Laminaria Shawlette

Last post of 2010!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that your 2011 is a happy and productive one.  I'll be wrapping up this with one of my favorite projects of this year, the Laminaria Shawlette by Elizabeth Freeman.  It took me forever (comparatively), but so, so worth it:

Here's a close-up of the lace:

Another reason this one's a favorite is because I used malabrigo lace yarn.  This was my first encounter with malabrigo and it really is everything I thought it would be.  It is amazingly soft and the colors are SO beautiful, like candy for knitters.  Seriously.  I'm wearing it out every chance I get, just so I can have it close to my skin.  Love. This particular color is called "Tuareg" and I couldn't be happier with the blue and the undulating Estonian forms.  Elizabeth Freeman is a genius.  I will have to try another of her lace masterpieces.







I am so pleased with this pattern, too!  It's definitely, definitely an advanced pattern.  It's got some techniques I've never used before that are unique to Estonian lace, things like knitting 9 stitches out of 3 or 3 stitches out of 2--beautiful, but far from easy. 

If you do decide to be adventurous and want to try this pattern or another lace pattern you've been eyeing, my best advice is lifelines:

You can't see it very well in this picture, since the yarn I used was nearly the same color, but you can see the end coming out there.  Every pattern repeat or two, you take a spare piece of smooth yarn and thread it through all the stitches on the needle, but do not knit it.  In the event that you make a mistake, you can frog just the one incorrect pattern repeat and the lifeline will catch all the stitches. 

Even if you don't make a mistake, it feels wonderful to have it there, giving you confidence to continue with the rest of your project without having to start over from the beginning.  I will be using them for all future lace projects.

Next time I promise I will show you some Christmas creations and following that, knitting year in review.

Happy New Year!!

Starsky Cardigan

Since I was a good girl and finished my Christmas projects early, I decided to whip up a comfy Christmas sweater for myself.  The pattern I used was Starsky by Jordana Paige, which is available through Knitty. This one's been in my queue for a long time and I bought the yarn for my birthday.  And now that I've got my stash down to about 2.5 miles (it was nearly 3 times that this time last year!!), I've been able to get to projects that were a lower priority in my list.   So here it is in all its glory, Starsky:

I had to put it on hold to finish Walker's socks in a timely fashion, but actual knitting time for this beauty was only about 2 weeks.  I do love bulky yarn and its instant gratification.  I used Knit Picks Swish Bulky Bare, which gets an A+ from me.  Soft, comfortable, easy to work with, and should I accidentally spill something on it at Christmas, I can just throw it in the wash without a care. 

So although the stitch pattern was fairly complicated:

It was only twisted stitches the whole time and I didn't have to touch a cable needle.  So long as you're comfortable with reading your knitting, you have nothing to fear in this pattern.  Beware, though, that it has a lot of finishing.  It's knit flat (lots of seams), has a huge collar, and the belt/loops are kinda long and tedious.  My next sweater project is definitely going to be in the round and seamless!  So it's definitely a pattern for the experienced and/or ambitious, but the results are beautiful!

I did make one big mistake, though.

I've been noticing recently that sleeves in my size are a little too small to accomodate my "guns," as it were, so I overcompensated by knitting these sleeves in the next size up.  Unfortunately I forgot that the whole sweater calls for 6-8 inches of positive ease, so now I have huge rather poofy sleeves. 

Oops. 

I can't decide if I want to take the sleeves off and reknit them or if I just want to go with the "extra-comfy" aspect of huge sleeves and call it a design feature.  That may be something to reconsider later, when/if I use the remainder of my stash. For now, I am very pleased with the outcome and have yet another reason why I can't wait for Christmas!

For next time, I've got a gorgeous lacy thing to block out.  Another pretty little selfish project for me!  Of course, if it doesn't take to blocking very well, I'll have some Christmas projects to finally show you!

Merry Christmas!

-Allie

Argyle Socks of Doom

I did it.  I finished those monster socks before Walker's office Christmas party on Saturday and not without a few tears of frustration.  Never again will I make the mistake of felting these beautiful socks.  Never, never.
Here are the finished socks:

Nice, huh?  At least all that work yielded some lovely socks.  I was starting to doubt it when I produced this tangled mess.  #&^%@$!! is the appropriate term, I think:

At any one time during the leg portion of the sock, I had 9 different strands going.  Each diamond had its own strand of yarn and each line of gray had it's own strand and allll of them had to be wrapped around each other to avoid gaps in the fabric.  Boo, intarsia.

