Started planning for this sweater July 2007 - didn’t cast on until Sept. 2008.

Mom was immediately drawn to this yarn (Elann Endless Summer Luna in Shimmering Cerise) when I bought a few samples of pink yarn to make her a cardigan. This one is cotton & viscose and sort of sparkly - one ply (presumably the viscose one) is shiny, against a paler background of the cotton strands. My plan is a top-down raglan cardigan with 3/4 length sleeves. Right now I’m just swatching. On the left of the current swatch is a star stitch pattern (August 28 in the 365 Knitting Stitches calendar) that I might use on the cuffs/neck/button band. I’ll try out some other stitches too - maybe some lace with beads even, if I can find beads Mom likes that will fit on this DK weight yarn - but Mom and I both really liked this stitch pattern when we saw it in the calendar. Not hard to work - just a 4 row repeat and two of those are plain knit across - but there are p3tog involved and with cotton yarn, less stretchy than wool, that was a little difficult.

Project Notes…

Swatched on US 4, 3, and 2 - 4 looks fine. Gauge of 24st:28rw in stockinette.

Design:
Mom likes a V-neck or scoop neck cardigan, neither too deep. Button band closure. Use star stitch border with beads at hem, cuffs (3/4 length sleeves), button band and neck.

Sept 1 2008: Now that I’m done with my simple knitted bodice I’m going to give this design a try! I measured Mom for it today and we talked about the design options.

• Top down raglan
• V neck
• Cardigan
• Star stitch pattern with beading will go on the cuffs and hem, also the whole yoke down to the point where the sleeve stitches go on holders. This decision both gives Mom more beads (I may have to go buy some more though…) and simplifies the problem that was baffling me, whether I needed to do the star stitch for the neck trim at cast-on or add it later by picking up neckline stitches. So I guess I just do it at cast-on and all the way to the armholes.
• 3/4 length sleeves, maybe with slit cuff
• Might just do three buttons over the bust instead of a full button band…Or even a hook & eye or frog. Mom will mostly wear the cardi open anyway.

9/4/08: Oh, is this yarn ever splitty. Especially when working a P3tog to make the star stitches. But it looks pretty with the beads!

9/20/09: A year later, I’m almost done! The key to the splitty: ADDI TURBO LACE. No problem now, except an occasional frizzy bit of yarn. This is the most comfortable cotton blend I’ve yet tried, once you get past the splitting. All I have left to do is to sew down the hem and crochet edgings…

9/26/09: All done! (except for buttons or some sort of fastenings…hook and eye maybe; will take care of that after it’s done blocking) Turned out great, although crocheting the edgings in that splitty yarn about killed me. It’s like crocheting a lock of your own hair. Also, the yarn lost a lot of pink dye when I gave the sweater a bath…not a garment to wash with other colors, I guess!