanted to knit, and I got it done, lol. I don't recommend this method, but it did work well. I  managed to knit a sleeve a day and got her done.

This project started back in October and was formulated around some stash yarn. I was given 3 skeins of this  Dream in Color Classy yarn in the Spring Tickle colorway and I love a challenge for making a sweater out of just 3 skeins of worsted weight yarn. This yarn is just lovely - it's a hand dyed tonal green with flecks of browns throughout and I just love it. I was listening to the audiobook of Frankenstein when I started this, so the color felt very apropos. 

Now enter my usual designer for limited yarn - Andi Satterlund. I grabbed this pattern before she closed up shop for good and I'm so glad I did, but sadly it is no longer available to purchase. The pattern is a cropped, fitted, 50s style cardigan with lace panels. There is a larger lace panel for the front and back and then a smaller one for the sides. I love this style of sweater, so I was keen to make this pattern up at last. Unfortunately, this sweater was a bit more of a mental workout than I was expecting. The lace charts are very easy, but they are SO SIMILAR to each other. Despite my best efforts, I could never remember which row I had just done because everything is so close from one line to the next. I had to actually mark which row I was on in each chart as I went and then erase that and mark the next one or else I had to rip back because I messed up. This happened a lot, which is why this sweater took so long to finish. 

Since I've made a lot of Andi's patterns, I've managed to really hone in the fit for myself. This time I decided to cast on the size Small for the shoulder area and then increase out to Medium at the bust, which really worked a treat for my narrow shoulders. Since this lace is so stretchy, I honestly could have made the shoulders even narrower, but this is definitely very good as it is too. I also extended the torso a bit to reach my natural waist, which is always a gamble when I'm working with limited yarn, but it worked out just fine. The shaping for this design is done in the purl channels on the front and back and it looks like darts, which I think is really neat. 

One drawback with jumping right in on a hand dyed yarn is that there can be variations between the skeins even in the same dye lot. Just under my bust, you can see the the lower skein is a smidge darker. Oddly this isn't as big of a deal as it could have been because of where this line hits - I think it kind of just looks like a shadow. I wish I had thought to alternate skeins when I started the project, but oh well.

The sleeves are always the final part I knit on stash bust projects and this was the length I could get out of the amount of yarn I had, which I think turned out great. I love elbow length sleeves. The sleeve construction is neat too - you actually knit from the inside out so you can get even purls on the outside without worrying about tension. I think the sleeves really show off the tonal aspect of this yarn.

The buttons bands are lined with my usual rayon petersham ribbon in a matching color. I had to restock my stash of ribbon and I grabbed the next several colors I will need to make shipping worth it, so this is thankfully an exact match and looks very nice if I do say so myself. The buttons are some nice mother of pearl style ones from my stash that have just a hint of the yellow flash they sometimes can get, which compliments the yarn wonderfully. I'm really happy with how these look and that I didn't have to go out in search of matching buttons. Yay stash!

Realistically, this is how I will wear this sweater, and I like it this way too. This cropped length and this color don't exactly go with very much of my wardrobe, so I'm tempted to make a dress or more brownish skirts to wear with it. 

So that's my Belladonna cardigan :) Even though the pattern gave me a harder time than I anticipated, I am really happy with the finished product. I think the fit is great and the yarn is even more lovely after blocking - I don't know that I've had any other yarn bloom and soften this much with blocking before, truly. The texture change of this was a wonderful bonus. I'm glad I decided to make this up entirely from stash and I look forward to figuring out more outfits to wear this with in the future.

Summary:

Yarn: 3 skeins of Dream in Color Classy in the Spring Tickle colorway - Free

Pattern: Belladona by Andi Satterlund

Notions: 1 yard petersham ribbon - $6.50, 7 buttons - $3.00

Time: 2.5 months

Total Cost: $ 9.50

WIP Wednesday: Blocking, Decisions, and New Projects

Friends, I have finished the Mohn Cardigan! I managed to finish this in less than a month, which is still pretty shocking to me. I got it completely knit and seamed Sunday night and it is currently blocking. Now I just have to make my ribbon button bands and she is totally done. I finished the knitting on Saturday night, which left me with only a sock project to knit and I just didn't feel like it - so I cast on a toy!

