twin leaves cardigan.

I showed you this cardigan as it was drying a couple of months ago. I haven’t done a photo shoot yet because I just didn’t know about it and I wasn’t sure what to say.

This is my own design – the inspiration came from a woman walking past me on 4th Avenue wearing something similar but there were some differences, which has had me thinking about some possible changes (which I am quite excited about).

This is my Twin Leaves Cardigan. Knit on 4.5mm circulars out of Louet Gems Sport Weight 100% merino (colour #43 Pewter), this cardigan is meant to be light and airy, cropped and summery. I know the colour isn’t particularly “summery” but if you look back at the post from prior (linked above), you’ll understand why.

There are some things I love about this cardigan and there are some things I would like to change, which is why I am going to hold off on further sizing and design until I figure some of that out – although I have a few of you in mind for test-knitting. Eventually.

Things I love:

1. The mirrored Twin Lace pattern:

This mirrored pattern with the leaves pointing upwards on the outsides necessitates the cardigan to be knit from the bottom up, which I love because I think bottom-up cardigans fit beautifully.

2. Twisted rib button bands:

This actually finished the lace off perfectly, so despite my original scepticism, this will not change in the final design.

3. The look:

I quite like the look of the little cropped cardi – it’s cute and a little retro.

The things I would like to change about this cardigan, things I am working on, are few but significant:

1. It doesn’t button together well.

This is due to a design flaw – I shouldn’t have made it so skimpy in the waist. This took out too much fabric, and while cute when open, not so good when the wearer wants to close said cardigan! This cardigan almost doesn’t need a lot of waist shaping (being cropped) and I am tempted to take it out completely. For now, it will remain open.

2. The obvious yoke shaping.

This is partly the yarn, partly the knitter. I used K2tog for the yoke shaping 3 times through the yoke. Although it’s not super obvious in the front (below), it’s a little too obvious in the back (above). Would you mind having a look at both photos and let me know what you think – I would appreciate it! I like things to look seamless – I am a perfectionist in that way. So I am working on some different things (changing gauge for one) and we will see.

I may actually be being too picky at this point but it’s something for me to think about. Also, I think it’s the yarn, too. If this was alpaca, you wouldn’t see the yoke decreases – although you wouldn’t see the lace either, so there you go!

All-in-all I think when you are designing something it’s expected that things will need changing, fixing and re-arranging, so I am actually quite happy with this. The yarn slides on the needles beautifully – I’ve never worked in Louet before, let alone Gems. Sport and DK are my favourite weights to work in, so this was a pleasure. I will keep you posted!

Anything special happening in your knitting bag?