New Patterns, part 2! Lása Olann Cardigan

This one was a nail biter. OK, it was for me ;). There was no former project to scavenge for this sample, so I ordered some Cascade 220 in Burnt Orange from my LYS. In mid-August. Granted, not the time they usually stock wool, so when they said it would be about a month to get it in, I didn’t sweat it. Heck I was way too busy in September to knit this up anyway.

September came and went, no call. October came in a flurry, and even though I didn’t have time then either, I did call to check on the status of the order – nothing in yet, no ETA. Then I started to get worried – I mean, much of the reason I chose the burnt orange was to compliment the fall colours (which can be notoriously fickle in both onset and duration) – things were getting pretty vibrant out there… I call again the end of the 3rd week of October and YES! The order is in!! Fabulous. Oh, wait, my colour is back ordered. So not good. No ETA on it. But they did have a popular Heathers colour called Provence that was rust/orange/flecks of green and yellow that was similar to a burnt orange, did I want that?

Ummm, YES!

I think by the time I picked up the yarn and wound a few balls, it was around the 23rd. We’re talking one good wind storm away from all the leaves disappearing. I start whipping up a sleeve… only to find out that my gauge was different with the Heathers than with the Cascade 220 Wool I swatched with. Panic or different fibre tendencies, I have no idea, but back up to 4.5mm needle I went, ripped, and started over. (Sleeves are such good gauge swatches!)

Sleeves done in a couple of days, excellent. Start the body. Flying through the lace – realize I’ve missed the start of the decreases for the Petite version. Ah, well, cardigans are great when they are longer, aren’t they? So I made up a standard size C (one size larger than the Pullover and Tee samples).

And sewed in all the ends on October 29th. There’s something to be said for knitting up something similar to two other things I’d made, but still I think that’s a finger speed record for me. I was surprised I didn’t end up with wrist problems after that!

So DH and I go off on Oct 30th, looking for a spot to take pictures. And in the suburbs, all the leaves had hit the dirt :(. So we start driving downtown, where DH saw lots that morning – and then exclaimed as we were driving in that “those trees were covered 6 hours ago!!”. By the time we made it to a park beside campus, we were very relieved to see at least a few leaves still around – we cut this down to the wire!

In the end, the standard size is actually too big on me (it looks like the waistline is actually on my waist, when it’s written to be an empire), but oh, is the Cascade ever soft and warm. Especially when I’ve done the first half of the photoshoot in cotton :). The colour is a rich rust/orange, perfect for fall, and has no pink undertones in it (that my monitor kept showing me when I was trying to pick out colours from online catalogues!).

(Click on the pictures, or on the link in the sidebar, for more info on the pattern and buying options.)