I made this same sweater - the Moon Shadows Cardigan with the TARDIS motif from Kate Atherley’s shawl in place of the lace pattern around the wrists and waistband - in TARDIS blue sparkly yarn nearly 3 years ago, and I enjoyed the pattern - and the sweater! - so much that I have been wanting to do another in black sparkly yarn ever since, with a few new touches added.

Well, I’ve FINALLY found the time to get started on it! I remember the first sweater knitting up quite quickly, so we’ll see how quickly this one gets done. I’d forgotten how fun and satisfying this sweater is to knit - after just 3 days, I’m already nearly done with the yoke! (Which, if memory serves, is nearly to the armpits, from the neckline down.)

I made the sleeves full length instead of 3/4 length, and the body longer, just like the first time, both simply by adding extra rows. Again, I used the Doctor Who TARDIS motif, borrowed from Kate Atherley, on the sleeves and waist trim instead of the lace pattern. This time, I used sparkly beads instead of bobbles for the top lanterns. The TARDIS pattern is a bit hard to make out because the yarn is so dark, but I know it’s there. And I can point it out to others. Actually, I lengthened the TARDIS pattern a bit this time - my chart waa 44 rows - so I had to started the pattern only 4” below the armpit join, and the sweater is still plenty long. I had a set of silver star buttons picked out, but in the end I decided that they might detract from the TARDIS pattern and make the sweater look a bit too kitschy, so I left them off. Again, I switched to size 8 needles for the TARDIS pattern and the ribbing on both waistband and sleeves; this helped keep the sweater slim and not too boxy or bulky. I used the larger (size 10) needle for the neck ribbing, though - the 8 made the ribbing far too small.

I’m not quite as pleased with this sweater as I was with the first one, but it is very warm, and I hope it will grow on me as time wears on. Then again, it wpuld be hard for me to love another sweater as much as I love my TARDIS Blue Cardigan! I may even make myself a second blue one down the road, I love it so much! I will almost certainly use this great basic sweater pattern to make another sweater again, at any ratet - I’m thinking white next time. Or maybe green; I need a green cardigan, maybe with leaf lace trim. It’s such an easy pattern, and fits so well with no seaming needed!!

PROGRESS NOTES

Started 11/15.

11/24: Finished yoke and starting on body. Have not have as much time for knitting over Thanksgiving as hoped. I found that after the initial 44 rows of the yoke and raglan increases, I had already reached the required length of 8.5”, and was able to go straight into the underarms and body, after an extra 2 rows just to be safe.. I believe I remember this happening similarly on the first sweater.

The oldest 2 progress photos are of the yoke, with 2 rows completed after the arm/body split and underarm cast-on (just over 1 skein used). Not much to look at yet, but I wanted to get SOME photos up. Look at how the silver strand in the yarn glistens, like stars in space! ⭐⭐

1/13/18: Work on this project has been slow over the holidays. I kept running into various problems with the first sleeve that required much frogging and re-knitting, first because I wasn’t happy with the way the armhole decreases looked - the ones nearest the underarm just don’t lay flat quite right; I don’t remember this happening on yhi first sweater (although that doesn’t mean it didn’t). The sleeve at 40 sts on Size 10s was just slightly more tight-fitting than a cardigan should be (even though my gauge swatch was right on). I ended up spacing out the arm decreases a bit more, and stopping them at 42 sts rather than 40 (size small). If I do this sweater again - and I very well might, I love it so much - I’ll use 10.5s next time, as I did on the blue one. Second, I used dpns on the TARDIS pattern and ribbing on the sleeves, and I got some minor laddering, despite my best efforts. I am now re-doing the wrist ribbing using the magic loop in-the-round method instead (36” needle). We’ll see how that works, as this is my first time trying magic loop; I should finish the first arm today.

1/27/18: Finally finished sleeves. I made the first one too short and had to go back and extend it, and had some tension issues with the upper sleeves, and with the dpns used on the TARDIS portion of sleeve 1. Now that I’ve mastered the magic loop for knitting in the round, I may never use dpns again! Magic loop is so much easier! :)

Just need to do a bit of finishing, then I can get final photos up. (8/2018)