Between Sunday and last night, I knit up this adorable bee project. Every time I look at this pattern, I smile, so I just bit the bullet and knit it up. Now I smile when I see it in person too, lol. This project definitely served its purpose of cheering me up in a hard time. I'll post all the details about it soon, but I definitely love this one :)

After my deliberations in the last post about all the projects I want to cast on, I have finally decided to go with my original plan for my Rose Street Cardigan. It's really a toss up between the two yarns I was contemplating (Knit Picks Stroll in Duchess Heather or Knit Picks Felici in Dragonfruit). I tried looking through my collection of sweaters that still fit me to see where I had a gap, but that didn't help. In the end I really go for more cool toned clothes, so I decided to go with the purple for that reason. The Dragonfruit color would go as well, but I just need to start this project, lol. Purple it is! I still need to knit a new swatch last night and get the calculations going, so this will be my main sweater project now.

With finishing my bee, I also grabbed my Jaywalker socks I cast on in December of 2022. I'm just mentally determined to get these done so they can stop plaguing me. I'm honestly not sure what it is about this project that has me never reaching for it. Is it that I've knit this pattern before? But I've knit the same vanilla sock pattern several times and that has never been a problem before. Is it that I'm not thrilled by the yarn? I just really can't say. Either way, I want this project to be done, so I think this is going to be my main focus for a short while. That's the thing with socks - when you actually hunker down and focus on getting them done, they really do go fast. I'm also knitting this with a heel flap and gusset as the pattern is written - last time I changed for an after-thought heel to avoid disrupting the striping pattern. Since then I've discovered that I really prefer the feel of a heel flap and gusset when wearing the socks, so this time I'm just letting the chips fall where they may on the striping. I'm thinking it will work out fine in this sock because the speckled sections are so wide.

My New England dress is still hanging out on my dress form thinking about what it's done. I need to finish that one too so I can move on with my life, lol. But knitting is going very well!

How are things with you this first month of the new year? Getting anything made up?

FO: Chuck Sweater

This project started due to a very unfortunate oversight - I forgot my knitting bag at work on a Saturday and I had no project to work on the following day. Not only did my knitting bag have my project at the time (the sleeve of the Susan Shaw Cardigan) and the instructions for the other sweater I was working on (the Belladonna Cardigan), it also contained my notions bag which has the jump drives I use to hold my entire knitting pattern collection that isn't printed out yet. So I was at a standstill with all projects I was actively working on and I couldn't even pull up the file and see the pattern info. This meant that I needed a project pronto and it had to be one that I already had printed out. I had printed out the Chuck pattern and earmarked it to use this yarn a week before, but I went with the Belladonna instead. Lucky me! I grabbed the stuff and started working on yet another sweater.

This is only my 2nd ever pullover style sweater I've made. Living in Florida, I don't tend to need that level of warmth all day very often, so I've just stuck to cardigans that I can take on and off as needed. I've always liked the design of the Chuck sweater by Andi Satterlund though, and I was just in the mood and decided to go for it. 

This yarn has been in my stash since May of 2014! Almost 10 years! I ordered it as a contender for the Myrna Cardigan when that pattern was released and Andi was running a knit along. I ordered this color thinking it would be a bright, grass green color. When it arrived, I was immediately disappointed. The green has much more of a yellow tone to it than I was thinking based off the color on my screen. I went with an undyed yarn for my Myrna (which I also ordered with this yarn and also don't like, lol) and this yarn just sat in my stash all this time because not only was I mad at the color - I also only ordered 3 skeins. At the time I was just going by the recommended yarn requirements for the Myrna, which are admittedly low because that sweater is cropped and short sleeved - but this means I didn't really have enough to do a lot of the styles that I would have liked to use this color for. In the end, I went with this pattern because I know Andi's patterns are good for squeaking out a sweater on limited yardage. 

