It’s a weird experience for me to make things I can’t talk to you about, and extra weird that there are multiple top-secret knitting projects going on at the same time right now. Going back to my May queue check, the green sweater is off the needles and awaiting its moment in the spotlight. The grey yarn up top is in the process of becoming. (Becoming what, I still can’t tell you.) The charcoal Hole & Sons and I are still having deep, meaningful, late-night discussions about its destiny. And I still plan to knit Channel this year, but haven’t settled on yarn. So that leads me to that stash of beautiful Shibui.
For the summer cardigan I keep whining about needing, I’ve been imagining some combination of the finer-gauge Shibuis and finally got to swatch for it in the car last weekend. After knitting and blocking the 3-part swatch above, I’ve settled on the combination at the bottom: Ivory Pebble + Ash Twig. The resulting fabric is 45% silk (about half recycled), 23% linen, 18% merino, 8% cashmere, 6% wool — very lightweight and soft and, well, pretty much perfect. So what will it be?
It needs to be the most basic and timeless of grey cardigans, basically, and I’ve been thinking it would be Carrie Hoge’s Uniform, but A) my gauge is quite different, at 23 sts and 30 rows per 4 inches, and B) I’m really craving top-down. Been knitting too many pieced sweaters lately, and I really want to fit this one as I go. Now that I’ve struck on the whole basted knitting approach, I have no reason not to knit top-down. And since my top-down tutorial remains wildly popular (despite photos which really need to be updated!), I figure it might be useful to knit a cardigan version and share my notes. I’m not planning to do a blow-by-blow of blog posts like the original tutorial, since most of the information is the same whether you’re doing a pullover or cardigan. So most likely what I’ll do is post abbreviated notes for each stage on my @karentempler Instagram feed, and then do one comprehensive post here on the blog when the cardigan is finished.
At 23 sts/4 inches (and with another Fringe Hatalong coming up very soon!) it could take me a little while to get there …
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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: One, two, shuffle my queue
