BlueSand Stone Washed Cardigan (WIP)

This is what I’ve been working on using my recent yarn delivery, a BlueSand Cardigan! You can find the details on the yarn and pattern at the end of this post, but here is what the cardigan looks like finished:

It’s a project that I have had saved for about a year and have been waiting to have the time to work on it.  I saw some examples in different variations of light and dark grey, mustard yellow, greens and black and I really liked them all.  When I put these colors together in this yarn I knew I had a winner. I was really eager to cast it on and see what it was going to look like. Then, of course, knitted like mad trying to get to the color changes, because you don’t really know if it works until you see it start to come together.  Looks like it’s working out quite well!  I’m loving it so much!

Oh, by the way, please excuse the lines in the cardigan.  I’m obsessive when it comes to lifelines!  You would think that with all of the projects I’ve started and torn apart due to mistakes, I’d learn to just put them in every 10 or 20 rows as a habit, but nope!  Apparently I must learn the hard way.

There are two different yokes that you can knit for this pattern.  You can do a raglan construction or a combination yoke which uses a number of different methods together for a different effect.  Being me, I decided to go for the combination yoke to challenge myself, and I definitely succeeded. Succeeded in challenging myself, I mean… again, and again, and again… and well, you get the idea.

First, let me say that it was no fault of the pattern or designer that lead to me ripping this out three times before getting it right.  The pattern is quite clear, well written and includes charts as well as written instructions to make sure everyone is able to follow.  The stitches aren’t difficult either and really only include knit, purl, M1L and M1R, all of which you likely already know or can easily find tutorials for online (you’re welcome!).

Where I ran into trouble was keeping it all straight. There is a lot of “at the same time” and when I followed the written instructions there were a number of combinations using the M1R and M1L in different places, depending on what row you were on or where you were in the row (neck shaping, shoulder shaping, etc).  I went a little wobbly eyed and I think what happened was that I looked at the wrong row at times and did them in the wrong place, or the wrong order, so when I got to the point to separate the sleeves, my count was way off.

Each time I had a choice to either continue trying to get the hang of the combination yoke or try the raglan construction in hopes that I could get it done quicker.  There was no choice really.  I’m stubborn and there is no way I could let it go without showing that yoke who’s boss, so each time I just tore it out and started again with another plan of attack.

How did I straighten myself out in the end?  Well, lifelines, highlighting, marking stitches, keeping counts and making sure that every time I looked at the page I followed the right line.

As much as I’d love to be all “Oh this was such a breeze! I could do this with my eyes closed!” and have everyone look at me with mouths hanging open in awe of my mad knitting skills… this is the reality!  I can knit many things and I’m pretty sure I can suss out any pattern, but that’s only after making them Tammy friendly.  I think many crafters have this, the need to take a pattern and scribble or rewrite it into their own knitting language.  They do, right?  Of course they do, it can’t just be me.

In the end I did a little victory dance when I got to the section where I separate the sleeves and start working on the body.  This was a glorious moment because it meant I’d managed to do the yoke but also because it meant I could finally get the grey color in there as well. It was just as wonderful as I’d imagined… but, now was the big question.

WOULD IT FIT?!!

Whew, yes… seems so.  I made the photo black and white because I was wearing an obnoxious pink shirt and it did nothing for the cardigan… but you can see that at this point it is going just the way I planned.  It almost meets across the front of my chest, which means it should be good once the trim along the neckline is added.  My only concern going forward is the same with any garment when it comes to this ridiculous bod of mine… getting it to fit around my behind.  The instructions say that if you fall in between sizes (which I do) to go for the smaller size as it has a lot of give, but with me being so pear shaped, I worried that it wouldn’t be enough for my bum.  In the end I decided having it come out too big would be far less frustrating and depressing than having it too small, so I went for the larger size instead.

It’s a lot of knitting, a few hundred stitches for each row and currently growing as I’m currently in the middle of the body increases… but I figure by the time I am back with another update I should have a better idea of how it’s going to work out with the whole butt / hips situation.  Stay tuned!

Interested in making one for yourself? Here are the details for the pattern and yarn:

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