Posted on 10 Comments

Because I needed a 5th green sweater

Everyday Cardigan variation, at Polka Dot Cottage

I was going to save this to show you during one of the KAL weeks, when everyone is drowning in a sea of stockinette stitch, with very little else to talk about, but I’m not very good at waiting.

A few weeks ago, back when the KAL was supposed to start, I cast-on for another Everyday Cardigan so I could knit along with you. This one was going to be a little different, though, in that it would have short sleeves. I had already knit two regular sweaters, and I just knew that I would be pretty bored doing the same thing yet again. So why not try cap sleeves?

This was the day that our heat was broken for several hours, and the temperature outside was hovering in the teens (that’s Fahrenheit, kids), so we had lit the fire and I had settled into the chair with my feet up on the brick of the fireplace, and a brand new project on my needles. I had a lot of time to think, sitting there like that, and I wondered about the idea of making a cap-sleeve version of the pattern that wasn’t a cardigan at all, but instead was a pullover.

Everyday Cardigan variation, at Polka Dot Cottage

I was intrigued. In fact, I was tempted to just throw aside the purple cardi I was working on and start the pullover right then and there, but I decided to be sensible about it. That is, if you can call working on two sweaters at once “sensible.”

So that’s what I did for the next few weeks: purple cardi collar, followed by green pullover collar. Purple cardi ribbing, followed by green pullover ribbing.

Everyday Cardigan variation, at Polka Dot Cottage

This worked really, really well until a few days ago. See, as I had suspected, knitting a pullover in the round is a much faster prospect for me than knitting a cardi back and forth. (I’m just not a fan of purling, and purl rows take me a lot longer than knit rows.) Every time I picked up the purple sweater, I felt like I was slogging through it. Every time I picked up the green one, I was having fun, seeing progress, and getting more and more enthused for the finished product.

You can probably guess what happened.

I stuffed the purple one in my knitting basket and vowed to ignore it completely until I was happily wearing the finished green one.

Everyday Cardigan variation, at Polka Dot Cottage

Today, I am happy to report, is that day.

Allow me to present my Everyday Tee. It’s a cap-sleeve pullover version of the Everyday Cardigan.

Everyday Cardigan variation, at Polka Dot Cottage

Everyday Cardigan variation, at Polka Dot Cottage

The cap sleeves are a fairly simple adjustment, and I will tell you how to do that later as part of the KAL.

Changing a back-and-forth cardigan pattern to an in-the-round pullover pattern is somewhat more complicated. I’m sure some of you are up for it, but it’s beyond the scope of this KAL. I’m considering writing up a separate pattern for it, if there’s interest.

So, my thoughts on this green pullover?

I have to admit, while I was knitting it, I envisioned myself slipping it over my head and instantly loving the way it hugged my curves and made my newly-cut, newly-reddish hair look all perky in the process. The reality is something a little less storybook.

Everyday Cardigan variation, at Polka Dot Cottage

While I do really like it (and I am pretty happy with my haircut [though the jury is still out on the color]) there’s not so much curve-hugging as I’d hoped for. This yarn (Plymouth Worsted Merino Superwash) is more stretchy than the Cascade 220 and the Berroco Vintage I’m used to knitting this pattern with, and so it’s pretty roomy. With this yarn, I probably could have knit a size smaller. Perhaps if I had followed my own swatching advice, I’d have known that going in! Live and learn. (Or, live and keep stubbornly repeating the same mistakes over and over.)

Still, roomy is ok. And I adore this color. I’ll definitely wear this plenty. I’m wearing it right now, in fact!

I guess this means I have to get back to the purple one, eh? I hope it goes quickly. I think I’m starting to burn out on cardigans…

LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH!

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Posted on 10 Comments

10 thoughts on “Because I needed a 5th green sweater

  1. Why, oh why, is the maxim “Live and keep stubbornly repeating the same mistakes over and over” NOT the more famous of the brothers, Lisa? It is certainly the proverb I live by 😉

    Cute pull. I gave up on knitting three decades ago, and kindly allow my knitaholic Sis to do the honours if I am attacked by an uncontrolable need 🙂

  2. Love this very much. please post/offer the pattern/tweak advice.

    Thanks!

  3. Love this! You are so very talented!

  4. i am so glad you finished the pullover. a perfect distraction. hope you finish the pattern soon.

  5. I just love the new pullover! Please do write it up for us.
    Wonderful!

  6. I too love the pullover and would be interested in tips or a pattern. I like that it is a bit roomy. I’m glad you enjoy the designing side of knitting as I don’t think I would have the patience to figure it out myself. Thnaks.

  7. Love it! It looks darling on you!

  8. This is really gorgeous! It feels so spring-y! I really like how it turned out, it looks great on you!

  9. Love both the purple & the green. Green’s really cute and very different from your other green sweaters! Purple pain — I completely understand. I knit continental, taught myself when I was in my 40s and saw a friend knit 10 times faster than I was. I did fine with learning to knit that style but purling. UGH! I’m so slow at it that it’s made me really hate to have to do it. So now I either knit in the round or do garter stitch. I’m learning to love the garter! HA!

  10. […] few squares. And then I remembered another project with a deadline, so I started that (along with a sweater for myself, because, hey, why not?). Back to the blanket then, but the border was a bigger yarn-eater than I […]

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