I forgot they take so long

Nothing but Ysolda’s Coraline could have tempted me from my current knitting sock addiction. Ever since she posted a picture of the smocked yoke in progress I’ve been waiting for that pattern to appear. Waiting is not really the correct word; more like obsessively lusting over the sweater would be closer to the point. And as it is with all things obsessed over, an import point was forgotten until pattern was actually mine. I forgot that I’m not gamine or even willowy, instead I’ve been described as a brick house. (How did that phrase get coined? It’s not like “junk in the trunk” that kind of gives you an understandable visual)
No waist shaping is usually a great way to look 10 pounds heavier but I waffled a bit since Coraline is a cardigan. Finally decided to error on the side of caution and put in some waist shaping even though that involved … MATHS. Retook all my measurements (found out my waist is no longer 29 inches Gahh!!) , knit an actual 4 inch gauge swatch, and got out the calculator since I have a tendency to drift when dealing with MATHS.

For interested Ravelry users here are the details... to my family sorry it may just put you right to sleep.

Things to consider -my bust, waist, hip measurements are 36, 30, 40 and I'm short waisted. The gauge I was working with was 22st x 28 rows in 4 inches. Knitted Ysolda's size 34 inch bust Coraline since my stitch gauge was larger. After blocking merino et Soie gained almost inch of length.

1. Decreased the cardigan length to 20 inches because of the junk in my trunk.

2. The the waist area measurement I wanted to get down to was 33 inches, leaving 3 inches of ease. Size 34 uses 206 stitches in the body which made a hem width of 37.5 at 5.5 st an inch. With this gauge it would take 6 rows of decreases to get near a 33 inch waist measurement. Then I planned on increasing back to 206 stitches for the bust.

3. The decrease or increase interval -being short waisted there are 7 inches of area to decrease over the hip but only 4 inches to increase before hitting the bust. I wanted to space the decreases/increases out so I decided to decrease/increase on the knit side, purl back, knit straight, purl back and then decrease/increase. So 3 rows between each decrease/increase.

4. Placement in cardigan - I divided 206 by 4 and placed stitch markers at 51 st in from the front edge on each side. The decrease/increase was made 1 stitch away from the marker. Knit the sweater hem as Ysolda directed and then another inch of knitting for a total of 3 before starting the decreases. For my shape I knit 3 decreases every other knit row, then 1 inch of straight stockinette, finally the last 3 decreases every other row.
This got me up to my waist area where I knit straight again for another inch.
After this was complete I knit all 6 bust increases every other row without the break in the middle. Stitch count is now up to 206 and I knit until the body was 14 inches pre blocking.

The only other change made to the design was to make 3/4 length without the gathering. I love that look on other people but can't pull it off myself (damn my WASPY genes)

1. I cast on 60 st and knit the cuff the same way as the sweater hem, increasing to 64 stitches where the cuff is turned. Knit straight at 64 st until the sleeve was 11 inches (unblocked measurement) Then increased to 72 stitches and knit till sleeve was 13 inches unblocked.

This post needs a little color so here's the newest frog addition hiding out in the yarn basket. He likes the teal yarn.