My Red Tea Leaves Cardigan is Finished

I believe Tea Leaves is my favorite cardigan of all time. Combine the softest merino wool (Tosh Merino) with a great fit and interesting detail and you have a sure winner. The neckline is perfect. I did add a short row or two in the first band of garter stitch at the back neck edge but I probably would not do that again as I do not think it matters.

Modifications:

• Added about 1 inch of short rows in the back between the armholes and the garter border so the back would not ride up. (ala Elizabeth Zimmermann).


• Widened the sleeves by about 2 inches by casting on extra stitches at the underarms. They were too close for comfort


• Used Elizabeth Zimmermann's One-Row buttonhole instead of the one in the pattern. I tried it on a swatch and preferred my old stand-by. The next time I knit this sweater I will make the buttonholes just one stitch smaller to accomodate a slightly smaller button.

The ceramic buttons are from Heartstone Ceramics on etsy.com. I think they set the sweater off nicely.

If I had remained monogamous while knitting Tea Leaves, it would have been done in two weeks. What a fun sweater to knit!

Off the Needles

I have finished 3 projects in the past 3 days: Summit, Tea Leaves Cardigan, and Baby Sophisticate Cardigan. That's me in the photo using Summit as a bug deflector in the dusky evening woods. It's just a wee teaser as Summit is to be gifted soon. Ravelry notes are up.

We almost always have some wind here but today the winds have been unusually strong. Garbage cans and recycling bins were rolling all over the streets. I tried to corral some of the neighbors' cans and pick up some errant garbage but the attempt was somewhat futile as there was so much blowing around. It will all settle down this evening. This morning I drove across the river to get my new glasses adjusted for about the 10th time. Driving home across the bridge, the wind gusts were a little bit scary. I was gripping the wheel with some force to keep the car steady.

It's so exciting to have all my current knitting projects finished. The only unfinished project is Shalom, which I decided to unravel to the armholes for about the 3rd time. If Shalom doesn't work this time, I'm going to use the Ecological Wool for another project. I am enjoying planning the next project. It won't be long before I have one or two projects going.

I'm off to pipeband practice this evening. We're getting ready for our competition season which begins in the middle of May. I'll need a portable knitting project that doesn't require a lot of brain power to take along to the all-day events.

If you live in our currently gusty area of the U.S., hang onto your hat and the fence post when you go out!

Tea Leaves Cardigan Progress

Tea Leaves Cardigan is coming along nicely. I finished the yoke and about two inches of the body. Then I knit one of the sleeves, jumping up one size on the pattern. When I tried it on it was a bit like having my blood pressure taken. It seems the style now is for rather snug fitting sleeves. So I took out the entire sleeve and added 9 stitches (about 2") to the underarm. This larger version is still plenty snug for me. I haven't decided whether to make the sleeves 3/4 length, as the pattern calls for, or full length.

The color of the sweater is vermillion, not hot pink. I can't get a good read on the color with my camera. The body fits nicely.

The top of the sleeve only measure 11" around. My arm is about 12". This photos is closer to the true color of the Tosh Merino.

I had to get my hands on some of Knit Picks' new Stroll Tonals. This superwash merino is quite nice, isn't it? I had baby sweaters in mind when I ordered these but they could also become shawls or socks. The Spring Green and Gold Glow are my favorites, although I always love a good red.

The Day I Met Tosh Merino

So luscious you could eat it...that is Madelinetosh's Tosh Merino. (Doesn't "Tosh Merino" sound like a name for a cad in a romance novel or a soap opera?) I tried knitting Tea Leaves Cardigan by Melissa LeBarre with ordinary worsted in a color called denim. I had bought this wool on sale to make a knock-about sweater for my husband. It was the only wool in my stash and so I repurposed it for Tea Leaves.

The Master Plan: This would be a trial run with the blue wool. If I liked the sweater, I would buy Tosh Merino to make the Real One. Who was I kidding? Blue isn't even my color! A quarter of the way down the yoke, I put the thing down and looked online for a source for Tosh Merino since my LYS does not carry it. After reading rave reviews about Tosh, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Tosh's popularity is evidenced by it being out of stock in many venues.

I found a great selection at Eat, Sleep, Knit. All of the original colors (all rather neutral) I had selected were sold out. Then my eye landed on Vermillion, which looked like a dark pink on my monitor. The name of the yarn implied it was red, so I took my chances, and am oh-so-happy I did!

Yes, I know the last sweater I made for myself is red, but can a girl have too many red wool sweaters? Not when one of them is in Tosh Merino. This is the softest merino wool I have ever encountered. I confess that I gasped when I first touched it. Then I beetled over to my skein winder! Are you familiar with Malabrigo worsted? Tosh seems even softer. From a distance it looks like a solid red, but upon close examination, subtle shadings are revealed. The day the package arrived was so warm that I was able to sit on the deck, happily knitting a swatch in the sunshine.
So far, the pattern and the Tosh are a delight. The package arrived on my doorstep in just 3 days with standard shipping. I was impressed! Plus I got a little present in the package AND sample cards of all the other lines that the shop carries.

Full Disclosure: If you go to Eat, Sleep, Knit, by clicking on a link in my blog, and place an order, I will get a $5 credit. I will get yardage in the yarnathon for every landing on the site from here. You can sign up too! (But I would be writing all this with or without a the store credit.) At the rate I am knitting with Tosh Merino, every itty bit helps. After going for quite a while without buying wool, I seem to be on a reckless path at the moment. I am totally wild about my fingering weight wool from The Woolen Rabbit and now Tosh Merino. Oh dear.

P.S. Can someone else using Blogger tell me why the Preview is no longer working? What I mean is that I do preview the post and it looks fine. Then when it is published, it looks nothing like the preview. I don't get it.