K'done: Alice cardigan

Am I caught up yet?



Pattern: Alice, by Ela Torrente
Yarn: monika design Cashmerino Soft, in Laurel Leaf
Needles: 4.5 mm / US 7



Oh man. According to my Rav notes, I actually bound this sucker off in August 2016. I had started it in March - March 2, to be precise - as a sort of consolation prize to myself, as I had learned that I had not been shortlisted for a new job that I wanted. This little open-front cardi had been in my queue for a while, and it looked like a pretty good choice for a self-soothing knit, so I wound up some yarn and was off to the races.

It knit up fairly quickly too, I think - apparently I had roughly 75% of it done by early April. Most likely I knit the body, and then progress dropped off as I dithered about how long to go with the sleeves, and then it sat in sleeve purgatory for a little while. The sleeves were finally done by mid-May, and then it sat in waiting-for-final-bindoff purgatory until August. Once that was done, it sat in waiting-for-blocking purgatory until a couple of months ago - it seemed silly to get a short-sleeved sweater ready in the dead of winter.



As you can see, in the end I knit the sleeves a few inches longer than the pattern specifies, because I wanted to use up more of my available yarn. Initially I had wanted to exhaust all that I had, but I lost interest in that somewhere along the way - probably about an inch or two before starting the ribbing on the first sleeve. I also omitted the buttons - admittedly, it would probably look a bit more elegant on me if I put some sort of closure at the collar, but I am me, and closures are hard for me to get organized for, so sweaters become wearable much more quickly if I just ignore closures altogether.

I quite like the flower detail at the yoke, but am less enthused about the flower panel near the hem - just a personal taste thing. I considered leaving it out, and thought about it until I realized I was nearly finished it, at which point I thought it might grow on me, so I should leave it. The shaping also gives my sweater a bit of a bustle effect - it doesn't actually pooch out over my posterior, but the flow of the fabric tricks the eye into seeing an enhanced booty, flatteringly so on someone like me with a somewhat deficient booty to begin with. (No booty picture because though I tried to take one, I wasn't thrilled with the result, and am therefore exercising my right to not commit it to the Internet.) My slipped stitch edging came out different on the two different fronts, somehow - one side is tighter than the other, and so that front off-the-needles was a tad shorter. I was able to block the difference out, but I'm unsure as to where the discrepancy came from in the first place.

This yarn has apparently been discontinued, which is sort of too bad, because it's quite nice to work with, but it does pill pretty easily, so maybe that's not such a terrible thing? Today was my first wearing of the sweater, I wore it to work, and it's got a few pills from where my handbag rubbed against it as I walked. Then again, I used this yarn in my Caramel cardigan too, and while it also pilled in certain spots on that sweater, generally it's holding up well, and it sees fairly frequent use in the fall/winter/spring months. I still have one more batch of this Cashmerino Soft - somewhere, there's a DK-weight sweater pattern that wants to be paired with this yarn. Like destiny.

I'll find you. In my dreams.

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