FO: Four Color Fable Cardigan

Um…have I mentioned how much I love sweater knitting? I was getting a little sad thinking of how the cooler temps were going to leave soon and then I was reminded of all the cotton yarn that was coming to my local yarn shops. HOORAY! But I think my Four Color Fable Cardigan will carry me into early spring.

I finished this on Saturday and wore it on Sunday and Monday. Yeah, I love this sweater. One of the big reasons why I love it so much…

I added pockets! I was excited to knit a seamed sweater because I could just have a pop of color with the stripes on the front panels and not have to juggle stranded colorwork. And since I was seaming this sweater I decided I would add pockets at the side seams when I attached the sleeves and the side of the body.

Since there were big stripes it was easy to line up my seaming so I stopped the side seam before the last two stripes on the body. Then I seamed it from the bottom ribbing up to the stripe. Above is a pick of the sweater seamed laying flat on a table. You can see the bump of the pocket but it’s pretty hidden.

I used the same pocket style from my Agnes sweater, I picked up stitches around the pocket seam (about 50), knit one round, purled one round (so it looks nice and clean) and then knit in the round decreasing occasionally until I had a pocket deep enough to throw my hands in. I finished it off with a three needled bind-off. And there you have my pocket perfection. I still need to tack the pocket to the inside of the sweater at the ribbing but that would require me not wearing it, right?

My only real issue that always seems to be an issue is that I think my shoulders are a bit broad for shawl collars. I tacked down the collar in the back but you can see my collar doesn’t really give a good fold over on the front. I also stink at button bands being perfectly straight (how do people do that?!) but neither bother me though, it’s still a warm and super soft sweater. I used the Knit Picks Mighty Stitch yarn in worsted weight again.

And these were the final options for buttons. I asked everyone for help on the glass and wood buttons and that same day at lunch I found green wood buttons that won out. It was the best of both worlds and my button stash just earned two new sets (I love buttons, they are my favorite finishing touch).

And just because I was photographing this for the blog I threw on a Yards of Happiness t shirt I made myself a while ago when I got my Silhouette cutting machine. The sparkly green lettering was a nice match to my green stripes. I love this cozy sweater so much and now I want to add pockets to everything! I’m now transitioning over to knitting some baby items for friends but I’ve got a test knit I’m going to start and hopefully finish before the month is out and then perhaps it’ll be a few shawls and some cotton weight sweaters in the future. We shall see but I just don’t see my love of sweater knitting ending even when the cold weather does.