This also meant that all of the argyle portions of the sock had to be knit flat and sewn together later, so you get the double fun of purling colorwork and finishing seams.  So to get the awesome ventilation flaps above, I knit the foot diamond on one needle and then did the heel/heel flap on another.  A good design feature for people whose feet get too sweaty?  Maybe.  Didn't apply to Walker, so I sewed those seams up.  Along with all of the little strands hanging out of the ventilation flap.  And the back seam (not pictured). 

And all the ends of the aforementioned strands.  This is the pile of ends when I finished all my sewing:
I'm telling you, argyle is not for the faint of heart, especially argyle socks.  Beautiful?  Yes.  Labor intensive and somewhat maddening?  Absolutely.  These socks will be cherished (or else).



Here is a shot of Walker modeling them for me:

Ooh, ahh, what pretty feet he has...worth every hour spent and every curse uttered.
Almost perfect, almost.

Walker has complained in the past that my cast-on was too tight so I overcompensated with these and now the ribbing at the top is much too loose.  These beautiful socks fall down his ankles :(  I have been trying to think of a way to fix this--sewing in some elastic, cutting off the ribbing (a little scary--what if the rest unravels??), and picking up some stitches from the bottom of the ribbing and knitting another layer on tighter needles.  So far the last option is the front-runner and I may attempt that this weekend.  Unless anyone else has any other/better solutions.  I wouldn't want these fabulous socks to sit at the bottom of the drawer because they are uncomfortable to wear.  Please help :(

At least now I'm all finished with my Christmas knitting.  Just a little bit of baking left to do and I am ready for Christmas to arrive.  Bring it on!  I think our cats are a little excited about it, too.  Arty did some climbing in the Christmas tree this weekend:

And one blending in with the lights:

He is definitely the prettiest ornament on our tree.  I just hope he doesn't ruin too many of the others.  I didn't put up any that were very breakable and I anchored the tree to the back door, so here's hoping for a safe and in-tact Christmas tree!

Next week I'll hopefully have a little more selfish knitting to show you.  I'm working on a couple of projects for myself that I am very excited about. 

Cheers,

-Allie

Christmas Time!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our apartment now!  I did my best this weekend to make our little space as festive as I could:

Since we just didn't want to deal with a real tree for our first go-round, we opted for an artificial one from Home Depot.  I have to say, though, after a little fluffing, I think it looks pretty good:

Certainly doesn't look real, but at least it's not pink or something.  7.5' is pretty close to our ceiling, so there was no way I was going to get a star or an angel on top of this tree.   Instead, I got some pretty wired ribbon and made a big bow for it using this tutorial.  Isn't it pretty?

I then attached an end of the ribbon to the top of the tree and wrapped it around like a garland.  I also added some red velvet bows I found at Rite Aid.  Together they makes a big statement without costing a lot or putting dangling temptations in front of the kitty cats, who have been very good so far!  I half expected to wake up and find the tree on the floor, but everything is still in tact.  My expectations are not high for the rest of the season, but I plan to add ornaments to the tree slowly until Christmas, in the hopes that busy critters won't notice.

Since I loved that bow so much, I decided I had to put another one on the banister:

And wrap the ribbon all the way upstairs (you can't really see it in the picture, but the ribbon does go all the way to the top):

And do you remember those stockings I made last year?  I was worried about where to put them since Walker and I don't have a fireplace, but why not make them wall art?

I just found a blank space on our living room wall and hung them using those semi-permanent command hook things from Rite Aid.  Here's where they fit into the rest of the living room:

And this little scrappy wreath Walker's cousin made us last year graces a blank spot in our kitchen:

And here's an ornament I made for an ornament exchange that didn't make it onto the last ornament post.

I got the little moose pattern at this Etsy shop.  They have a lot of other cute patterns in there and they all come with a lot of options, so if you really want a griaffe egg cosy, that is the place to go.  It's definitely an "intermediate" pattern, so you probably shouldn't dive into it just after making your first ever hat, but I really enjoyed the pattern and could definitely see myself making another one.  (So if you're really really nice to me...)

So now the house is decorated, our festive dish towels are out, (almost) all the gifts are neatly wrapped and ready.  I am (almost) ready for Christmas!  I just have Walker's socks to finish (omg, I forgot how maddening argyle is!!) and a few more baked goods to make and that's it.  Really.  What (if anything) are you crafting this Christmas?  How much more do you have to do?

