I just finished my latest project…

I loved using double-stranded lace yarn on my Tempest cardigan, and there are so many good colors of Shadow that I wanted to try something similar but at a lower price point. I already had a ball of Shimmer in Cumulus in my stash, and I thought it might go nicely with another favorite, Shadow in Basalt Heather. I swatched them together a few different ways to see if my idea would work, washed the swatches, then got down to business.

I knit a basic raglan sweater in the round using two strands of Shadow held together. Every 6th row, I’d triple strand using two strands of Shadow and one of Shimmer. I was working at about 5.5 stitches per inch, so the miles and miles of stockinette went by pretty quickly. I also knew from my gauge swatch that the Shadow would “plump” up a little bit after washing, making the knitted fabric even more plush and touchable.

I bought a copy of Knitting Without Tears when I was first starting to knit sweaters, and it’s a great guideline for figuring out how to mess your way through a sweater pattern that’s really your own. Sure, I end up snarking back at Elizabeth Zimmermann, but I do manage to get a really nice fit for whatever crazy scheme I’m trying out.

Don’t fear the steek! It was the best part of this sweater – I could hide where I carried the Shimmer contrast yarn right in the steek stitches, and I didn’t have to weave in 1,000 yarn tails at the end of the project. I decided against buttons, since I never really close my cardigans, and instead picked up and knit a front band and facing on either side that completely encased the steek cut.

The cuffs, collar, hems, and front bands were all made using a sewn hem. I knit 10 rows for the facing, purled one row, then knit an additional 10 rows for the part of the hem that would show on the right side of the garment. When I was finishing the sweater, I used a garment steamer to steam the hem along the purl bump fold, then I carefully whipstitched the hem to the inside of the sweater.

Another great part? This sweater was about a medium (38″) bust, and I still had half a ball of Shadow leftover and at least half a ball of Shimmer. So, for $24, I got an entire cardigan and enough yarn to make a cute matching scarf in the future.

Pattern: On-the-fly bottom-up raglan, help from Knitting Without Tears
Yarn: 6 skeins Shadow in Basalt Heather, 1 skein Shimmer in Cumulus
Needles: Size 5 Nickel-plated Options Interchangeable Needles
Gauge: 5.5 stitches/inch
Ravelry link <