Audrey's Cardigan, Interweave Knits Spring 2010

When this issue of Interweave Knits showed up in my inbox I knew that I had to knit this pattern. It's gorgeous, unique, and sweet. It also required enough yarn that I knew I'd have to wait until I had the money to order it. As much as I love pink - and you all know that I love pink - I'd knit three projects in a row that were pink so I decided to knit this in a gorgeous teal color. When the yarn arrived from Knit Picks I literally exclaimed "Oooooh!" when pulling it out of the box. I might have sat and petted it for a while, too *g*

The cardgian is knit from the ribbon band up. While I found the construction technique interesting (knitting both sides of the band and then folding it together) I ended up with weird gaps on one side in the first row. Luckily, I could just make this the wrong side.

One thing that I didn't like about this pattern was that the swiss dot pattern and the shaping (increases/decreases) happened on the same row. God, I hate it when designers do that. Then I have to keep track of two things at once. And it wasn't easy to see where the last swiss dots happened in the shrug - they offset each other - even when I held it up to the light. So I ended up knitting an extra row in order to shift the swiss dots to a non-shaping row. Shhh! Don't tell! *g* It worked, the extra row wasn't visible in the shrug, and I didn't have to keep track of two things at once.

While the yarn was silky soft to the touch it was hard to frog, if needed. The yarn really sticks to its shape and the loops are hard to tug out without breaking it. Be aware, too, that if you drop a stitch it may not be immediately visible because the yarn does *not* unravel.

I find that with Interweave's patterns I end up in one of two boats by the time I finish the project. I either have two skeins of yarn leftover or I'm praying I'll have enough to finish the bind off. In this case I had a full skein and a half left. So if you're considering casting this one on but don't quite have enough yarn I'd say you're probably safe.

- D