Next time I'll hopefully have some pretty socks (and probably an argyle rant) for you.  'Til then, have a very Merry Christmas Season!!!

-Allie

Some Selfish Knitting

I know I said I was going to post about the Wilkes girls' Christmas sweaters, but on the off chance that my mother checks in before then, I won't post them until after Christmas.  I want her to be surprised!  I'll have some Christmas ornaments to show you next week after my exchange recipient receives them.

Speaking of Christmas, new look!  Do you think it's too dark/hard to read?  Let me know and I'll fix it.  I was just noodling around with it the other night and thought it looked dramatic with that star.  Now that Thanksgiving is over, I'm all excited about showing my Christmas spirit wherever I can. :)  I'm watching Rudolph as I type this.  We've even got a tree this year, even if it's currently sitting in my parents' garage waiting for us to have the time to set it up...

Speaking of Thanksgiving, Walker and I just got back from a lovely visit with his family in Athens, GA.  It was sooo relaxing to be able to spend some time with his family and not worry about work or the laundry or anything, really.  They were all so friendly and welcoming and the food, ohmygoodness.  There were THREE pumpkin desserts (cheesecake, pumpkin roll, and pumpkin bread) plus all the other savory goodies Walker's mother made us.  It was heaven.  I am glad to be home, though.  Our kitties let us know just how much they missed us the last couple of days.  It's nice to be missed, even if by furry critters, but you all know how much I love our furry critters.

And since we didn't have hardly any responsibilities while we were away, I had plenty of time to get some knitting done.  I meant to bring the materials to make Walker's replacement argyle socks, but I forgot the gray accent color, which meant I just had to work on some selfish projects for myself--oops. :)  I promise I will have his socks done before Christmas (they're the only project I have left), but now I have a lovely new hat and pair of gloves!

I started by delving into my Palette stash again, this time the Delta and Cream.  I really love a blue and white combination and the Selbu Modern Hat was just the pattern to show them off:

Here it is just barely streetching over the recommended 10" plate.  It was a little too snug before blocking and now it fits over my ears with just a little bit of ease.  It looks a lot harder than it really was.  It's a straight-up fair isle pattern with the longest floats at 7 stitches.  The only thing that (I thought) made it difficult was working the initial ribbing on teeny tiny size 0 needles.  I imagine you could go up a couple of needle sizes or even yarn weight for a slightly slouchier hat without so much blocking and that would make the pattern a little easier.  None of the decreases are particularly difficult.  You just need to be able to read a chart and to strand in the round (way easier than working stranding flat).  The pattern is free and it only required about half a ball of each color of Palette. Give it a try and you might surprise yourself!

My other project over the break was a much-needed pair of thick gloves.  My stranded ones just don't cut it for a cold Maine morning.  What better yarn than Knit Picks City Tweed?  Not only is it beautiful, but it's incredibly soft and toasty enough for the coldest mornings.  The following color is "tarantella."

The pattern is Ringwood by Rebecca Blair and featured in Knitty Deep Fall 2010.  Lately I've been a little disappointed with Knitty's patterns--they've either been a little too boring or they looked a little too "homespun."  Ringwood is just the right amount of classic pattern with some interesting details, like the button cuff.  I've been wearing them to work every morning since we got back and haven't even felt the frost I had to scrape off the car (boo).  I would definitely make these again. 

My only caveat is to check your gauge in the Ringwood pattern before you start.  I thought my stockinette swatch would be enough, but my first attempt on the recommended needles turned out much too big for my dainty hands and I had to rip back to the cuff.  I ended up using needles two sizes smaller than the recommended size. 

Yikes, this is getting a little long.  More Christmas projects/decorating next time. 

What are you doing to prepare for the season?

-Allie

Bad Sewing, Good Knits

I'm almost done with my Christmas gifts, yaaay!  I only have the collar left on Mom's cardigan and I am allll done with Christmas knitting!  After that, it's just edible gifts and figuring out what on Earth Walker wants (grumble).  All of the Christmas ornaments are done, all of the little knitted accessories are done.  I am way ahead of the game.

One of the knitted accessories is a pair of Norwegian-style gloves for one of my coworkers:

The pattern is Anemor 12 from Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitted Tradition by Terri Shea.  I absolutely love this book.  If you scroll back through this blog, you'll see that I've used it a number of times.  There are just so many beautiful gloves and mittens in there!  This particular design features a lovely north start pattern on the hand and a traditional geometric pattern on the palm:

I used my extensive store of Palette for these, Grass and Celadon this time.  I used about 3/4 of the ball of Grass, but only about 1/2 a ball of the Celadon.  If you've got some spare sock weight yarn lying around, stranded gloves are a great way to use them up.  Despite how complicated they look, these gloves knit up really really fast.  Impressive, but much easier than they look.  That could be because I was so in love with the pattern that I couldn't wait to knit the next round.  What a gorgeous (and useful!) knitting tradition!  Hopefully, Mel will agree...


