I did it! I pushed my fears to the side and decided to make a custom cardigan for myself. I used the book Top Down Sweaters (I highly suggest buying it when Interweave has one of those 40% off sales), reviewed other patterns with elements that I liked and created a fitted cardigan.
Is it perfect? Of course not but I’m pretty damn happy about it. Here are the details (also on the Ravelry project page):
Yarns used:
Cream yarn is Manos del Uruguay Gloria superwash (insanely soft)
Stripes are the SweetGeoriga Party of Five worsted weight superwash
Camel yarn on the button band and edgings is Rowan Superwash in Toffee
Buttons are really fun rainbow buttons I found at my local Joann’s
Needle size is 9 for the body and 8 for the ribbing
My problem area was the collar. I wanted to do a ribbed shawl collar but as much as I love short rows I am still horrible about picking up the wraps so I have so gapping. Plus, I can’t fold the collar over but the shape is still nice, even with the little gaps from my short rows. I could’ve pulled the collar out and redone it but I was okay with it as is.
Overall, I’m pretty pleased. Plus the temps are dropping so I can actually wear this to work (I threw this on yesterday to take photos and then changed into another top). And this was less than 2 weeks of knitting. Those size 9 needles were moving! Now on to my next project and probably making a couple of versions of this for my sisters and my mom.
Yards of Happiness 
Gee that was fast! Looks lovely! I would never have guessed camel coloured bands! Very nice!
What happened with the ribbing? Is that the short row situation? I’ve done Carol Feller’s free Short Row class on Craftsy and can really recommend it. It’s basically a practice thing…Plus, due to all the test knitting I’ve been doing, I learned another Short Row method called Shadow Wraps… I think of all the ones I’ve tried, Shadow Wraps and Japanese Short Rows (with the safety pins) come out the neatest… Hope this helps!
http://Www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/knitting-daily/sock-knitting-shadow-wrap-short-rows/
Well I thought I was doing okay and picking up the wraps but I had small gaps evenly spaced around the collar so clearly I didn’t do as well as I thought I did. I did a lot of short rows on the Togue Pond tanks I did this summer and by the third tank you couldn’t see them but when I added a 2×2 ribbing to the mix it wasn’t as flawless. Oh well!
I LOVE those buttons!
My Joann’s has an awesome selection of buttons. I love their button isle.
Congrats!!! Looks good ^_^
Thank you!
Looks awesome!
This is so cute!