Red nordic cardigan

Once again, this is a story, which started months ago, and went through different threads, to come toogether in the end very nicely.

I already told you about my favourite yarn, which I just call "the scottish yarn". You aready heard me sing odes to it, and I have a bunch of it.( a few kilos would qualify as a "bunch", eh?). In fact I have about three cones of this red tweedy one, which I am carefully guarding. I kept looking out for just the right pattern, the one that would do it justice, because I felt it deserves the best.

But when I came across the Vogue's Nordic cardigan pattern I didn't make the connections at once.

Only a few weeks ago, when in the same day I found the magazine In a yarn shop (1001fonal), and looked at a red/white nordic vest in HandM. At that moment I knew from what I am going to knit this sweater.

There was still the question of the contrast color. I have the same yarn in off white, but it is set aside for something else. The pattern asks for four strands of a kidsilk haze like yarn... which I think is just too much. But then the light turned on, and I remembered I do have the same quality yarn in off white in a thinner weight, and I also have some balls of a Barka yarn, which is very much like kidsilk haze. So I used them toogether.

The one strand made the contrast color whiter, and it gave it a bit of halo as well.
The sweater has an interesting contruction. The top parts of the fronts and the back are knitted separately, then sewed up, and the knitting contiues, picking up stitches for the sleeves. It might worth some thinking to figure out how to do it with shortrows, omitting the sewing part :-)

I tried to follow the pattern, for the longest I could... But thought the original feels a little unfinished, with having the buttonholes(and the buttons as well) in the patterned panel, and there is no real edging at the front.

Therefore I omitted the increase at the end of the neckline, and knitted a solid red buttonband on both part.
And knitted the sleeves in the round (no sewing up, yay!), and didn't do the decreases, so the sleeves are looking slightly bell shaped.

If I would knit this again (most probably will in a different color), I would pick up more stitches at the shoulder for the sleeves, to give the upper arms more room, and probably do the collar wider, but that is about it.

My only problem with the pattern, that it only comes in two sizes. And even those are acquired with the use of different needles/gauge. Now, using a different needle results different fabric. What if I like tighter knitting? (which I do, actually). What if I have a slightly different yarn? What if I am slightly bigger than a smallish medium (by american standards)? I couldn't decide if it was simple lazyness from the designer or the tech editor. I think in a magazine of this fame should have higher standards in details like this. reading the pattern it seems complicate enough to deter even the slightly above than average knitter from venturing into recalculating the whole thing. But having actually knitted it, I realized it shouldn't have been such a big deal to recalculate it for slightly bigger sizes. It is such a shame, because it would've worth it.

photos: Christopher Laurent Deli.