Puff-sleeved Feminine Cardigan – done!
Knitting, knitting, I have actual FO pictures!
This one should have got done a long time ago. In fact, I completed its first iteration before I went to Portugal, and had every intention of photographing its puffed sleeves against a cathedral or red-roofed background. Alas, that version turned out way too baggy. So I took a deep breath, remembered my new year resolution to embrace the frogging, ripped it out back to the armholes and reknit it to more fitting dimensions:
People say that top-down raglans are easy to wear and check for fit as you go along, but I find that very difficult to do somehow, even with stitches slipped to a string. I certainly thought I was going for the right amount of ease the first time round, but when I bound off the sleeves and wore the finished sweater, I realised I shouldn’t have budgeted for 3 extra inches. The second one has zero ease, and surprisingly, I am much happier with the fit:
Please forgive the slightly blurry picture. For some reason hardly any of the zillion self-timered pictures I took came out crystal clear. But you can tell I am happy with the sweater, can’t you? Admittedly, my patience had waned after a while, and my face took on that long-suffering look all teachers reading this will readily recognize below, but it is a marginally more focused picture:
Okay, Specs:
Pattern: “Puff-sleeved Feminine Cardigan” from Stephanie Japel’s Fitted Knits.
Size: 38″
Yarn: Cascade 220, 3.75 skeins approx in a green heather, # 9459
I love the little waist darts in the pattern, which really allow the fabric to mould itself to the body. The other pattern I have made from this book is the Back-to-School Vest, and both have taught me to trust the “give” and ease of knitted fabric a bit more than I have done in the past, and the benefits of subtle shaping for a more flattering fit overall. The raglan sleeves and neck shaping on this cardigan are also very simple, and I enjoyed making the whole sweater. Even though the pattern has a lot of shaping, it’s easy to modify to your shape. I like Japel’s designs, and am queuing the Simple V-neck pullover from the same book.
Modifications:
1) I changed the lace peplum. The original one called for a lot of increased stitches, and I didn’t like that flare at the bottom, so I only increased enough to get the stitch count back to what it was at the chest. Also, my first version had a plain peplum with YOs for the increases, but the second time round I added YO, SSK, K2tog, YO lines uniformly across the peplum, interspersed with the single YO increases. I like the simpler gradient and lace lines.
2) I added twenty rows of stockinette at the waist to make the sweater longer by 4 inches or so. The first version was a little short and I kept pulling at it.
3) Since I had fewer stitches at the sleeves the second time, I did only two rounds of SSK decreases.
4) I knit the 7-stitch seed-stitch buttonhole panels along with the main pattern, rather than adding it later. I also made slightly bigger buttonholes since I had hoped to find large buttons for this one, but I ended up finding gorgeous, small Celtic buttons at the Blackwater Abbey stall at Stitches West, and hope my buttonholes don’t stretch too much!
All in all, I’m very happy with this one, and wore it all over the place today, even to Stash, where I impulsively went and bought something for a project (will show you next time!) and Rebekah took a picture for me against the Manos. Thankfully, the sweater is just the right mix of puff-sleeved and feminine for me to feel comfy in it.
That came out SOOO good! Nice job doing all that re-working–that’s always the worst. It really looks so beautiful and sophisticated.
I love it! I think you have the perfect balance of rustic/brownness and girly/cuteness on this. It looks awesome! Way to go on the re-knitting, that is so hard to do!
I’m going to have to revisit this pattern after seeing how lovely it turned out.
Well done on the puffy-sleeved cardigan! I have long admired the brown ones. I made a blue one that I’ve worn a great deal more than I ever would have expected — it’s a very versatile and comfortable design, I’ve found. Hope you enjoy yours just as much!
woo hoo. Good for you for embracing the frogging because it resulted in a super nice FO. Congrats
Everything has come together so well – the collar, cute buttons, sleeves, the peplum, and most important, the fit. Kudos! Looks like you have you lost weight lately. (I was about to say the sweater looks very slimming and realized what a faux pas it could be).
great work–and i love the buttons.. i’ve them several times..
Last year, for a jacket my daughter needed mended, (all new buttons) and for a shawl pin, too.
This is really nice. I’m going to take a second look at it. I like yours much better than the one in the book.
totally cute! I have that book on my list at the library, because I’ve decided to try things out there before buying, but that’s cute enough I might not need to be so cautious!
Great sweater! I really admire the way you can knit something that actually fits you, suits you and you finish it too!
One question, though. How useful is a short-sleeved sweater?
Wow, this is just a fantastic, timeless sweater. It looks *great* on you, and I adore the changes you made to the peplum.
Great job, and it’s great to see you look so happy in it!
Good for you – the frogging is painful sometimes, but when the results are this good, it’s completely worthwhile!! I really like your modifications to the peplum and the fit overall is perfect. What a terrific FO – Congrats!
Oh that turned out lovely! I like all the little details and esp the neckline.
Absolutely brilliant!
very very nice,
you will get lots of wear out of that one. I can tell
Stella
It looks great on you – way to be persistent!
that came out great! the new version fits you perfectly!
What a cute sweater! I really like your modifications to the pattern.
You’ve inspired me to put this design higher up on the queue! Your sizing choices were spot on and adding length was a great choice. Well done!
Great cardi, I love it ;o)
Very cool. Very cool cardigan. Very cool cardigan — fitted and earthy at the same time. How’d you do that!? Definately very cool cardigan.
This looks wonderful on you! I think that it’s an ongoing process to figure out how to really work with your shape and make things fit. Hopefully, this success will lead to another!
This looks just lovely on you–especially with that orange top! I’ve been on the fence with this pattern, but I think you’ve convinced me to give it a try.
lovely! I especially like what you did with the less-floofy peplum — better than the original.
Good job !!! I love the look of your version. You seem to use Cascade 220 a lot !!! I love the yarn too. Although, I have so much yarn in my stash already I dont think I will buy more till that is cleared up
Have Fun !!!