Plum Truffle, finished at last!
I have WAY too many unfinished projects. Some I can only file away (like notes for stories I won't get around to writing for years yet), but others--the crafty stuff--I can certainly put to bed. So I've started a UFO ('unfinished object') smackdown. Remember this? I got midway through before I realized I wasn't going to have enough yarn, so I ordered another skein (to be delivered to NJ, though I was still in Galway at the time), and the project went into hibernation.
There was another problem: as I was knitting the body I had the nagging feeling that I had cast on too many stitches, and that if I proceeded as planned (even with plenty of back shaping) the body wouldn't be as form-fitting as I'd envisioned. So I thought maybe I could just make the button bands narrower, but eventually I got honest with myself--I wouldn't like how that would look. The button bands should be as wide as they are in Megan Rogers' original (or is that 'original knockoff'?) I very briefly contemplated frogging the whole body, but ouch! Rip out eleven inches of careful cabling? Not if I could possibly help it.It seems letting a troublesome project hibernate for awhile can make all the difference, because I took it out after a few months of inactivity, 'tried it on,' and thought of a MacGyver-ish solution: bind off several stitches on each side on the very next row, and steek that too-wide bottom portion. I had never steeked before, and of course I see why it scares some knitters stiff, but I used my trusty sewing machine and it all came out right...just in time for the frigid gales of August!
Pattern: Truffle Cardigan Tutorial in three parts, from Dulle GrietYarn: Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran (discontinued) in plum, 8 ballsNeedle: #7, and #6 for the button bands (binding off with a #9)Buttons: eight of 'em (1 1/8"), salvaged from my grandparents' candy tinRaveled here.
Apart from the slightly noticeable changes in dyelot (I tried to alternate balls, but apparently it didn't help much) and the dimples where the buttons are sewn to the button band (can it be helped? I'll re-sew them at some point), I'm so, so happy with this cardigan. I'm going to live in it this winter.