F.O. Acer Cardigan

Doesn't it feel great when you use up a good amount of stash yarn?  I had some Madelinetosh DK in Copper Penny that I bought some time ago and I decided to knit the Acer Cardigan by Amy Christoffers which used up about 5.5 skeins. 

I really enjoyed knitting this cardigan.  It was a nice break to use a thicker yarn after doing so many projects with fingering weight.

• the cable pattern is easy to memorize and therefore the body went fairly quickly
• it is knit bottom-up in one piece 
• the resulting sweater fits well and looks good!

I found the perfect buttons at Wal-mart!

My Modifications

• The pattern directed you to knit the sleeves from the cuff up and then seam it into the sleeve hole.  Although I do enjoy the advantages of a seamed sweater I really wasn't in the mood to do it this way. Instead I decided to do a sleeve cap and knit the sleeves in the round.  To get me started I used another pattern, called Capall Dubh by Carol Feller that I had knit before and loosely followed what was written. 
• I cast on 76 stitches and once the sleeve cap was completed I basically decreased two stitches every ten rounds and them every six rounds once I got by the elbow.  The result was a well fitted sleeve and I avoided seaming.

• When you knit a sleeve cap, as I did in this pattern, you are sometimes left with a loose looking seam.  Following advice from other Ravellers who knit this sweater I tried a new to me method for tightening up the seam by Paula Ward.  Essentially you add a second coloured yarn on the row where you pick up the stitches around the arm hole.  Then when you have knit the sleeve cap you go back and use the coloured stitches to tighten the seam.  The coloured yarn is removed and you have a much smoother seam.
• The directions for the collar had some inaccurate information.  When picking up stitches you need to pick up a multiple of 4 + 2 for it to work out evenly.
• How to do button holes were not explained.  I used a k2together yarn over to make mine.
• There was little direction given about the spacing of button holes.  I used Amy Herzog's app Knitter's Toolbox for the first time.  One of the helpful features of this app is a button spacer which made it so easy for me. However, when I was inputting the numbers, I forgot to include the number of stitches in the neckband since it is the last thing you knit.  As a result my top button is not evenly spaced.  Rookie mistake. Usually I keep my cardigan unbuttoned when I wear it so I hope no one will notice!

By the way, this app is so helpful and I will definitely be using it more in the future. Look at all the features it has:

Knitter's Toolbox by Amy Herzog

Have you been working on anything for fall yet?  Do you have any recommendations?  I find that the pattern choices are so extensive that sometimes finding the pattern you want to knit is more challenging than actually knitting it. If you are looking for a cabled sweater pattern you should definitely have a look at the Acer Cardigan.  There are almost 800 finished Acers out there so you can get a clear picture of whether this pattern is for you.

Happy fall knitting everyone!

Ravelry notes here.

On the Needles: Acer Cardigan and Herald

Look at this sweet linen bag that arrived in the mail this week from Jenna Rose Handmade:

Jenna Rose Traveller Pouch

The pattern is so simple but effective and I just love it. This bag was available in a smaller size but I thought this bigger size could easily fit at least two skeins of yarn plus the project I am knitting...it was exactly what I was looking for.  The best thing about this bag is it is made in Canada, and I do love to support my fellow Canadians. Jenna Rose hand screens fabric using waterbased pigments on natural and organic materials. Check out this etsy site where you too can buy one for yourself.

After finishing Caroline, my fingering weight sweater, I felt the need to knit with some thicker yarn.  I dug around my stash and came up with this Madelinetosh DK yarn in Copper Penny.  

Copper Penny

I looked through my queue and after doing a swatch decided that the Acer Cardigan by Amy Christoffers would be a good match.  This pattern has eyelets and cables and is knit bottom up.  I am really enjoying this knit although I am having to alternate three skeins of yarn because there is such variation.  Here is where I am so far:

June is an extremely busy month for me workwise, so I am not sure how fast I will get this done, but I shall try and pick this cardigan up and knit a bit everyday.

And since I can never have just one project on the go I also started a beautiful shawl called Herald by Janina Kallio.  Once again I dug through my stash and found this beautiful fingering weight skein of Tanis Fiber Arts Red Label yarn (75% merino, 15% cashmere, 10% silk) in the colourway slate.  This is a very simple pattern where the same eight rows are repeated over and over, and so I challenged myself to knit eight rows everyday.  Hopefully by the time the rows grow much longer my work pressures will lessen as we move through June and I will have time to knit the longer rows.  I think it will block out beautifully.

Tanis Fiber Arts Red Label:  Slate

And if you are wondering what happened to the first pair of socks I was knitting as part of the Sweet Fiber Sock Club I am happy to report that I am almost finished my second one.  I have enjoyed knitting every second of it...come join me next time where I will discuss my surprise at the whole fun of sock knitting.