Northern Lights Cardigan

So one thing I forgot to mention about Sunday is just how wonderful Mary and Nicky are. They were both so so so sweet and friendly. And very funny when they were talking. They could have talked for hours and I feel like I wouldn't have gotten bored.

On to today's topic...

Northern Lights Cardigan

The Northern Lights Cardigan is a cropped sweater that buttons halfway down. The bottom half of the cardigan is worked in the MC (mine is a deep blue) in a ridged rib stitch pattern. The top half has all the details, multiple colors and just a few beads to create the seemingly simple pattern. I'm assuming this is fair isle (a first for me!) because I just would not want to weave in that many ends for intarsia.

Materials

So far: KnitPicks Harmony needles, KnitPicks Merino Style Yarn in Storm (MC). I ordered the rest of the yarn, but the package hasn't come yet. I haven't bought beads yet either. But this could be the perfect excuse to finally visit Beads n' Stitches.

Links

• KOTOTW Knit-a-Thon (Blog)
• KOTOTW Knit-a-Thon (Yahooo Group)
• KOTOTW Knit-a-Thon (Ravelry Group)
• Northern Lights Cardigan (Ravelry)
• Knitting on Top of the World (Ravelry)
• Knitting on Top of the World (Amazon)
• Nicky Epstein (Ravelry)
• Nicky Epstein (Official Website)

Body

So far, so good. The ridged rib pattern is fun...2 rows of garter, 2 rows of rib. It's like a break in the ribbing for some mindless knitting time. The picture above shows how much I've done with just 1 full skein so far. It knit up very quickly so far

I'm worried about the size of it. Like I said yesterday, I tried on the size small sample from the book and it was big on me! It hung very low in the armpits and the sleeves were too long as well as the body being a little big around me. I am a size small in women's, except that I'm also a petite because I'm so short (5'3"). Because of this, I'm making the sleeves now too and then I'll gauge my sizing. I might have to frog the body and make is not so wide. I wrapped what I have so far around my waist and it reaches perfectly. Which would be perfect if I didn't need to add a button band later :o(

Sleeves

For the sleeves, I'm doing them two at a time, double knit. Hopefully they don't have to be frogged after doing both at the same time! I tried to get some good pictures of it, but the stupid camera phone sucks. I really need a real camera...you know after I pay my rent and buy food. Might try to convince Roomie to sell me her old one, or maybe Brother has one around. Or maybe the former coworker who borrowed it will magically find it in her bedroom.

I've only done 4 rounds, but pulled them apart anyway so you can see the 2 pieces. The bottom half is the RS of one sleeve (A) and the top half is the WS of the other sleeve. It's slow-going knitting like this, but I just have to remember that I'm getting through both at the same time.