This is a quick project that I finished last weekend. In the middle of finishing so many big projects, I needed the encouragement of something that could be knit in a hurry.

The pattern is called Cordial from Rowan magazine, and it’s knit in Rowan Big Wool. Here’s mine:

I did make one modification to the pattern. You knit the cardi from the front bottom, over the shoulders to the back hem. The only seaming is the underarm seams. As it’s written, the cable runs over the shoulder and down the back, and as it’s written, the back doesn’t mirror the front. In my side, the cable would have ended in the middle of a diamond at the back hem. I knew this would bug me. Also those two little V’s between the diamonds would be upside down on the back. This would also annoy me.

So, I reworked the chart to keep knitting over the shoulder but to have the V’s end up right side up on the back. I also knit to the end of a full diamond at the shoulder, then switched to my upside down chart. The back of my Cordial looks just like the front, and that makes me happy.

It was maybe a little on the loose side when it was done, but not enough to be worth frogging and reknitting. When I washed it to block it, though, it grew and grew and grew. Yikes! I think this might be a merino thing – its springiness uncoils when wet – but it freaked me out a bit. I wrapped it in a towel and pressed out as much moisture as possible, laid it flat and worried about it for a few hours – then I put it in the dryer. I only left it for a couple of minutes at a time and checked it obsessively. It is a little bit felted, which I like, and fits perfectly now.

Ha. I really like it. And now back to finishing those UFO’s…