Whisper

My Whisper Cardigan is finished and blocked and I love it! The yarn is Malabrigo Lace in Azul Profundo, and it was perfect for this project. It created a lovely, light, floaty, soft fabric, and the color is fantastic. And at $9 a skein, a project like this that takes about 1.5 skeins is a real bargain.

I did not, however, love knitting this. Even with Hannah Fettig’s ingenious no-front construction, it seemed to take forever. Miles of stockinette in laceweight yarn will do that to you. As you can see, I added a minorly-ruffly garter stitch cuff to the sleeves to both make them a little longer and to prevent rolling.

But even though it was a little boring to make, I’m very glad I did! This will match nearly everything in my wardrobe, and it will be great for chilly-but-not-quite-actually-cold southern california evenings. I was so eager to wear it that I took it out for a spin on Memorial Day before it was blocked, and it was that experience with the intense rolling of the bottom and sleeves that motivated me to pick up and knit that garter cuff. I also blocked the whole sweater pretty aggressively, to prevent the bottom from rolling — but I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts doing just that after a little while. I couldn’t bring myself to do a garter border on the bottom, because the idea of picking up the 160 or so stitches was too depressing.

I also knitted the back about two inches longer than the pattern recommended, because I have a very long torso. I love it! (This pattern has been taking Ravelry by storm, but in case you’re not familiar with it, it’s in the spring 2009 issue of Interweave Knits.)

Now that this is done, I have dropped all my other knitting projects — including that geometric shawl that I was almost done with — in order to try to knit that silver-gray Laminaria that has been haunting my dreams since February. I suddenly decided that I wanted to do it nownownow because I want to try to get it done in time for a wedding in July. Here it is, so far:

It looks a touch more lavender here than it is in real life, but I was pretty happy with how this picture came out. I’ve spent the past several months on a quest for a perfect light gray for this project, and I finally found it in Fleece Artist Suri Blue in the silver colorway. (Knitty Noddy was a great shop to order from, by the way — I got my yarn very quickly & the service was friendly!) So this is what I will be taking with me back to New Jersey, where I will be going to visit family and friends starting this evening. I suppose I’ll also bring along those Flaming Socks of Doom, in case a miracle occurs and I finish this in the next two weeks.

I also have for you a lovely shot of my Cairn hat in action. You may recall that I knit this for a friend who lost her boyfriend’s favorite hat, but previously I only had shots of me wearing it. Here it is on the intended recipient:

I’m very pleased by how well it suits him!

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