After knitting the body of this Carbeth Cardigan last month, I finally got to knit the yoke over just a few evenings at the end of last week, before finally casting on my kid-sized Sólbein for the #fringeandfriendssteekalong yesterday, on a sunny January Sunday.
The Sólbein is kid-sized by virtue of simply knitting the smallest size with worsted-weight yarn (details here) on size US8 needles, and it looks like it may be coming out even smaller than I anticipated. My plan is to finish the yoke chart, block and measure it, and see where the math puts me. I’ve been thinking it will go to whichever niece it winds up fitting, but it might actually be too small for the two smallest of them (they’re 5). I won’t know till I block it, which I expect to be able to do in the next couple of days, so the recipient is still TBD for now! But I’m loving how it’s knitting up.
The Carbeth fabric is so seductive — the black OUR Yarn bulky held together with Shibui Pebble — and every day that’s cool enough for a sweater, I find myself wishing for this one. My plan here is to knit the bands and collar before the sleeves, then see how it looks with a little bit fuller sleeve. And I think I might not do the I-cord buttonholes. For those of you who’ve knitted this and worn it awhile, how are those holding up — have they stretched out or anything? I may do vertical bands for it instead.
Both of these cardigans are relatively quick projects and I wish I could knit them sequentially, but instead it’s a race to see which will get done while there’s still hope of appropriate weather. And actually, it’s a three-legged race.
Meanwhile, no change in the status of the cowl-dickey-question-mark thing I also started last month, but I’m eager to figure it out. And then I’m still mulling what’s on the horizon. I have lots of thoughts and ideas about the sweaters I’m unable to wear and what to do about it, but not ready to put anything in writing just yet …
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Just a comment on the Carbeth (FWIW). I loved making mine, but noticed that my sleeves seemed to be a different gauge than the body, and looking closely at pictures, I notices that I am not alone. Most of the others I’ve seen are the same. Bottom line- the difference between knitting stockinette back and forth on the body and in the round for the sleeves… Just wanted to point this out BEFORE you start the sleeves… just in case! (Can’t wait to see your finished results… that color is gorgeous!)
Yeah, it is not uncommon for a knitter’s flat gauge to be markedly different from their in-the-round gauge, particularly with stockinette. If your purl tension is different than your knit tension, it’s going to be most obvious in this scenario, where you’re alternating knit/purl rows on the body (stockinette knitted flat), and then switch to all knitting on the sleeves (stockinette in the round). This is why you always want to swatch the same way as you’ll be knitting. And if your gauge is distinctly different between flat and ITR of the same stitch pattern, and your project calls for both, compensate with a different size needle to maintain consistent gauge.
I don’t have a meaningful discrepancy, but I’ll also be knitting my sleeves flat, which is another option for you.
I knit a Carbeth Cardi and did the i-cord button band – the only button that does not want to stay fastened is the one where the collar joins the body. But, I have been unable to get that gorgeous vertical band on the sunny Solbein. A beautiful finish!
I’ve only done it on my Anna Vests, where it’s a lot of knitting. Two short strips of bulky (even if I knit them on 8s or 9s) would go quickly and seem worth doing. Although seaming black things isn’t my favorite.
I made my Carbeth in August, and started wearing it in September because i went to Wales, and it was a just right layer under my light weight raincoat. I have worn it at least twice a week since so that has amounted to a lot of wearings by now, and the button loops look great. This was not a new techique for me, so I already knew that one trick is to switch to a smaller sized needle just for the loops which is a very easy switch to make, and renders them tight enough to be unstretchable. The I cord edging also keeps the ribbed button band from ever stretching out and getting wobbly.
Although I know about a dozen different ways to make a knitted buttonhole, many of them leave a kind of gaping hole that I find distasteful, and this is especially true in a bulky fabric. The Icord buttonhole is a great solution to this problem, and when not being buttoned, it just sort of disappears back into the ribbing.
Part of the genius of Carbeth is that it begins kind of boring, and the genius comes at the end. There are a lot of good details in there, and although I usually play fast and loose with any pattern, this time its worth doing just as she says, because it all works together.
Oh that’s a good tip, thanks!
i adore the i-cord buttonholes on mine. and they are holding up well.
Good to know, thank you.
The i-cord finish makes the sweater for me, to be honest. It makes such a great finish to the neck, and its holding up well on mine. I wear it about once a week. Because it has a lot of positive ease, the buttonholes have not stretched out.
I agree, it’s a great detail. I feel like it may be lost in this deep dark black, but that’s good to know that yours is holding up.
I knit the sleeves flat on my Carbeth too. I hate slinging the body of the sweater around as I try to knit the sleeves in the round. My buttonholes are holding up just fine, but I don’t like them this way. I want the buttons to sit in the middle of the band and not off to the side. I also added a fair amount of length to it.
Yeah, I’m wondering about button placement if I go ahead with that. I only added 1.5″ to mine. I think I would have done much more had I not tried on Shannon’s and liked it, just needed to be a hair longer for my long torso.
