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tea for one

dorky FO self-portrait
i'll be leaving town tomorrow to drive down to kansas city (9 hours! both ways!) for my sister-in-law's wedding.  in preparation, i've been trying to get projects off the needles and amass the ones that have been languishing - the theory is that i can finish them in the car, and then when we return to chicago next week, i can start a whole bunch of new and exciting projects.  whether or not this scheme will actually work remains to be seen, but in any case, i did finally finish my tea leaves cardigan!

it was a tough choice, deciding which buttons to use from my stash, but finally i settled on some vintage buttons i've been saving for the right project.  i don't think i'll ever make another sweater worthy of these buttons, to be perfectly honest.  they're a bit on the fancy side, but i think they really complement the color and the pattern. 
fancy top button!

as mentioned in previous posts, i used malabrigo rios (color: cumparsita) instead of the madelinetosh dk called for in the pattern.  i didn't have to change needle sizes at all to get gauge, so the entire time i just followed the instructions for my true size.  the only modifications i made were to make the body of the sweater and the sleeves a little longer, because i like it that way!  i added an extra inch of stockinette after the sleeve decreases, and an extra 2 rows of garter at the sleeve cuffs; i also added an extra inch (or inch and a half - now i don't remember) to the body, although i didn't add any rows of garter at the bottom edge. 

i also added a buttonhole to the band, which necessitated a slight modification in the spacing of the buttonholes - i think i decided to have only 12 stitches between each buttonhole, when it was all said and done.
the other two buttons are also fancy!

it's a good thing i picked up a 'safety skein' the last time i was at nina - i ended up dipping into it for the sleeves - so if you want to make a rios version of this on the smaller side, you will need 5 skeins -  i had a little less than half of that fifth skein left over.  because i had 2 different dye lots, i alternated skeins every few rows when knitting the body.  i got a little tired of that when it came time to knit the sleeves, but luckily you can't tell the difference! 

i loved this pattern - easy to follow, easy to modify, and it's a pretty fast knit - i think that, if i had been less distracted by other projects, i could have easily made this sweater in a few weeks.  at any rate, this is my new favorite hand-knit sweater - i can't stop wearing it!  i still haven't blocked it after finishing it - i really want to, but then i'd have to wait two or three days to wear it again.  maybe when we get back from our trip...

not blocking...just rockin'.
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Comments

  1. CloudberryOctober 23, 2010 at 2:35 AM

    Love the colour!!
    Hope your sister had a great wedding!
    There's an award for you in my blog :)

    ReplyDelete

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