…of The Unofficial Olympic Temptest rides in Spring Fling Mondo!

Can you believe 2 sweaters in such rapid succession?

Here are the details…

Pattern: Mondo Cable Cardi with Cap Sleeves by Chic Knits
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in GoGo Grassy (2.25-ish skeins)
Knitting Enabler: Cherylz
Yarn Shop Enabler: The Knitting Experience
Needles: Sizes 8 and 6 Addi Turbos
Modifications: I “slimmed down” the neck band for spring weather.  I also think I’m going to leave off the buttons in favor of closing it with a shawl pin.

Thoughts:  During my Spa: Knit and Spin weekend with Cherylz, starting this sweater was all that she could talk about and apparently it rubbed off!  There is actually so much to write about Spa, but for the sake of posting this sometime this century, I’m going to jump ahead to our trip home when we stopped at The Knitting Experience (which is rather like the knit shop version of “Cheers” btw, I just wish it was not as far away as Maine!).  I loved the pattern when I saw it. Choosing the yarn was a bit difficult, but after knitting with Dream in Color Smooshy and knowing how soft the merino is, how could I not choose it?  I had some doubts about the color not being sophisticated enough for the design, but I think that due to all the subtle variations and depth that it has, it works great for a Spring Fling Sweater – one which also goes great with jeans!

Well, I’m running out of time for now…  I have a couple of smaller  finished projects to post and a couple to start. I also have last year’s spring sweater to finish.  I don’t know… we’ll see!

Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Oh yeah, and a few more photos:

My husband was making me laugh!

Check out all the subtle colors!

Love these cables!

I like this photo the best because it makes me look way thinner than I really am.  I think it is the stripes.

I started this sweater prior to the Olympics and finished after the Olympics, but the main bulk of the knitting did indeed occur while watching the Olympics.  So I think that officially this can count as my official Unofficial Olympic sweater.

Pattern: Temptest by Ann Weaver

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Punky Fuchsia.  I purchase 4 skeins and used about 2.  I overdyed 2 skeins for the darker orchid stripe.  I used less than 1 of those and just touched in to the second of the plain Punky Fuchsia.  I have probably enough to make a whole ‘nother one of these if I reversed the stripes.

Needles: Mostly size 7 Addi Turbo with some 4 for the bands and a 10.5 for binding off.

Modifications: I can not stand 3/4 length sleeves.  I just can’t. I don’t know why as most of the time I push up my sleeves, but to just have them 3/4 length to begin with drives me absolutely nuts!  To make these sleeves longer, I added 1 entire stripe plus a partial stripe.  After reading through a lot of the notes on Ravelry, I found that a common problem people had with knitting this sweater was with the sleeves being too tight.  Because of this and the fact that I always have that problem anyway, I started knitting the sleeves with the directions for my size (35), but increased up to the next size (37) for the shoulder shaping.

Issues and things I would do differently if I were to do this again: First, I would not slip the first stitch of every row especially in the shoulder shaping areas.  The pattern says that slipping makes it easier to seam, but so not so for me. I just didn’t have enough bars to use and had to sometimes go in further to seam (which I think used up precious shoulder room.) Second, I would read the pattern better!  I just now (!!!!) noticed that it recommends using a Sewn Bind Off.  That would have been very helpful had I noticed it, as the first time I bound off, it was a puckered sweater from hell.  I had to go all the way up to size 10.5 needles to get a loose enough bind off around the button bands and neckline.  I think I would have also picked up a few more stitches along the way, but it seems okay now so just a few more would be good, not too many more.

Other things to note: Seaming took an ENTIRE DAY. I’m not kidding.  Dedicate a day to stay in your jammies and watch movies.  This is also not a very photogenic inprocess sweater.  I did take photos and did intend to blog about it along the way, but really each piece just rolled up into a tube before blocking.   Can you believe that I did not own a blocking board before this sweater?

And one more thing I forgot to tell you: While this is may be my official Unofficial Olympic Sweater, I don’t think I won a Gold Medal — I would give it probably about a Bronze Minus.  I found knitting fingering yarn on size 7 needles to be very confungling!  I kept accidentally knitting into the stitch below and my stockinette was a disaster.  I spent quite a bit of time unknitting. While I think I fixed most of my mistakes, there were a few that persevered and I know that they are there.  I really thought that this would be one of those obviously hand knit sweaters, but when I wore it to work today, I didn’t get the usual, “Hey, did you make that?”  So maybe it is okay after all…  I’ll probably forget where the mistakes are in a few years anyway.  I mean, I can’t find my major Tangled Yoke mistake anymore after all.

13 buttons found at JoAnn’s Fabrics.  I consider it a streak of luck to have found the perfect color in the correct quantity on the first try!

I love the design element of the thin, slimming stripes in the middle.  So smart that designer!

The yarn is so soft and stretchy making this sweater so easy to move in.  Due to the softness of the yarn and the loose gauge, I could even wear it to work without being too hot.

I decided to just leave the ends of the sleeves as stockinette and let them curl a bit.  They do match the hem at the waist as I added a purl row where the hem folds.  I debated doing a bit of ribbing, but I do like them like this.