Whisper Cardigan: Part One

This is what I am going to consider part one of the three part anatomy of the Whisper Cardigan by Hannah Fettig from Interweave Knits Spring 2009. (The same issue with the diminishing rib cardigan I made last year.) There's an explanation of the construction with a nice schematic sketch here. Basically part one is the sleeves and back, part two will be picking up stitches all around this piece for a ribbed band, and part three will be picking up stitches at the bottom part of that band for a bottom/back section. It's a simple but clever construction that keeps me from having to do seaming. I'm not crazy about picking up stitches, but I prefer it over seaming work, and it's not so bad with certain knit fabrics. For something like this I think should be able to enjoy it. Meanwhile my knit dress is still on hold just because I have to pick up some stitches for a collar! Maybe getting a start on part two of this cardigan will help me feel prepared to tackle picking up stitches for that project.

 

The picture on the left above shows the stitches on a holder and a provisional cast on that I did rather than binding off just to pick up those stitches later. This pattern currently has 1859 projects on ravelry, and I saw that at least a few people were doing that as well, and it seemed like a good idea.

The picture above on the right shows the faux seam, which I wasn't sure I would do until it was done. I didn't really like the idea of having something that looked like a seam but was actually decreases & increases and pretty much decorative.This is surely because of so much architecture school, honesty in structure and all that. But in the end I did it thinking it'd be handy for comparing length of each side, to make sure my sleeves came out even. Plus it's a knitting project, not a building, so it also provided an interesting break from the stockinette stitch.

The Yarn is Suhrim Trading Co. Ltd.'s Muse, a yarn I picked up at Loopy Yarns in Chicago, but I believe I also saw it here in Portland at Yarn Garden. I really like this stuff in theory, but I've tried to use it a few other times on projects that never really took off. A nice lightweight, lace/2 ply vegan yarn is a little hard to find. And on top of that I'm completely won over by the sparkles. It's a Linen/Rayon/Metallic Blend. I have tried to use it in the past, but have yet to have as much success with it as I am having so far with this project. I got spot on gauge! I have a start on another sweater in the same yarn in orange still stashed away; hopefully this project will get me back into the idea of working with it again.

This project actually reminds me of a few other projects I've had in the queue before: Tubey from Knitty and the Evening Shrug from Purl Bee which have both been around for longer than the Whisper Cardigan, but somehow this was the one I got around to making first. I think I like this shrug-style construction!