Today I got up at stupid o’clock so I could take advantage of the morning light to photograph my Delancey!
(And then I went back to bed when I got home from running my errands and only woke up an hour ago, so my brain is a bit fuzzy.)
I’m a bit torn about taking pictures of myself. It would be nice to have someone there to make the whole debacle feel more natural and make me look like less of a weirdo when I’m standing in a parking lot in front of a fence with my camera on a tripod.
On the other hand, wrangling a friend out of bed at 7 am to help me take advantage of the light is probably akin to cruelty and not likely to happen. But it is pretty magical.
That’s not what you want to read about though. You want to read about the sweater. I get you.
I love this cardigan. Love love love it. Because the fabric is knit on the bias, it ends up being a bit bigger than the intended bust size. I was a little unsure of which size to knit, but Allyson promised me to knit the size smaller than my bust, and it worked out almost perfectly.
It’s a little small over my belly, but a) I can and am trying to reduce my belly and b) this could happen anyway, even if my belly were littler, because of the biased nature of the fabric and the stretchy stitches wanting to pull back.
The unique construction of this sweater alone makes it worth knitting—having to think about knitted fabric and sweater parts in a new way was a delightful challenge. However. I think this sweater made me hate picking up stitches. Yes, this one. Not the billions of stitches on Larch. When I picked up those stitches, the fabric didn’t end up with giant holes.
It’s probably not too noticeable if a) you didn’t knit this yourself and b) I’m not pointing it out to you, but this really annoyed me. I had a similar trouble with the sleeve caps, which are also picked up and then knit down, and let me tell you, if I get the urge to knit this sweater again, I’m reverse-engineering the sleeves to seam them. But this is my own personal bias. I can seam the hell out of anything. Trying to discretely pick up stitches and then having to go back and seam the holes closed after the fact? That’s okay, I’ll just seam the whole thing. I’m sure this is user-operated error; Alexis’s pattern is incredibly well written and awesome, I’m not blaming her.
The other part of this sweater is that my collar will not stay nice and flat and open, I have to keep adjusting it. But it looks awesome even when it is misbehaving, so I don’t care. And if I may toot my own horn a bit (it is my blog, after all), how much do I win with the pink buttons?
Lots. That’s how much.
I am noticing that the yarn (Berroco Vintage DK) is already starting to pill a bit, especially under the arms. I’m a bit surprised, given that it is 60% synthetic and only 40% merino (and supposedly superwash merino at that, but I didn’t try washing the swatch in the washer), but it’s really soft and squishy and again, I don’t care. I can fix that.
Here, more photos with pretty light!
I started knitting this on February 14, according to my Ravelry notes.
I finished it on March 14. (Well, I sewed on most of the buttons on the 15th, but the knitting was done on the 14th.)
I knit two sweaters for me in a month and a half. My brain is blown. And I wound yarn for two shawls, one scarf, and one baby sweater yesterday afternoon. Clearly, I’m in sweater burn out.
it looks awesome! You are so adorable and I love the lighting in these photos! I’ve never made it up that early for a knit photo shoot.
I have to say, it’s helpful if you know you can take a nap after you get up stupid early. 😀 Thank you! I’m so in love with my new cardigans. 😀
I love this sweater! I haven’t really been drawn to the pattern before seeing yours. I think it is your color selection that really sets it over the edge of awesomeness for me. Especially the pink buttons. I would never think of that but it looks great!
Aww, thanks! I definitely felt that it needed some contrast button action and happened to have pink buttons at hand, so it seemed serendipitous! 😀
Oooo! Your delancey is soooo pretty! An on a side note… I LOVE your necklace 🙂 I too hate picking up stitches. I always mess it up and can’t space them out evenly. Once I get some knitting time back… I’m so gonna make this for myself. It’s so freaking pretty! As is the model of course 😉
Thanks! My necklace was some random buy at American Eagle or something, but I do love it. Alexis gives some excellent pointers on picking stitches evenly—she says pick up so many stitches over 2″, and suggests marking out each 2″ section with markers—but I think mine got a bit off because my row gauge was slightly longer than suggested gauge. Aside from the sleeves, I probably could have just fudged the number of stitches I picked up along the bottom and front bands, but I was trying to be a Good Knitter. Never doing that again. 😉
Gorgeous.
Could almost get me to pay money for a pattern again sometime, which I haven’t done for ages!
I wouldn’t normally think of putting gold with grey, but it works and I like how it looks on you, so maybe I will one day after all. 🙂
I really love this pattern, it’s such a unique construction. I think the big thing to consider when choosing colors for this (and other striped patterns) is to determine how much contrast you want between your main color and your contrast color. Grey and gold are pretty high contrast, so the few stripes of gold stand out nicely against the grey background. I’ve also heard someone mention trying to do this cardigan with different colored stripes, which I think would also be fantastic.
That sweater turned out great. And you do “win” for the pink buttons. They were a great choice.
Thanks so much! 😀
You are adorable. And the light is fantastic. Don’t worry, anyone who sees you out that early is either walk-of-shame-ing their way home and thus focused on hiding themselves or barely awake and too bleary-eyed to tell who you are. 😉
I just scrolled very quickly through some of the Rav projects and it looks like a majority of people model it with only the top buttons buttoned. That tells me that the pattern is wonky–to fit properly in the bust, it’s too tight over the belly. To fit properly in the belly, it looks like it doesn’t fit as well in the bust. That’s disappointing. It’s otherwise a very cute sweater!
Also, this made me laugh: “But this is my own personal bias…” Pun intended? 😉
Don’t worry, anyone who sees you out that early is either walk-of-shame-ing their way home and thus focused on hiding themselves or barely awake and too bleary-eyed to tell who you are.
Heh, actually, as I was sort of counter-people watching, they were all old couples in their cars! Maybe going golfing or something. Or perhaps staking out good spots for the St. Patrick’s parade that I slept through after this photoshoot. No walking of shame–the college kids here don’t get up that early. 😉
That tells me that the pattern is wonky–to fit properly in the bust, it’s too tight over the belly.
I don’t know that I agree with this statement. As demonstrated, I can button my cardigan just fine over my large belly. The buttons don’t continue over the bust—the shawl collar starts just under the bust, in fact, so there aren’t even buttons over the bust, if I wanted to close it all the way up to my neck. The fabric over the belly does want to naturally pull to the sides of the button bands, but it’s not tight/uncomfortable/unsightly, and this is a problem I have with all cardigans. My personal style, even with store bought cardigans, is to only button right under the bust—this, in theory, creates the illusion of a waist on my fat self.
Also, this made me laugh: “But this is my own personal bias…” Pun intended?
I was not awake enough to even realize that happened.
it looks awesome! I was a bit skeptical of PINK BUTTONS but it looks sweet. Also I laughed because you were complaining about photographing at seven, and I read this for the first time while I was drinking my coffee at 5:30 am!!! Both times are too early for me though 😉
anyways, you are a sweater SUPERWOMAN! I think you should get a prize.
They sound crazy, but the pink buttons really work! And I hadn’t had any coffee when I went to shoot these, so you’re ahead of me. 😀
I’ll take a prize! Someone give me a prize! hahaha
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