The Ending of One Project and the Beginning of Another One

I saved a pattern from VOGUEknitting in 2010 called Botanica Medallion Cardigan designed by  Shiri Mor. Last Fall 2015 I finally knit the pattern for myself. I loved it but found it was a little too tight for me to wear comfortably. I was too conscious of the stretch across my back. In the Summer 2016 my granddaughter Emma visited me and the cardigan went home with her. But I really liked that pattern, so I decided to knit another one, a little larger, for myself again.

I used larger needles and thought I could knit the center medallion using two circular needles rather than 4 DPNs. I was wrong. The middle of the medallion dimpled and I everything I tried to block it smoother didn't work. The yarn is an acrylic, which doesn't block well anyway. The only reason I bought that yarn was because I liked the sheen and the color. I couldn't find either, at the stores available to me, in any other natural yarn. So I bought it.

So in order to make the medallion lay flatter, I made the decision to re-knit another medallion using the DPNs instead. I wasn't sure this would be any better, but I was willing to try anyway.







Here is the first medallion knit on two circular needles.












Here is the second medallion knit on DPNs.








After the DPNs couldn't handle the increases, I changed to a circular needle that I kept changing to a larger size as the increases made the medallion larger. I was using the extra size needles to provide the stretch I thought would keep the puckering in the center from happening.








This show the difference from the first medallion knit on 2 circular needles and the second medallion knit on DPNs and then larger and larger circular needles.



Quite a difference and I am glad I decided to re-knit the medallion. I repurposed the yarn in the first medallion back into the band that was knit to go around the center. So all yarn was used successfully.

This stitch pattern forms the edge of the band that is connected to the outer edge of the medallion. It is a series of knit and slip stitches. It is very firm and flat. I like it. I plan to use it in some of my future designs.  The photo on the left shows the front side and the photo on the right shows the back side.








These two photos show the front and back side of the lacy fan edging that scallops at the edge. This is the part of the band that will fold back around the neck making the collar and shawl around the neckline.







This is the band in progress on the left and the band completed on the right. There were a total of 192 stitches around the medallion. So I knitted 192 rows for the band to match. This meant I didn't need to measure anything to see it the band was long enough to encircle the medallion. Every row of the band matched each bound off stitch on the medallion.





On the left, one inch of the shorter side of the band is folded to the inside and sewn down. The two ends of the band are then sewn forming a circle. The photo on the right shows the circular band and the circular medallion being sewn together. Armholes were left open on either side of the medallion.







Completed cardigan. See how the center does not pucker now? I'm very pleased with the finished result. This one I will keep. Now to find the outfit to enhance its beauty and showcase it.











With that project out of the way, I began my next Cable Me One Side - Rib Me The Other project. I'm calling it "Emma's Sweater".


I purchased white Sport weight wool yarn from Knit Picks because I didn't have enough in my stash to complete the project. This sweater will have long sleeves thus requiring more yarn than I've used for my other projects. And I've used up most of my yarn stash except for just a few selections, which weren't appropriate yarn weight for a sweater.


I knit a swatch from some waste yarn that I had in the Sport weight. I used it to determine my cable pattern and gauge.

.

The left photo shows the back and the right photo shows the front of the swatch. The cable pattern at the top is vertical to each cable and tight. The cable pattern starting on the third row lengthens the cable and inter-switches the cable connections. I am going to use the longer cables.





I then measured all the stitches per inch and rows per inch to determine the gauge. Using that as my guideline, I configured the number of cast-on stitches required for each of the sizes X-Small, Small, Medium/Large, 1-2X, and 3X. Then using measurement tables for those sizes I calculated what the lengths should be for the back, front, and sleeves. Now I was ready to begin knitting while charting and writing the pattern's instructions.

The new design project has begun...

So far the number of cast-on stitches fit the size measurements and the required stitches for the cable pattern I've planned. Hooray!

I'm making the Medium/Large size as my sample. Hopefully, if that one fits all the requirements, especially fitting me, then I won't need to make any further samples.