Tuesday 14 October 2014

Wendy Supreme Crossover Cardi

I recently downloaded a free pattern that appeared on my Facebook page, thinking it would make a terrific summer cardigan for my daughter.  I've not knitted a crossover cardi before so it was an interesting challenge and quite simple - you just have to stay on top of the decreasing!  Like a good, organised knitter, I read through the entire pattern first to make sure there weren't any pitfalls and spotted information missing from the tie.  It wasn't information I could work out myself because I couldn't (from peering at the pattern) work out what stitches I was supposed to use for the tie!  I duly wrote to Black Sheep and the publishers of the pattern and eventually got a reply.  I got several, in fact, to say that they were working on it.  Patiently, I went off to knit something else.  In fact, I think I finished several old projects that had been hanging around for a while!  Always nice to finish stuff and get it out the way.  At last I got a reply from CarolAnn at Thomas B. Ramsden who discovered another mistake in the pattern - the slope of the crossover fronts.  Interestingly, while knitting them, I thought I'd made a mistake in my decreasing (always possible!) but made sure that I ended up with the right number of stitches for the shoulder.  What was odd was that I thought I'd made the same mistake with both the left and right fronts - how is that possible?!  But in fact, the error wasn't mine.  However, after all that, the cardi actually looks fine and you'd never know there are errors.  I would have to knit it again to see any difference.  
I found the Wendy Supreme Luxury Cotton dk lovely to work with - very fast, very neat, no splitting stitches.  Particularly good on those horrible hot humid days that we had so many of in summer, the kind of days you just don't want to knit (but know you'll go nuts if you don't!)  I didn't work up a sweat at all with this yarn, so think I'll make another crossover next summer, though my daughter wants longer arms - we both like our sleeves to actually reach our wrists!
..........Oh, dear, I could just tear my hair out - my camera won't connect to my computer and the card port is bust.  So I can't upload any pictures!  Will have to do it later via my daughter's computer, which is sick as a dog but at least it's card reader still works!  However, I have managed to acquire a photo from the pattern itself!  I knitted it in the orange shade 1951 (that's the shade number, not the year!)
(LATER)  My daughter Skyped the pictures over so I've added them below!


I used satin ribbon for the inside tie

The complete cardigan - the colour is just right for autumn!