I thoroughly enjoyed making the Acer Cardigan designed by Amy Christoffers. With lovely yarnover and cable motifs, it kept my interest. As I learn nifty little tricks to add polish to my knitting, I love to incorporate them into knitting sweaters. "Acer" knit up fairly quickly using worsted weight yarn. I chose Rowan's Hemp Tweed in the teal color. The yarn's tweedy-ness is subtle enough to enhance, rather than detract from, the stitch pattern. And while some tweed yarns feel like a bale of hay, Hemp Tweed has a nice hand and the sweater is just soft enough that I can wear it next to skin. Since I've become so enamored with my fusion of Custom Fit and the kind of shaping used by Ysolda Teague in her Blank Canvas sweater pattern, I used my "hippy shaping" to create just the right fit for my Acer Cardigan. I created hourglass shaping on the front and back of the sweater, to give the illusion of an hourglass figure which my actual body certainly does not have. Then I forced the extra hip shaping to the sides of the sweater. It makes the hip shaping appear less severe. I also altered the sweater by adding some length and adding short rows to the upper back. I used decreases in the corners where the back shoulder stitches meet the bound-off back to make the neck band lie flat. I explained this technique in detail in my blog post for the Drumlin sweater . A new-to-me idea that I tried in setting in the sleeve was to very loosely sew the underarm seam with dental floss as a guide. It's much easier to pull out errant dental floss than it is yarn if the sleeve stitches don't line up with the body stitches. It was so easy to follow the floss with the seaming yarn - the columns of stitches lined up perfectly with each other! Typically, when I wear my hand-knit sweaters buttoned up, the buttons pull out toward the outer edge of the buttonhole band, making them look off-center. A little trick I used on this sweater was to cheat the buttonhole one stitch toward the body of the sweater. If you look closely, you can see that the buttonhole is just a bit closer to the inside edge of the band. When buttoned, the button appears perfectly centered. I just love to learn little techniques that add up to a sweater that I enjoy wearing! Resources: If you're not already a member of TKGA , I highly recommend it. I love Arenda Holladay's articles on seaming, in the members-only section. I use her "Seams Part 3" article as a reminder every time I seam a sweater.

Passport in hand, I'll soon go on the Yarn Discovery Tour , learning more about the yarn shops in my new(ish) domicile in Northeast Ohio. I purchased my "Passport" from The Artful Yarn in Chagrin Falls. Any of the 15 shops participating in the Tour sell the Passports. The list is impressive! Even given more than two weeks for the Tour, I wonder whether I'll make it to all 15. It sure would be fun! I'm already plotting my course for the September 6-24 dates. I hope I can stay disciplined enough to bring patterns with me to shop for. I might begin with this pretty Acorn Trail cardigan from Amy Herzog : It's not always easy to find an entire sweater's worth of yarn, so I'll pick out some smaller projects too. I checked my "Favorites" list on Ravelry the other day and was shocked to find over 500 patterns! It's high time to start whittling that list down! The Yarn Discovery Tour will be the perfect way to pair yarns with those projects. - Resources: Photo credit for Acorn Trail: Jonathan Herzog Acorn Trail Pattern: on Ravelry and on Amy Herzog's website

Why is it I'm always a season behind in my knitting? Ah well, there's just enough winter-ish snow for this lovely, warm sweater to be useful for another week or so. " Mork " is designed by Julia Farwell-Clay. I love patterns that are both relaxing to knit and also interesting. Worked in worsted weight, the knitting progressed quickly, while the cables kept my interest. Even the back is filled beautifully with cabling and a just-right icord edge. I used Rowan Pure Wool Worsted for this project. I was worried it might be a bit scratchy, but it softened nicely with washing.

Any knitter who has known me more than five minutes knows that Alana Dakos is one of my all-time favorite designers. I finally had the chance to make her Gnarled Oak Cardigan from the book she co-authored with Hannah Fettig, Coastal Knits. I used Madelinetosh DK in the Grove color. I love Alana's attention to detail. - Resources: Coastal Knits Gnarled Oak Cardigan on Ravelry You'll enjoy checking out Alana Dakos' Never Not Knitting blog and very entertaining podcast My Gnarled Oak Cardigan on Ravelry Madelinetosh Yarn

You might remember the Tea Leaves Cardigan I used for my experiment in stabilizing top-down sweaters . Here it is, completed. The pattern was well-written and fun to knit. I use Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in the Amber Trinket colorway. I'm pleased to say that after wearing it many times, the neckline didn't stretch and the shoulders didn't droop. My stabilizing experiment worked! I've seen this cardigan made out of a large variety of yarns, worn by a lot of knitters with different body types. It is brilliantly appealing!

Sweaters Archives

Acer Cardigan

I thoroughly enjoyed making the Acer Cardigan designed by Amy Christoffers. With lovely yarnover and cable motifs, it kept [...]

By AudKnits|2019-12-19T15:57:02-05:00December 19th, 2019|Projects, Sweaters, Techniques|0 Comments

Drumlin and CustomFit

Looking back over previous posts, I discovered much to my chagrin that I first wrote about starting my Drumlin sweater by [...]

By AudKnits|2018-09-02T07:53:27-04:00September 8th, 2018|How to knit, Projects, Sweaters|0 Comments

CustomFit: The Path to Sweater Nirvana

I used to have a love/hate relationship with the sweaters I knitted. I loved starting them, dreamily envisioning them as [...]

By AudKnits|2018-03-21T20:36:22-04:00March 20th, 2018|Favorite Things, Sweaters, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Custom Fit: Fun with Sweaters

Custom Fit: Fun with Sweaters

I am super excited to finally start my first Custom Fit sweater. The brainchild of designer Amy Herzog, the Custom [...]

By AudKnits|2018-01-19T19:52:56-05:00October 12th, 2016|Favorite Things, How to knit, Reviews, Sweaters|0 Comments

Yarn Discovery Tour

Yarn Discovery Tour

Passport in hand, I'll soon go on the Yarn Discovery Tour, learning more about the yarn shops in my new(ish) domicile in Northeast Ohio. I [...]

By AudKnits|2018-01-19T19:54:05-05:00August 25th, 2016|Events, Projects, Sweaters|0 Comments

Mork

Why is it I'm always a season behind in my knitting? Ah well, there's just enough winter-ish snow for this lovely, warm sweater [...]

By AudKnits|2018-01-19T19:58:47-05:00March 20th, 2015|Projects, Sweaters, Uncategorized|1 Comment

Gnarled Oak Cardigan

Any knitter who has known me more than five minutes knows that Alana Dakos is one of my all-time favorite [...]

By AudKnits|2018-01-19T19:58:55-05:00February 16th, 2015|Projects, Sweaters|0 Comments

Tea Leaves Cardigan

You might remember the Tea Leaves Cardigan I used for my experiment in stabilizing top-down sweaters. Here it is, completed. [...]

By AudKnits|2018-01-19T19:59:28-05:00January 20th, 2015|Stabilizing Seamless Sweaters, Sweaters|2 Comments

How Buttons Become Vests

It all started with buttons. My friend Katy and I were playing in the button section of our local yarn [...]

By AudKnits|2018-01-19T19:59:40-05:00December 22nd, 2014|Projects, Sweaters|0 Comments

Gnarled Oak Cardigan Progress

For me, one of the greatest pleasures in knitting is working a particularly beautiful pattern and motif. That's how I [...]

By AudKnits|2018-01-19T20:00:33-05:00July 15th, 2014|Projects, Sweaters|2 Comments