For my other coworker, I attempted to make my first sewn Christmas present.  It came out...tolerably.  Knit Picks seduced me with their project bag sewing kits that included fabric with patterns that resemble knit fabric--really cute.  They still have some for sale if you're so inclined.

I started nice and easy with the reversible project bags.  They were simple enough that my lack of sewing skill went unnoticed and they are currently residing in my knitting basket--success!

However, I then made the leap from "easy" project bag to "intermediate" knitting needle roll.  The finished result is functional, but not entirely straight.  Or pretty.

Okay, the outside looks fine.  Everything is facing the same way and the fact that I substituted a snap for a button goes unnoticed (buttonholes scare me a little).

But then you open 'er up and the crookedness becomes more apparent.
See Exhibit A:

and Exhibit B:

Yuck.  Seems I have a little more practice to do before I try another one of these.  Or I need to do a better job of matching the tread color to the fabric...  I didn't even do the top stitching around the edges because I knew it was going to be ugly.

Honestly, I think this pattern/tutorial/whatever you call sewing kits is an excellent idea for a gift to a knitter--in practiced hands.  Seems I need to go back to project bags for a little while before I tackle those slipcovers (dun dun dun!).

I really have myself stressed out over those things.  I was utterly defeated by Joann Fabric the other day.  I went in with measurement figures for my couch and I was all ready to select the right fabric, but then I started second guessing myself.  I asked the nice saleslady for her advice on the matter, but felt like all the questions coming out of my mouth were so stupid that I left the store without buying anything.  Pathetic. 

I later rallied my courage and ordered some lovely blue fabric online and it should be arriving at my door some time this week.  I will probably be tackling this project after we get back from GA for Thanksgiving.  There are still some unfinished gifts that need finishing between now and then and the cheapskate in me wants to pay as little for shipping as possible :).  Then I might finally post some of the other redecorating efforts I've been working on at home--just want to give you the full effect at once!

Next time: Wilkes Christmas Sweaters

Cheers,

-Allie

Christmas Ornaments

In the grand tradition of overreaching one's abilities for Christmas gifts, I am trying to knit little ornaments for as many people as possible.  If I succeed, I will be keeping the gift budget low and using up a significant amount of my Palette stash (really, it's absurd), but I will also be using up a significant amount of my time and sanity.  I will truly succeed if I have it all done by Thanksgiving.  Did you ever know me not to be an overachiever? :)

I'm a little over halfway done now and I have the stocking pattern mostly memorized, so hopefully it'll go a little faster now.  Anyway, here's what I have so far:

Monogrammed Christmas Stockings

I found this pattern on Ravelry as Hogwarts Mini House Sock Ornaments.  That pattern has you knit the whole stocking and then embroider the letters in duplicate stitch.  No thanks.  I knit them in the pattern using a chart from ChemKnits alphabet chart compilation and added some designs from this stocking pattern to the back (not shown).  For those who don't like stranding, duplicate stitch may be for you, but I really hate everything to do with finishing, so stranding was much easier for me.  I still have a whole mess of these little babies to make, but I am really happy with the ones I've finished so far!

The rest of the following stocking patterns can be found in the Knit Picks Holiday section.  There are also patterns there for a yeti and a pickle ornament if those strike your fancy.

Snowmen:

Elf:

 And for the non-knit worthy, lumps of coal:

As far as the rest of my Christmas knitting goes, I only have Mom's cardigan left.  It's a bit of a labor-intensive project, but it is coming along beautifully!  I think I did a better job this year of sorting the knit worthy and the non-knit worthy when it comes to big projects, so apart from little ornaments, everyone else will be will be getting something either store-bought or edible.  No point in knitting something nice for someone who won't appreciate it or who will accidentally felt it in the wash.

Plus, I can sooner get back to some selfish knitting for me :) (I've got some really gorgeous things in mind, too)

Next time: finished co-worker gifts.