The sweater itself was very quick to make, even with a few hiccups and alterations as well as finishing a fingering weight sweater at the same time. I made the whole yoke area that Saturday and Sunday only to realize that my shoulders were twisted. I knew it felt weird to knit, but I just kept knitting and told myself it's the way it was laying on my needles. Nope! I had to unpick the picked-up stitches at the shoulder, twist them the right way, and then graft them back on. This is completely invisible from the outside and looks great inside too, so I was pleased it was a fairly easy fix. From there I just knit and knit until joining at the underarms and got about 3 inches down the body before I realized another mistake. Andi's patterns always come out very wide on my shoulders, so I decided to try out knitting a smaller yoke size and then increase to my usual Medium at the bust. I started knitting what I thought was a Small at the shoulders, but I forgot to double check how many numbers over from the first I should be knitting for that size. Turns out I was knitting an XS the whole time and the increased to a S. I tried it on at that point just to see if it could be fudged, but the underarm stitches were visibly stretched out and I knew it would bug me. SO I ripped back. Then I noticed a mistake in the cables I had known about and just decided I didn't care and it was just a few rows above where I had pulled back to, so I pulled that out as well. In the end, I went back to above the bust itself and sacrificed about 5 or so inches, lol. Good thing I enjoyed knitting this pattern.

This is a very potato-chip style knit because the cable pattern has you just wanting to knit one more row. I really enjoy knitting cables and I seem to forget that after each project, so I really enjoyed the actual knitting of this - way more than the Belladonna cardigan with multiple lace charts to keep track of. This pattern because pretty mindless pretty quickly and it was just what I needed. When I knitted 2 repeats of the center cable as the pattern is written, I knew it looked very short so I tried it on. I accounted for the extra 16 rows of ribbing at the bottom, but it was still comically too short. I have a long torso both above and below my bust, so I'm used to lengthening Andi's patterns a bit. This was made it more of a design choice though. You have to do an additional 30 rows for that cable design and I still liked the cropped look. I didn't want this to go lower than my natural waist. I knit the 3rd cable repeat and thankfully it worked out fine. I shortened the ribbing at the waist to 12 rows simply because I was at the end of my 2nd ball of yarn and wanted to get the sleeves as long as possible. The length of the body could be just a smidge longer if I'm honest, which made this a bit difficult to style. Now I just need to make a dress that it can go on top of :)

The sleeves were an absolute breeze. I'm not sure if it's just that I haven't knit any of Andi's patterns in a long time or if I really have gotten that much faster at knitting, but I was able to complete each sleeve in just 2 days - I night to make the sleeve cap, the next night to knit the rest. At this point I was working with the remainder of just 1 ball of yarn, so I weighed it and split it into 2 equal sized balls just to make sure they were identical in length. I was fully expecting them to be much shorter than the pattern calls for, but I was able to knit the full sleeve length just shortening the ribbing by 3 rows. Crazy, right? I got this entire sweater EVEN WITH EXTENDING THE WAIST out of just 3 skeins of yarn. I'm still pretty shocked about it. Something about knitting a size smaller for the shoulders must have compensated for the length I needed to extend body length because the pattern says it should take 680 yards for the full size Medium. I used 660 and had just scraps left. Kind of a knitting miracle, that.

All in all, I'm really happy with this project. The fit is great - even the shoulders and the length - so my alterations worked. I finished just a few days before December, so the green color lends itself to that festive vibe even though it can still be worn all year (unlike last year's Christmas sweater which is limited to just that season). This yarn is finally used and I had just exactly enough. Those are all such big wins that it almost doesn't matter if I even get to wear this much, lol, which in reality I may not. Even if I only wear it a few times, this was a very fun project to knit and I just love how it turned out.

Summary:

Yarn: 3 skeins of Cascade 220 in Palm - $18.13

Pattern: Chuck by Andi Satterlund

Time: 1 month

Total Cost: $ 18.13

WIP Wednesday: Back To What I Want

With my Christmas gift knitting finished and on its way to their recipients, I can finally focus back on my favorite makes: things for myself, lol. I've been plugging away at the Belladonna Cardigan this week in hopes of finishing it before the end of the year, which I think is pretty do-able, honestly. I stopped last night with just 1 more ribbing row and the bind off for the body, so next up is the neck and button bands before moving onto the sleeves and then int will be finished. I'm hoping the length turns out good - I'm kind of on the fence about where it stops, but I'm holding out hope for after it's blocked and has sleeves.

I really like the shaping on this sweater - instead of having shaping at the sides as usual, this one places them like front and back darts and they are hidden in the lace pattern. See how the plain sections angle down at the waist? That's the shaping. So cool. I'm very excited to see how this looks when it's all blocked out.

