a surprisingly perfect sweater (almost)

For several years, since I finished mum’s vest, I’ve been trying to come up with a good use of the remaining 1295 yards of stashed yarn. Working through my yarn stash with Jill’s help, we finally found a plan with purpose.

Not only have I collected a fair amount of yarn over the years, I also have many patterns in my library. Even with all this choice at my fingertips, I mostly tend to ignore them and search for something new instead. So I set an additional constraint for this project, not only would I work with yarn that had kicked around my yarn bins for a while, the pattern would ideally be from one of my bookshelves.

In late February, I swatched for a Transverse Cardigan by Ann Weaver from Interweave Knits, Spring 2010. The shape of this design is classic and I also wanted to make a few modifications to make it more penny-friendly.

Transverse Cardigan swatch

After swatching, I checked my gauge and then worked through the math, I don’t care for cropped sweaters and I’m most often found in long sleeves so I needed to make a few modifications to make the sweater more wearable. Yes, while I am petite in frame, my torso is proportionally tall. Few shirts or sweaters fit me proper off the rack. I like sweaters that hit at least at my hip, or longer. I don’t want to keep tugging to stay warm! It was easy to lengthen the sleeves, I cast on provisionally for the first sleeve and then just finished them together at the end. The maths for the body length worked out too, the numbers corresponded with a larger size, so I only needed to count properly.

It’s a straightforward knit and I found it enjoyable to work with the worsted weight after months of projects in fingering/sock weight yarns. I finished it last week, wove in the ends, and even found some buttons that work good enough for now while I’m on the hunt for better ones. I wore it at seder first night and it made me very happy.

Since posting the finished sweater on social media Monday morning, it’s received a ton of love — a wonderful surprise. It’s a nice sweater. I’m very happy with the fit. It’s something nice and new for Pesach. But I didn’t think it was that special. I used up yarn I was frankly sick of moving around the stash bins and that I had hadn’t purchased in mind to use for me. There was also one specific detail about it I desperately wanted to change, until a good friend‘s chance comment made me pause and come to terms with the colour.

2015-04-09-TransverseCardigan

Doesn’t it look like a science officer’s uniform? What Dave didn’t know when he made the comment is I knitted much of it to TNG & DS9.

Transverse Cardigan wipTransverse Cardigan
by Ann Weaver
from Interweave Knits, Spring 2010

my Ravelry project page

May we all continue to live long and prosper my friends. חג כשר שמח ושבת שלום!