This yoke is so bright and sunny, looking forward to seeing the result, as well as your Carbeth. I plan to cast on for my Solbein next week if everything works well.
It really is so fast — I did most of the yoke chart in a few hours yesterday, and I’m super slow.
I have finished knitting the yoke on my Solbein, and while the knitting was great fun and I love the yarn, I fear that it is waaaaaay tooooooo smalllllll for me! ;-(((. I did knit gauge swatches and they seemed fine, if a bit large, so I opted to knit the smaller size. I’m going to try it on my dress form, and block it. Perhaps this will go to my granddaughter, who loves any sweater that I knit for her!
Definitely block it and measure, but also remember it’s top-down so you can always adjust for your desired stitch count, as long as you like the neck size and yoke scale.
Your Sólbein color choice is magnificent! I am tempted to try a technique I saw on your blog to add “seams” to each side to keep the sweater body from being too barrel-like. Any thoughts on this?
I do like to do that with my sweaters when the body is knitted seamlessly. Gives a little bit of ballast.
love both of those sweaters! The sunshine of that yoke warms the soul!
It is very cheerful. I’m wishing the yellow and goldenrod were a little more similar in hue, but I think I’ll wind up liking it, regardless.
Oh, I think they make a nice combination! I have a series of 6 blue-greens that I dyed to be a gradient that I want to do as a yoked pullover, I am looking at this one because it is similar to what I envisioned, it helps me to see yours to see how the colors blend. Of course, now I am thinking “Oh, I should make a sunny sweater like that!” so I am reining myself in. :-)
I’ve been wanting to see it with more shades of a color for even more of a fade effect.
That sounds beautiful!
My Carbeth cardigan is holding up well on the buttonholes. I did use a smaller needle to make them. I wanted them to lay close and not loopy. I also used smaller buttons and added more because I thought it may be gappy. I am very happy with mine.
My Carbeth Cardigan gets plenty of wear and the band looks good. I lengthened it and also added smaller buttons and more of them. I used a smaller needle for the i-cord and that detail was fun to knit and pulls the finish all together.headknitwit on Ravelry I find the bulky yarns so droopy in the end. I wish I had held two yarns together for a better fabric. I have knit both the pullover and the cardigan. They are fast and fun.
I added a little length so will have to recalculate my button placements. I haven’t looked at that detail in the pattern yet, but I tend to like 1 more button than patterns typically call for, with spacing adjusted accordingly.
Soooo, no problem at all with the buttonholes on my Carbeth. Where mine is having an issue is on the raglan lines across the bust. The shoulder has started to stretch out a bit, causing the raglan line to sag. Which, in turn, makes ‘the girls’ look saggy. I’m contemplating fulling the sweater just a little bit, to firm up the fabric. I’ve fulled a test swatch, but just haven’t quite pulled the trigger on fulling the sweater yet.
I’m a little concerned about that. What yarn did you use?
I used La Bien Aimee DK (superwash), held together with a fingering weight Julie Asselin yarn (not superwash). I think the weight and the fact that the LBA is superwash is the issue. The swatch that I fulled, fulled because of the JA, and that seemed to help stabilize the LBA. Overall dimensions shrank slightly, which is why I haven’t fulled the whole sweater yet. I’ll just have to monitor it closely, when I do decide to do it, so I don’t end up with a too-small cardi. The good news is that I really like both the pre- AND post-fulled fabrics. I think if I knit this pattern again, I’d do a loftier yarn and/or a denser fabric.
The I-cord buttonholes are genius. The icord also closes the folded neckband and gives it a nice finished detail. I just finished my Carbeth, and am adding buttons but don’t plan to really button it. I thought the button holes were the neatest I have done.
I don’t like the icord button feature – it seems to pull in photos of many versions. I did a regular ribbed button band and it looks great, IMO. (The sweater was a gift for my mum and we both have boobs of note…) I prefer this style and I’m willing to bet it’s sturdier over time than the icord. I also went down a needle size to firm the band.
Compelled to comment on the Carbeth! I opted to use only three fantastic vintage buttons and they are a pretty good size, so I made mine more of swing cardigan with one at the throat, then two spaced below ending below the bust line. This works for me since this is a very warm sweater and I actually don’t like how it looks with all the buttons. The i-cord is fantastic and really doesn’t stretch out much. It really makes the whole sweater looked finished. I added length too and the just picked up more stitches for the button band. I wear mine mostly as a jacket though because of the bulky yarn… https://www.ravelry.com/projects/LooSBP/carbeth-cardigan
very nice work
The button band will not pull if you block the sweater first, and then add the I cord, adjusting the pickup to fit the blocked length. I too have “boobs of note” but I made a sweater with a lot of ease, as she suggests, and there is no pulling (which I hate)
Oh look at that little cicle of sunshine! Love the kids Solbien idea, am seriously considering copying you with some lovely merino I have and seeing if it will fit my little one any time in the next couple of years!
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