I'm also realizing I have a lack of neutral colored socks. I only ever wear socks in the winter and before now I had always only worn them with tall boots, so the socks were always covered. I just got some ankle boots and realized I need some socks that can be seen without being crazy colors. I have wound up a ball of a beautiful skein I won in a giveaway years ago - Morning Bright Organic Merino/Nylon Sock in the Moonlit colorway. I remember being a bit underwhelmed with it when I first won because it's a very neutral light gray color, but now that I need actual practical socks I'm glad I had it on hand. I want to use it to make a textured sock like the 2 Hunter Hammerson designs I have in the picture. Jury is still out on which design I choose, lol.

But being a person who does not like to have a bunch of WIPs at once, planning those socks made me feel guilty about not working on these socks from literally 1 week shy of a year ago. I started these at a Solar Bears hockey game because I needed a small enough project to get into the arena, but shortly after that I got very into my sweater projects and stopped making these. These are Jaywalker Socks, which I've made before, and this is Premier Fruits yarn in the Dragonfruit colorway. Isn't it so fun? This yarn and pattern combo gives me very "Dragonfruit Goes To College" vibes. Part of why I haven't worked on these is that needle. I got experimental earlier in the year and decided to try knitting socks on a shortie circular needle. Guys... I absolutely hate this needle, lol. I need to pull out my trusty carbon fiber double pointed needles and just blast through this project. I'm trying to decide if I need to make myself finish these before starting the gray pair...

So that's what's going on with me this week. I'm doing all the Christmas things with my kids and working a lot but I always make at least some time for my hobbies to keep me sane. How are things going for your holiday this year? 

FO: Susan Shaw Cardigan

Friends, the saga is complete! I have officially made my very first actual vintage sweater. This pattern is from a 1943 Bestway pamphlet and was modeled by actress Susan Shaw, thus why I've called my sweater that. I started this project back in March, but I had purchased the yarn last September when I was inspired by Retro Claude's version on YouTube. I still cannot find which video shows her actually making this one (and I've honestly tried pretty hard, so maybe it was taken down?). Either way, I made note of the pattern when I saw hers, found someone selling the digital file on Etsy, and even purchased yarn with this in mind during a great Knit Picks sale (I still wish I had bought more because it's never been that cheap since). So when I had other projects and obligations taken care of back in March, I cast this on.

Here's how the sweater looks open, which is realistically how it will be worn most of the time. The yarn being on sale is actually what sparked this sweater going from "I'd like to make that" to an actual possibility. Knit Picks had a random fantastic sale on my favorite yarn - this is Stroll, which is a 75% merino superwash/ 25% nylon blend. It's intended for socks, which I've made a few times in this yarn, but it's just so soft and wonderful. It's honestly my favorite Knit Picks yarn to work with and wear. They had this yarn in certain colorways for just $2.50 per ball last September, which I've never seen before or since. I grabbed 6 balls of the Hollyberry colorway specifically intending it for this sweater. This was a total guess going by other fingering weight sweaters I've made. I was making an order this summer and decided to order 1 more skein because I was nervous about finishing the sweater in my size, and this turned out to be almost exactly enough - I literally have just scrap pieces left and I didn't have to skimp too bad on the sleeves. If I had only 6 skeins, I don't think I would have even been able to make 3/4 sleeves, so this extra skein was a wise decision. Being a stash knitter, sizing up vintage sweaters adds that yarn constraint challenge to the mix.

This became a saga because of how the pattern is written and then how my body changed while I was making it. First off - I was a 45" bust in March when I started this. The pattern doesn't mention the size it is written for anywhere and you have to do the math yourself to find out, but Retro Claude had listed it as a 34-36" bust size. I did a gauge swatch and did the math to increase it to 45" at the bust and started knitting. This is knit from the bottom up, so you start with 40 rows of ribbing (ugh) but after that it was just knitting the back piece without any issues. I moved on to the front pieces, which were fine, and it wasn't until I was literally seaming the body and trying it on as a vest that I realized it was too big. I lost weight this year and am now a 40" bust, but that thought never crossed my mind until I tried this on. I had also made the shoulders too wide and the armscye was pulling weirdly. I detailed all the issues and showed photos in this post at the end of August. In the end I decided to pull the fronts back to the ribbing and knit them again, but I left the back exactly as it was and it worked out just fine. This is the one advantage I can see about a seamed sweater - you can make alterations on the fly when you sew it up. So this is technically too wide in the back, but now one will really know that but me.