Cheers,

-Allie

Christmas: 1st Installment

Yeah, yeah, it's still only October, but this girl has almost got her Christmas presents finished for her in-laws!  I've just got to finish a couple of knit ornaments and make a couple of non-knit purchases and they are all done!  Pretty good, even considering I wanted to have it all finished before Thanksgiving, so that I wouldn't have to ship anything to them.

MIL wanted something simple and warm.  Since the gloves I made her last year were light blue, this year she is getting a light blue Jacques Cousteau Hat (can you tell I really really like this pattern?).  Honestly, I don't know why--the boring ribbing goes on for 8 straight inches without any change.  It's tedious, but I really really love the end result.

I used Knit Picks new Capra DK yarn, which is a cashmere/merino blend.  It does have excellent loft and stitch definition, but I confess I was expecting it to be a little softer than it is.  It is still VERY soft, but it did not quite live up to my expectations.  It is an excellent yarn for accessories, though.


I showed Miss Mary some fingerless gloves I was working on when they visited this summer and she decided that she wanted a pair of her own.  For her, I made Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts:

This was a very easy pattern.  It worked up quickly and I am so pleased with the results.  For anyone looking to try an easy stranded knit pattern, this would be a good one to try.  It is a touch snug, so for those of you with wrists on the less petite side, I would suggest either going up a needle size or a yarn size, to sport weight.

To wear with her gloves in the "chilly" Georgian winter, I also made Mary a Rose Red beret by Ysolda Teague.  (Apologies for the dark image)

It is a lot slouchier than I was anticipating and I am thinking about frogging it and trying a different pattern, as I used worsted weight yarn when the pattern called for DK.  The sample images aren't as slouchy as mine, so it must be that my gauge is way off.  I am undecided about whether I will (or will have the time to) try again with a different pattern or a different yarn.

On second thought, I might just frog the thing for fun.  If you've never experienced the thrill of ripping knitting apart, you are seriously missing out.  It is immensely satisfying--that is until you look at the pile of yarn barf (yes that's a real knitting term) and think about how you now have to untangle and wind it...

Beyond these little numbers, I just have 3 more tiny ornaments to make and I'm thinking about some kind of delicious cookie or hot chocolate mix in a tin, hmm.  Wait until you see these ornaments (perhaps next post?).  They are way too cute!

Cheers,

-Allie

Matilda Jane

What do you think of my new look, snazzy huh?  I finally got around to playing with Blogger's new template feature and there's some really cool stuff in there.  I was missing out!  I might decide to change things with the seasons, I might not.  Autumn is nice :)

I will also be adding some buttons at the bottom, Ravelry style.  So if you can't come up with something witty on the spot (hey, we're not all poets), you can show your appreciation, admiration, disdain, whatever with the click of a button.  Fancy!

Now, I know it's a little early, but this girl has already got her Christmas sweater ready (and there is not a reindeer in sight):

The pattern I used is by Ysolda Teague and can be found here.  I made no modifications to the shaping of the pattern and boy, does it fit well. My only change was opting not to use a contrast color for the edges. I really love it--makes me feel a little bit like Mad Men (I am a secretary, after all).  It has bust darts, waist shaping and lacing in the back:

Please excuse the bunchiness.  I had just laced it too tight when I was trying it on and Walker didn't tell me how tight it was when he was taking the picture.  I've since loosened the laces and it fits just as beautifully in the back as it does in the front.  Here's a close-up of the lacing:

The yarn I used was Knit Picks Merino Style, which is lovely.  It's not as nice as Swish, but it's also a little cheaper--food for sweaters and other big projects.  I found this lovely ribbon at Joann Fabric--gorgeous isn't it?  My favorite color combo and perfect for Christmas :)

Unrelatedly, my hair is getting much too long and really needs to be cut.  Does anyone have any suggestions for long, fine, medium brown hair?  I will be eternally grateful.  I'm thinking maybe shoulder-length with some layers/other interesting feature...There just needs to be less of it while I madly knit away at Christmas gifts.

I have already finished a number of Christmas gifts, but being the overly ambitious person that I am, I put about a gazillion little knit ornaments on my list and it's going to take me forever to finish them!  I made some adorable snowmen and lumps of coal this weekend.  No pictures  yet, but next time I'll share some pictures of other Christmas gifts I have finished for the in-laws!  Only 60 more days to Christmas!

Cheers,

-Allie

New Etsy: Fall Edition

Man, I am such a lazy bum.  These sweet little items have been sitting in our guestroom for ages, just waiting for me to take some pictures and post them to the shop.  As good as the yoga challenge was for my figure, it really left me without energy to do anything around the house.  All good things in moderation, it would seem.  I've been taking my week off after 30 days of beating myself up (I did it!  21 90-minute classes in 30 days!) and tomorrow I'll start working out again, but at the gym sometimes, and not just the studio.

