Stripes and Spots Cardigan

You know that sweater I was wearing on my birthday?  I made it! And, I didn't just knit this one, I made it up, too!  The Sweater Wizard software helped me with the math and the stitch pattern came from one of Barbara Walker's stitch dictionaries. Coincidentally, I tried to find a link to the software I used and found that the company closed today (I am writing this on 1/10/13).  Apparently my copy of the software just became more valuable than Twinkies.

The stitch pattern is called Stripes and Spots.  The buttons were purchased from Borealis Yarns right before THEY closed.  Geeze.  Maybe there is a theme to this sweater.

Although, I am not officially making it a goal to knit down my stash, it feels quite rewarding when a sweater is created out of my stash.  The brown Smooshy yarn from Dream in Color is from deep, deep stash.  I got it as part of a barter with Sally in 2007! The green was from about the same time, maybe even slightly before the barter.  I had a skein of the blue, but I ended up buying 2 more.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that it didn't come together as easily as I may be making  it sound.  Case in point:

• For one, the sweater is VERY fitted.  It actually feels more comfortable with a sleeveless shirt/camisole under it than a long sleeved shirt.  That isn't very ideal for my climate.  Perhaps it will loosen up as it gets worn more.
• Secondly, I had to knit the torso twice. The first time I knit it, I blocked it and it was too long.  I ripped it back and knit it again.  I had to rip back quite a bit because of the stitch pattern on the bottom.  In the end, I think the perfect length would have been between the two lengths.  I wasn't about to knit it a third time.
• Lastly, in buying extra skeins of the blue, I had to get a different dye lot than the skein from my stash.  I may have mixed up which ones were which in the process of ripping and re-knitting.  I suspect I used a different dye lot near one of the cuffs.  I can spot the difference, but others have told me it is fine.  Perhaps you'd like to weigh in?  It is the cuff that is visible in the photo above.

I enjoyed making this sweater and have once again learned that I need to take better notes when I am "designing", aka "trial and error with a little bit of math."  I wrote up the pattern using the software but then changed a lot of it as I knit it.  I originally planned for this to be a standard cardigan with buttons all of the way down.  So, I obviously altered my original pattern/plan quite a bit.  I wish I would have written it down!

Ravelry link
Thanks to Paul for being willing to pull the car over to get out and take pictures of his crazy wife in the freezing cold.  He is getting to be really efficient with these knitting shoots! He took the Ramona hat pictures, too!