Originally I had like 3 extra columns of the design at the top, which made the shoulders way too wide. At first I toyed with just folding them under and making it a seam allowance, but the other issues with fit were just too much and it really needed to be re-knit. It's still a bi wide at the shoulder, but that is now caused by the wider back and the armscye shape instead of too much fabric at the shoulder. It's not bad now, though, so I'm fine with it. I just try to make sure I pull the shoulder area up when I put it on in hopes of it sitting better when I wear it.

I knit the neckband before I knit the sleeves because I was working with a certain amount of yarn and the sleeves are the area I can alter as I go. The neck band is knit in a long strip as a separate piece, which I've never done before. I was inclined to pick up stitches all around like I usually do, but I liked the smooth look in the pattern photo so I decided to just go true to the vintage and knit it as written. I had to do a bit of math to get it extended for my extra length and then I misread the instructions for attaching. You're supposed to sew it on and pull a bit at the back of the neck so it keeps things snug there. I thought it said to tug a bit all over, which is why mine pulls up a bit at the center front compared to the rest of the sweater. It's not bad enough to make me want to re-knit that band, lol. It would also mean taking off the backing and everything. Yeah, it's fine. Not doing that. I also love the faux-cable-ish design - I say they look like cartoon red blood cells.

Speaking of backing, I did my usual finish of adding rayon Petersham ribbon inside the back. I machine stitch buttonholes on the back of the receiving end to line up with the holes I knit, then hand sew the ribbon in place. I then hand stitch a corresponding ribbon on the button side and then sew the buttons on. This makes the whole thing SO much sturdier. I always say I don't like t look like I'm Hulk-ing out of my sweaters, and since I like a fitted look, this is prone to happen. Adding the ribbon makes it smooth and sturdy and it is absolutely worth the time. I'm thinking of doing a tutorial on this if anyone is interested. My buttons are from my stash and I liked that they kind of looked like balls of yarn. They are a bit more textured than I would usually like for a sweater, but so far everything is fine.

The sleeves were another experience. These were knitted top down (thank heaven) and it was complete guess work in making them the right size at the sleeve cap. I honestly didn't really know what width of sleeve would be comfortable and I never thought to just measure one I liked (duh). So I knit about to my elbow a few times on the first sleeve and ripped it out once I wrapped it around my arm and saw how loose it was. This was entirely preference for the look I wanted and it wouldn't have been the end of the world had the sleeves been looser. I really do like the fit I finally achieved though. I just measures the width of my Honeybee sleeves and after that it was smooth sailing.

I originally planned this to be 3/4 sleeve since that is my favorite length, but when I was knitting the first sleeve I decided to make them long sleeves since I don't have a single hand knit fingering weight sweater and I knew it would be useful to have at least one. I had to fudge the length a smidge in the end because of how much yarn I had left and they turned out just a little shorter than would be ideal, but still long sleeved and fine. That's the problem with sizing up a vintage sweater - you don't know how much yarn you will need. At least now I have a reference with how much yarn this took (about 1600 yards) and I can file that away for future vintage sweaters.

All in all, I'm happy with this sweater. It is very cozy and soft, the size is comfy (if a little more fiddly at the shoulders), but overall for this being my first time sizing up a vintage pattern myself, I'm pleased with the result. I may have technically knit the whole thing 1.5 times, but I have a very wearable sweater for my efforts and it's done just in time for the cooler season. I learned a lot in making this, and while vintage patterns are still not "easy", I at least have a better idea of what I need to pay attention to when knitting one. Now I need to sew more bottoms to wear with this!

Summary:

Yarn: 7 skeins Knit Picks Stroll in Hollyberry - $22.21

Pattern: Susan Shaw Cardigan from 1943 Bestway Magazine - $2.56

Notions: rayon petersham ribbon - $6.50, 6 buttons - $ 2.50

Time: 8 Months

Total Cost: $33.77

*My Knit Picks links are affiliate links and I receive a small commission if you make a purchase, but all yarn for my project was purchased with my own money and all opinions are 100% my own.