Anyway, fall is here and so are my fall items!  All of the baby stuff is made with superwash merino, so it's amazingly soft, but also machine washable, yay!  Enjoy:

Apple

                      Flower

Pumpkin

                    Sunflower

And, of course, my favorite Mary Jane Booties

I remembered the adults this time, too!  I had some beautiful teal alpaca/tencel leftover, just enough to make a lady's lacy beret:

.

  I used my standard peacock tail lace pattern, which the tencel gives a beautiful drape:

I have half a mind to keep it for myself.  :-p 

So enjoy, swoon, recommend it to your friends! 

Next time: Christmas is just around the corner and I already have my sweater ready!  (And a couple of gifts to boot, but they might have to wait until the following blog post).

Cheers,

-Allie

M.I.A.

It's been awhile since my last update.  Sorry about that--this yoga challenge is really kicking my butt.  I'm doing 90 minutes of hot yoga 5 times a week for 30 days, which comes out to 22 classes and a total of 33 hours of yoga this month.  Yikes!  I'm halfway through week 4 right now and have 5 more classes left until I finish the challenge. 

I didn't weigh or measure myself before I started but my pants are all fitting looser, I have some abdominal definition, and some serious guns  going on.  Not only that, but I feel more awake in the morning and more cheerful during the day (yes, working out all the time is making me more cheerful)!  I know this sounds like a plug for Hart Yoga (okay, it is a little bit), but I am loving this!  I thought I would get so sick of the bikram sequence, but I look forward to each class and the opportunity for improvement in each posture.

If you've never tried bikram or other hot yoga, seriously give it a try.  It'll be hot, you'll feel nauseous, and you definitely won't be able to do the full expression of every posture, but that is one of the things I love about it--there is always room for improvement, always something to keep you coming back.  Try it three times and I swear you'll love it!

/Advertisement (become a fan of Hart Yoga on Facebook!!)

Now some knitting.  These have been finished for a while, but here they are, the Mary Jane slippers:

I knit them in Knit Picks Swish Worsted (just in case I need to wash them).  It's a good staple yarn, soft, durable, nothing terribly exciting, but also not expensive. 

The pattern was so, so easy.  You just need to know how to pick up stitches from knitted fabric.  There's an awesome tutorial for applied i-cord included with the pattern and it's almost worth  making the slippers just for that tutorial.  The pattern can be found here.  I've been wearing mine a lot lately.  I even tossed out the old, ill-fitting slippers I had before, yay!

And now a finished object I am super excited about: the Pas de Valse Cardigan:

This is one of the few sweaters I've made that have turned out exactly the way I wanted them to.  I made absolutely no modifications to this cardigan, just knit it exactly the way it was written.  Even the length came out perfect--a rare feat for me.

The pattern is by Marnie MacLean and can be found on the Twist Collective's site here.  The pattern is a little expensive, but it is totally worth the money--it is so well written.  I thought I would get bored with all the stockinette, but there is enough shaping throughout that I was interested the whole time and blew through it in two weeks--that's a lot for ~1100 yards of sock-weight yarn! 

The best part: there are absolutely no seams.  None.  The only sewing you have to do is weaving in the ends and grafting the rest of the shawl collar.  That's it.  If I were to do it again, I would probably have knit the sleeves from the cuff  up and then sewn the cap into the shoulder because I just didn't get as nice a seam by picking up stitches from the shoulder, but I am still VERY happy with the way it came out.  I can definitely see this becoming one of my favorite cardigans.  Well done, Marnie, well done.  She's got some other lovely patterns at her website, here. 

The color is truer in this second picture.  Sorry the first one's so blurry.  I used Knit Picks's Gloss sock yarn in "dolphin."  I had originally bought that colorway for my first ill-fated attempt at Venezia (which I have picked up again, woo!), but decided I wanted to do something special in just that color.  This pattern was an excellent choice--the yarn is soft, but the silk makes it heavy and drapey enough for the elegant folds of this pattern.  The merino/silk blend gives it both a lovely sheen and just enough halo to pull off this rather loose gauge.  I just love it.

Next time, I'll have a very long overdue Etsy update.  I've had some new products ready for a while, but haven't gotten around to photographing them yet.  I promise I will get my act together and get the new things posted.  Stay tuned!