Laar Cardigan

Now that Spring has come (and gone again), I'm so glad to show you my latest finished project, Laar.  The translation of Laar means "light breeze," which is perfect for this floaty little top:

So pretty!  I am totally in love with the color.  It's a laceweight alpaca/silk yarn by Nightingale Fibers that I bought at the New England Fiber Festival back in January.  So soft, so light, and the skein had about 1000 yards in it!  I don't know that I would make another sweater entirely out of laceweight yarn, but I know where to look should I need more! (Plus $30 for 1000 yards of this quality is a bargain!)

Walker didn't believe me that I could make a whole sweater out of one skein of yarn, but with such a fine gauge and such huge yardage, here is the proof!

 

You can see where I pulled it down a little in the back, oops.  

The pattern is by Gudrun Johnson and is available on its own or as part of her Shetland Trader - Book 1.  I only got this pattern, but there are a few others in there that I would consider knitting, like Shalder or Solan. 

This particular pattern wasn't especially difficult, just time consuming.  I knit it on sizes 4 and 6 needles (so you needn't fear the laceweight--it's very breezy), but the stockinette "skirt" part of the pattern took a lot of time and discipline (i.e., it got really boring).  I think the lace bodice part of the sweater was the easiest and most interesting part.  

Everything was knit in one piece from the bottom hem through to the armpits.  The shoulders were knit separately, but bound off together, and then the sleeves were picked up and worked in short rows all the way down.  No seams, just the way I like it!

The only change I made was to make the sleeves shorter.  I like them to hit just about my elbows, rather than a couple inches below.  I probably should have either knit a size down or modified the bodice section because it's a little bit big.  I know it's supposed to be loose and floaty, but the notes say the bodice is meant to have 3" of negative ease and I have roughly 1-2" of positive ease with the 30" size.  Now, I know I'm not that tiny!  Either my gauge was a little off (it might have been in the lace part) or the pattern needed some adjustment.  

It's not bad enough that I would go back and fix it, but I will need to remember to check lace gauges in the future--something to keep in mind for anyone else attempting to knit a lacy knit garment!

Overall I love it.  I wore it out and about this weekend and a saleslady didn't believe that I made it myself!  I never get tired of hearing that!

You may not hear from me for the next couple of weeks.   Walker and I will be traveling to our sisters graduations over the next two weekends.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to knit on the plane(s), but probably not much time for blogging.

Cheers,

-Allie