Blogged here, along with how I learned to knit!

August 12, 2015: Some notes on changes I made.

COLLAR: I didn’t want the reverse stockinette portion near the bust, that looked awkward. I followed the instructions for knitting, but just sewed the whole thing doubled down (instead of leaving the bust section unsewed). It’s ok, but the use of the larger needle makes quite a floppy collar. I suggest you try a smaller needle and pick up more stitches, recalculating the short rows as required. The back seam also shows, even though grafted, because the yarn is pooling so… um, beautifully?

SLEEVES: The sleeves are GIGANTIC as written. Way too roomy (study the original picture at her elbow). I frogged the whole sleeve and did a top-down, in-the-round, picked up sleeve as detailed in this blog post. I actually kept the cuffs to graft on, becuase I really didn’t want to re-knit them!

The Bernat yarn is trash, but I must say, I loved making this cardi, it’s a very fun piece.

April 2, 2015: Body sewn together and I am REALLY liking the shape!

Also -- I swear to you that I did not try to match the fronts, but by some miracle the pooling is very similar. I AM THRILLED, because sometimes I think I just can’t take the asymmetry of pooling. Evidence of that here.

It’s not trivial doing mattress stitch in stranding, but it will definitely give you the best seam in the back. Just try to grab threads that are strongly moored with full two color stranding. What I mean is that if you take a thread that only has one color showing in the stitch (meaning that the 2nd color wasn’t brought fully to the edge because it wasn’t used immediately in the next row), you risk having a really weak seam. If necessary, dig under and try to grab a loop of the color that is missing, so that you really do it right.

March 21, 2015: I just re-subscribed to the print version of VK. Of course, print versions get me all loopy -- the evening I opened it, I just had to cast-on ASAP. This meant stash. Then I got to thinking, well, if they’re using variegated, why don’t I use that ridiculous Bernat acrylic variegated I scored at Zellers for 75% off, just to see what happens?

I’ll tell you what happens: we’ve got a clown climbing Mount Everest!