And it’s finished! (Not blocked, but finished.)

This was a kit of the Quintessential Cardigan designed by Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. The yarn is Jody Long Alba in the colourway, Moss. I knit the body two inches longer than the pattern specifies. (There’s another blog post about it here.)

I quite like the sweater and it fits well. The colour is great and I love the tweedy flicks in the yarn. It was a bit tedious seaming it up, but that’s always the way – and yes, this yarn was almost as inclined to snap as Rowan Felted Tweed. One great thing is that the sleeves fit perfectly into the armscyes. Yay!

Here’s a detail shot of the front buttonhole band, which has slipped stitches on the wrong side.

The colour’s not very true in this pic – the wool really is that lovely lime shade. In this shot, though, you can see that my miscalculation, the one that made the last button before the collar band a little higher, isn’t really that bad once the buttons are sewn on.

I don’t love this slipped stitch on the band. It looks too different from all the other ribbing, although I understand that it’s intended to keep the button bands from being too long. Another way to avoid that is to pick up the stitches for the button band after the fronts are done and knit them sideways.

It took 3.4 balls of yarn or just under 1200 yards.

I do have another kit in Plum so will be making a second one, with a few changes.
• Since I lengthened the sweater, the waist ribbing falls at my hip, which isn’t ideal. I’ll change that to a garter stitch hem or a moss stitch hem instead and let it be a bit swingy.
• The cuffs are on the narrow side – it’s fine when they’re worn down, but I always push up my sleeves. I’ll make them a bit wider on the next one. I’ll work them in whatever stitch I decide to use instead of the waist ribbings, too. (I don’t love ribbing on my sweaters.)
• Because of that slipped rib stitch on the button bands (which is over 7 stitches), the buttons aren’t centered on the band. You make the buttonhole on stitches 5 and 6. This kinda drives me nuts. 🙂 When I work the button bands in another stitch – to match the hems – I’ll put the buttonholes in the middle of the band, over stitches 3, 4, 5, which will also make them a little bit bigger. It’s snug to get these buttons through the holes, but I don’t think smaller buttons would look good.

Overall, I’m pleased. It’s a very basic sweater, but the colour keeps it from looking frumpy.

I really want to cast on the plum version immediately, but am trying to finish a project first. We’ll see how I manage with that goal!

I told you about this one, a kit that I bought and cast on right away. It’s the Quintessential Cardigan designed by Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. The yarn is Jody Long Alba in the colourway, Moss. I’ve finished the fronts and the back, and made them 2.5″ longer than specified in the pattern.

I did muck up the calculations slightly. After knitting the left front, I counted the rows to space the button holes. (The pattern suggests that you place markers, then compare the right front as you knit it to the left front to choose where to make a buttonhole. I went with the strategy I know – but still messed it up. LOL) It worked out that they should be every 23 rows, but the buttonhole is made on a RS row. I decided to alternate 22 and 24 R between buttonholes, but my top bottonhole before the collar is a little higher than it should be. I should have just done 22R between each one. I’m not going to frog back to fix it. I bought the kit in another colourway – Plum – so will do the buttonholes right on that one.

This pattern has a lot of small touches that are interesting and some are new to me. They suggest, for example, some short rows immediately above the ribbing at the hem to keep the hem hanging straight. I’ve never had an issue with the hems of my cardigans, and actually, I was so busy with the buttonholes that I forgot to do it on the right front. (Not frogging back for that either.)

The front button bands are ribbed but have slipped stitches on the wrong side, again to keep the ribbing from hanging too long. It also changes the look of the ribbing, and I’m not sure I’d do that again. I might just knit the bands in seed stitch on the plum version.

So far, I haven’t found any jazzy buttons in the right size and colour, so it looks as if this one will have abalone shell buttons, which is pretty much my neutral answer to buttons.

I’m now working on the sleeves and am up to the elbow or so, knitting them both at the same time. I find that the easiest way to make sure my increases match. Progress is steady and this is good TV knitting. I should be finished soon. 🙂