Ballet Wrap Cardigan

From the Winter 2005 issue of Interweave Knits magazine; pattern by Katy Ryan.
Yarn: Katia Tundra, 50% wool / 40% acrylic / 10% viscose

In honor of the solstice (first day of yay, summer!) I’m finally posting this finished project, my first full-size sweater. I actually finished it awhile back, in April I think, and it has been cool enough to wear it a few times. It’s quite warm and cozy so I’ll be happy to have it come winter.

I think the thing I am most pleased about with this sweater is how the yarn looks, knitted up. It’s multicolored in a sort of heathery way, and space-dyed on very, very long repeats. So the bottom edge of a sleeve starts out with the yarn as a blend of aqua, purple, and gray; and then it very gradually changes to a mix of teal, pink, and brown. It was kind of a step out of my comfort zone to choose a purple/pinky yarn since those generally aren’t the colors I choose – but I figured with all those base colors this sweater would match a lot of things, whether warm neutrals, cool neutrals, denim… even pink. Though I don’t own many pink things, it matches my favorite jeans quite nicely!

The thing I am least satisfied with is the upper sleeve area. Those came out a little bulky, and my shoulders are somewhat broad for my overall size and shape anyway, so I’m sure it’s one of those things where I notice it because it’s a sensitive figure-area for me. For the next sweater I knit, I will probably go for a raglan-style sleeve instead of set-in.

I’m not sure if this had an impact on the sleeve issue, but I knit a larger size at a smaller gauge. That took some figuring, and maybe I miscalculated somewhere. But I found this trick worked out pretty well so I definitely won’t hesitate to try it again, maybe just not with a design with set-in sleeves. Another change that I made to the pattern was working the top few inches of the back in ribbing. I was afraid that just binding off stockinette would make the back neckline look really unfinished (and it would most likely curl.) Also I used short-row shaping instead of stepped bind-off, to avoid a jaggedy effect in that same area; and that allowed me to use 3-needle bind off as the shoulder seams. (I avoid seaming whenever I can.) So that all worked out well. The straps were very long, but I decided to leave them that way and wear them criss-crossed in front and tied in back (to avoid the belly-bow look. I am not a teddy bear.) Here’s the back view: