iced, iced cardi

 

I was actually on a pretty good sewing streak there for a while.  I sewed four skirts and finished a quilt top.  Honest I did.  But this is the first project that I feel like posting.  So here it is, my new brown cardigan.

 

I really did need a brown cardigan.  I used the Iced cardigan pattern available for free on Ravelry and modified it a bit for a closer fit.  I used size 10 needles for a tighter gauge of 13 stitches per 4 inches and I knit the smallest size.  My cardigan doesn't really close in the front because it's a little too small, but I like it this way.  Since it's summertime and I decided to make a cardigan from bulky yarn, I don't see a need to close it anytime soon.

I love the three-quarter length sleeves.  Since you get to make design decisions during the knitting process when using the top-down method, I thought about knitting full length sleeves.  I had plenty of yarn and I love being able to wrap my hands into the sleeves for extra warmth.  But I'm very happy with my decision.  These are tight fitting sleeves and the only think I needed to make sure they didn't roll was to add a purl row before the final knit row.

This cardigan is a definite keeper as you can tell from the {creepy} photo above.  I've had some bad luck lately with my cardigans; the sleeves are too big or they don't hang right.  But this one finally busted me out of that slump.  This one will get a lot of good use!

yarn name: Ella Rae Country Tweed
yarn type: 50% wool, 42% acrylic, 4% alpaca, 4% other
colorway: brown/gray 02
yardage: ~574 yards
needle size: US 10 (6.0mm) circular and double-pointed