c’est fin.

I can’t believe that it is finished. While watching a movie last night, I wove in all the ends of Aidez and it is done. It fits like a charm. I modified the construction of this sweater but not the sweater itself. My gauge was different at 14 stitches to 4 inches. My row gauge was amazingly accurate so I followed the yoke decreases and while the yoke is deeper than I would normally like (8.75 inches), the extra 1.5 inches works well for a bulky sweater like this (I want to wear long-sleeved shirts underneath).

I cast on 152 stitches and divided 72 for the back and 40 for each front. I knit the body in one piece as many have done. I added 2 inches to the body for a total of 18 inches. It blocked out to closer to 20 inches, which I had hoped for. I had fewer St st for the side and fronts but I didn’t decrease as much as is called for in the pattern so it didn’t matter. I decreased a total of 4 times up the side.

One “mistake” that I made was instead of double moss stitch for the middle of the cables on the back, I changed at some point to knitting single seed stitch. I quite liked this so when I went back to fix it, I kept it all in seed stitch. I really like seed stitch, so this was a nice “mistake” although fixing took forever but I’ve already told you about that and I am so happy with the result.

The cable charts are very well thought out because your big cable up the back is worked over 24 rows. The smallest is worked over 4 rows and the medium Wishbone chart is over 8 rows. You cable on the large chart every right side row so that’s easy – you don’t need the chart once you get the hang of how the “arms” move. The 4-row chart, you double wrap on the WS on row 2. Easy. And the 8-row chart, you cable only on the 1st row so 3 times during the working of the 24 row chart. It’s so easy to memorize and I ended up having a scrap piece of paper next to me and just marking off the row I had just finished. It meant it was a very portable project.

I know this sounds silly but this is the first handknit I have made that I put on and thought, “Nope, I wouldn’t change anything.” What a great feeling. I love how the collar came out even though I was petrified of the seaming. I did use a 3 needle bind-off for the back collar, which turned out nicely. The seaming wasn’t too bad – I took the advice and expertise of some information on Knitting Daily which boosted my confidence greatly.

You are going to laugh at me but … I am actually planning to make this again this summer. I bought some Cascade Eco+ in straw, which is my absolutely most favourite colour. I am planning to skip the cables and have a plain St st cardigan since I don’t really want two exactly-the-same cardigans! I was actually thinking quite seriously about putting a lace panel up the back of the straw cardigan … something like the lotus pattern from Barbara Walker’s First Treasury. I am still toying with that idea though.

In yarn (& finished projects),

-r.