Karen Squared

Pattern: #20 V-Neck Cardigan by Deborah Newton - Vogue Spring/Summer 2004
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Worsted
Needle: US Size 6
Started: 1/13/09
Finished: 4/21/09

I made this sweater smaller than I usually would because of the cotton yarn I was using and the stretching issues I have had in the past with cotton yarn. When I tried it on after seaming it up, it was snug enough that I thought I had made a mistake in the sizing. After wearing it for a few hours at CT S&W last weekend, it had stretched enough that I was no longer concerned that it was too small.

Shine Worsted was a pleasure to work with. It’s a very slippery yarn and the Addi’s I started with had to be switched out to a needle with more grip to them, which for me is my Denise Needles. As I expected it to be, a long worsted weight cotton sweater is heavy. I noticed as I was wearing it that the weight made it pull away from my shoulders a little bit. You can see it in some of the pictures. I don’t think it will be a big problem, but I haven’t worn it enough yet to know for sure. I am going to stick it in the dryer for a bit after the next wash and I think that will help. Isn’t it funny how you can go from thinking something is too small to sticking it in the dryer? I really like the sweater and I’m betting I get a lot of use from it during the warmer months. And even though it’s a bit heavy, it didn’t seem to be overly warm.

The pattern has you pick up and knit the front and neck edges with the same size needle as is used on the body of the sweater. I had an issue with the back of the neck band flipping outwards quite a bit on my first try and thanks to the suggestions I got here, when I ripped and reknit it with a smaller size needle it looked much better. I think using a needle 2 sizes smaller would have been ideal but I didn’t have one in the size I needed that was long enough.

Did I mention I really like this sweater?

Happy Friday and have a good weekend!

ETA: I am having picture issues so they aren’t clickable to make them bigger right now until I can figure out what is wrong. I hope to have it fixed soon!

Do you know what is causing my neck band to flip outward like this?

The front edges are not flipping like that, just the neck. I picked up 3 out of 4 stitches on the sides and 1 for 1 across the neck with the same size needle as was used on the sweater. I want to rip it out and do it over but I can’t find any information on why it is doing it so that I can fix it. I really hope someone out there knows why this is happening!

Thanks!