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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'.

Comments

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

    ReplyDelete

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