Topdown V-Neck Cardigan

Pretty much everything I have been working on lately is for Christmas gifts. As usual, there will be a parade of FOs after Christmas. For now, I have to catch up on a few things I haven't posted yet.

I finally figured out what I was going to do for a closure for my moving cardigan.

After deciding that I didn't want to go the route of handmade frogs for fear that they would be too big and bulky, I bought some from the fabric store. I brought them home, set them on the sweater and thought that they made the sweater look decidedly Asian. I asked a few other people and they agreed that it didn't work. As I wasn't really looking for an Asian inspired cardigan, I finally settled on a metal clasp.

This pattern has some issues. If I had followed it as written, I would have had huge sleeves at the armhole, stranglingly tight sleeves at the elbows and a big bell at the end. That shaping did not work well with my body shape, so after a few false starts while watching the first presidential debate, I came up with a slightly better sleeve. I picked up less around the armhole, reduced less stitches by the elbow and gradually returned to the same number of stitches as I had picked up to make the flared sleeve.

My other issue with this sweater has nothing to do with the pattern and everything to do with the yarn. I bought a whole bag of this yarn and it was all the same dyelot. Yet, somehow, half of one skein was dramatically lighter than the rest. Of course, I didn't notice it until the sweater was basically done and I was too mentally done with this sweater to re-do it. That may have been a mistake. I haven't worn it since it has been finished and it might be due to that dang stripe!

This sweater is the Neck Down Shaped Cardigan #241 from Knitting Pure and Simple. I used 9 skeins of Classic Elite's Renaissance.