Mileage May Vary

I've been working slowly on the Tangled Yolk Cardigan from Fall 'o7 Interweave Knits. I hadn't blogged about the project yet because the project isn't visually exciting in the beginning. Instead, my joy has been purely tactile. The Silky Wool (by Elsebeth Lavold) I'm using is incredibly soft, and in a DK weight the resulting fabric has a very nice drape without adding bulk. I already anticipate this being a favorite sweater in the coming autumn months. I tend to stop every few rows just to pet this sweater. I've found my progress slowed by the need to stop and remove little snarls of grass from the yarn as I work (nope, I'm not a perfectionist at all!). I have worked with this yarn before so I anticipated the problem. However, you'll notice that I did not find this to be enough of an issue to select a different yarn for the project. One thing I will say for this yarn - it does hold up to my incessant nit picking very well!

Here is the sweater at the end of 2 balls (roughly 400m). It is a mere 2 inches from the underarms. I was absolutely shocked to discover that this yarn went so far. I will probably have a fair amount left over despite lengthening the body.

The astute readers out there will say - "Wait up! The tangled yolk cardigan is a cardigan. What you have there is knit in the round all pulloveresque." Those readers would be correct. I really do try to learn something new with every project. Sometimes just learning the limitations of the yarn is enough for me, but I'd used the Silky Wool before. So this time I'm going to learn the crochet'ed steek. I chose this method because it will retain the stretchiness of the knitted fabric - unlike machine stitching to reinforce the line of cutting. Plus, it leaves tidy edges which appeal to the perfectionist in me. We will see if I'm still so keen on the idea when I am sitting poised with scissors in hand.