Update - UGH - the button band was too long and I didn’t have the patience to reknit it. Goodwill bag!

I saw this pattern and HAD to knit it. I wanted the exact same yarn kit, which has such a subtle beautiful fade, but none to be found. Instead of waiting for the many dyers who have put together something wonderful for this pattern, I jumped in and tried to pick my own colours. After much ripping and indecision, I am finally delighted with my end result.

Colour 1 - Jelly - will use more than the 265 yards indicated. 107 grams left from skein 2 (lots of bleeding from this yarn).
Colour 2 - Pinky Swear 13 grams left from skein 2 (bleeding from this yarn).
Colour 3 - Olann Cocktail (fingering held doubled) then held 1 strand together with 1 strand Farmhouse White (fingering), as I would have run out of yarn otherwise.
Colour 4 - Typewriter - 100 grams left from skein 2.

Mods:

• extra 2 inches of Color 1 and Color 2
• waist shaping - decreased 4 stitches every 7 rows 4 times. Knit 2 inches, then 4 increases.
• different fade idea - see below. Does not give that last stripe of the old colour.
• extra 2 inch of length (17)
• knit sleeve inside out (so all knit rounds). Make sure you have your yarn carried up in front (knit side, which is the WS).
• add buttons to front band- see notes below.

Notes:

1. Better Fade Idea - if you have a very contrasting yarn. Instead of 4 rows of the new colour, knit 2, then 1 (RS) row of the old colour (leave it at the end of the row), knit 2 more of the new colour, then knit 1 row (WS) of the old colour. This does not give you the dramatic stripe you can see in my picture.
2. Yoke Increases - if I knit this again I would make my yoke increases 1 stitch away from the “seam” stitch, instead of right against the seam. It would look better that way, in my opinion.
3. Front Bands - I would pick up slightly fewer stitches for the front bands. Ended up almost wavy, and definitely no JSSBO, as that made it really wavy. Ended up using a 4 mm needle to BO for the fronts, and a 5 MM needle around the fold-over collar section. The fronts point downward due to the longer garter. It is a cute look but makes it diffucult to add a low button.
4. Better Fade - part 2 - for both the garter cuffs and the garter front bands/collar, if you switch the yarn on the RS you get a whole ridge of the new colour. If you switch it on the WS (just do one more or one fewer RS row before changing) then the fade is more subtle. I did this for the front bands after noticing I preferred the wrong side of the cuffs over the right side.

More Notes

• knit M to sleeve split, then did another row 3 so 33 fronts, 58 sleeves and 98 back, plus the seam stitches. Cast on 8 at the underarm, to end up with 184 for the body, then increased 3 more stitches over 18 rows on each front near the armhole to end up with 192 - size L.
• Sleeve - pick up 10, decrease 2 at the gap row 1. 66 stitches. Decrease 2 every 12th row 2 times, then every 10th row. At 48 st, decrease 5th row, then row 3 start rib. Skip rows 9-12.
• Buttonholes - did 5 3-stitch one-row buttonholes, starting at the 6th stitch from the bottom. Because I had added length, this took me to below the armpit. Should have added them a few rows later to be closer to the edge. Oh well. Ended up adding one more at the top and closing up the bottom 4. Given the width of the front bands, a toggle and loop closure might work better, or snaps at the edge. I would never wear this open, and although I could button it all the way down, I like the look with the bottom open.

Cocktail 109 grams to start. 53 left when starting fade. 45 after fade and 30 farmhouse white to start sleeves. 28 left Cocktail after sleeve 1.

Notes on Yarn Choices:
I have been resisting all the “Fade” patterns, and speckled yarn in general, after my not-fabulous experience with my Laneway (not enough contrast). This cardigan came along and I wanted the exact one, turquoise to grey. No yarn was available, so I started hunting, for either that combo, or a pink to grey/black.

I found the Hedgehog Merino DK, which had many speckled options. I adore the Jelly and the Pinky Swear. I will use more Jelly, to use up more of the colourway, and to make the sweater longer, plus I have less of the Typewriter than is required. After knitting with the first 2, I realized the fade to the cream and black Typewriter would be rather abrupt, so I bought 1 skein of Teacup to ease the transition. It didn’t look good (too much yellow-ish) so I faded directly into the Typewriter. I don’t like this dramatic switch so much (many projects do it, and I really prefer the subtle fades) so I ripped out 6 inches and found a fingering weight yarn with pink and black and other speckles (Olann’s Sock Lite in Cocktail) to use doubled. As I only bought 1 skein, I used the yarn doubled for a couple of inches, then started using the Cocktail together with a light grey, before fading into the Typewriter.

Also, I had decided to use Madelinetosh Onyx (black with some lighter bits), but it is too harsh, so deciding between some other grays for after Typewriter. As it turns out, Typewriter takes me to the end of the hem, so no 5th colour.