Knitted Miette Cardigan: DONE!

After a month only, I finished my Miette Cardigan (in progress here)!

It is all blocked and buttons are sewn on, puh. I am so happy with how it turned out! It still has a few mistakes, but I don't care. I am so proud that I knitted something wearable :)

I wanted to use brown buttons, because they are neutral. But when I went to my local wool retailer, I saw these blue flowers and I just couldn't resist. Also, I made several blue garments during the last two month, so plenty of opportunities to wear the cardigan.

The sleeves are a little bit tighter and shorter than I would have liked. But hopefully they will stretch a bit width-wise. As for the length, I was knitting the sleeves in a crowded airplane and couldn't try them one. They looked long enough to me, so I started the lace pattern.

Lace detail.

I was really worried about the blocking and how I would pull the cardigan in shape. But there was no reason to! I just washed it in the washing machine (I have a wool program) and then put the cardigan on top of an old bathmat that had rubber at the bottom and fabric at the top. I then pinned the cardigan to the bathmat according to my measurements and waited for 2 days for it to dry. I wanted to show you pictures before and after blocking, but I was so excited, that I forgot to take them before. But believe, it is really worth to block your knitted make!

Fits like a glove!

How about you? Have you made any progress with your knitted makes or finished it even? I would love to hear about it :)

Flower buttons! It took me an hour to sew them on.

Next, YES there is already a next, I will knit the owl sweater by Kate Davies. The sweater has owls at the yoke and they look like the ones from my mittens. So, hopefully, that sweater will be an easy knit. I have already chosen the wool: Cascade yarns Eco+ in Merlot. I was having loads of fun winding the wool into balls. I thought it might be difficult, but no, really easy. Happy knitting!

Wool for my next project!

Knitting in progress: Miette

In case you were wondering: Yes, I am still knitting!

Not all stitches are even :( tension problems!

I am knitting Andy Sutterlands Miette cardigan, which as most of you know is a free pattern! I couldn't ask for more! Actually, lovely Thea from theasadventuresinsewingland is knitting the Miette as well and we had already a get together to knit. Imagine this: Knitting, tea and cookies and exciting chatter - just perfect :) Also, it is good to have a more experienced knitter close by when knitting such a big project for the first time.

Lace pattern

For everybody who is interested I can only highly recommend to follow the Miette knit-along by Gail from todays agenda. Gail gives loads of tips especially for beginners and also has some videos to explain the more difficult parts like taking up stitches for the sleeves or knitting the button band. Really helpful!

The wool I am using is Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran in off-white. I was lucky enough to get the wool from ebay where one ball was only 3.50£ instead of 5.50£. Win. Is it normal that wool is so expensive? Or do I for some reason always buy the most expensive one? My local retailer mainly sells Debbie Bliss and he was the one who recommended the wool to me (and than I bought it cheaper somewhere else, oh, I felt so bad).

I am knitting with smaller needles as recommended because the smallest size for the pattern is 34" bust and I am 31.5". And as you might notice, I still have tension problems although it is much better now after Thea showed my how to hold my needles properly. I also noticed, that when I am knitting one direction only (like on the sleeves in rounds) my knitting is much tighter and more regular. Also my purls are more loose than the knits and that is what I think causes my irregularities. But with practice I will hopefully get better :)



But because I am knitting more regular now than at the start (and my tension swatch) I am a bit worried that my cardigan will turn out too small over the bust. Also my sleeves are tight as well and that although I picked up a couple more stitches than the pattern stated. Hopefully with blocking, I will solve this problem.

My new knitting bag.

Up to now, I was progressing really fast and I had ample opportunity to knit on my way to and in Germany. I only say delays. Sitting in Heathrow and having to wait for 1.5 hours, than finally on the plane and having to wait for another 30 min until take off. Then 1.5 hours plane ride, another 1.5 hours train journey. At this point it was already midnight and I was two hours past my usual sleeping time so I was knitting to keep me awake in the train and luckily enough I didn't make to many mistakes.

Is the doe not cute?

Just before going to Germany, I decided I need a proper knitting bag where I can store my knitting in and can get it safely over to Germany without fearing for me knitting to slip from my needles. (I actually was quite worried they wouldn't let me into the plane with my knitting needles. I especially bought wooden ones and everything was fine.) Back to my knitting bag. I found this lovely tutorial by Shannon from luvinthemommyhood for a reversible knitting bag and coincidentally enough I had the right fabric in my stash! I bought the doe fabric in January, actually my first quilting cotton, but never found the right project to use it for. But it is perfect for my knitting bag. Every time I look at it, I think "How beautiful" :)

Hopefully, my Miette will be soon out of this bag :)

What about you? I know that several readers started there own knitting projects a while ago. How is it going? Are you already done?