After my first cardigan came the question: what to knit next? I knew I wanted to make another cardigan, but when I saw this lace elastic belt tutorial I figured it’d be a small and quick project to break up the longer ones. Plus, I’d like to add more belts to my wardrobe even though I hardly ever think to wear them! I’m not big on accessorizing (I wear earrings and call it a day), but sometimes it’s nice to pair a belt with a dress. So here’s my attempt at doing just that.

**Note: I found this Andi Satterlund tutorial on Tuts+, but there are errors on rounds 10 and 12. The corrections are noted on the Ravelry page so I’d recommend looking there as well.

I used:

• About 60 yards of Painter’s Palette Premium Merino wool (phew) by Koigu, which I picked up at The Yarn Company, a local store on the Upper West Side. This yarn may not have been the best choice to show off the lacework (rookie mistake!), but I do think the colors look pretty together. They add some zing to a solid-colored outfit like my peach sundress. Plus, the color changes really allowed me to see how the lace was forming, which was pretty cool.

• US 3 / 3.25mm needles with a 24″ cable.

• 1″ wide pink elastic and gold belt buckle from Daytona Trimmings in the Garment District. They even have knitting needles there (thanks Carolyn for that tip!).

One of the colors in this yarn matches my dress color – I swear!

With this belt I learned the following techniques:

• Magic loop: I used this tutorial, if you’re curious. I’ve been finding it really useful to watch videos on that website because they’re all taught by the same woman. A private lesson of sorts! It really is magic seeing this small tube come together, which started off looking like I was knitting a scarf for a wee mouse.

• Lace repeats: There are a few cardigans with lacework that I’d like to try, and I figured this small, less complex project would be the perfect practice piece. You repeat 16 rounds multiple times depending on your desired size, and I found placing a clasp marker at the end of each 16th round super helpful in keeping me on track.

Artsy “toy camera effect” setting on my camera because yep!

To insert the elastic, I stuck a safety pin to one end and slowly brought it through the knit casing. I really had to smooth things out several times to get the casing and the elastic to match lengths so don’t give up if your casing comes up short at first!

Another artsy shot with a view of midtown Manhattan from the Long Island City waterfront.

You can also see my notes on my Ravelry page. And if you have any belt pattern recommendations, I’d sure love to hear them. :-D

Happy late August, friends! Just wanted to pop in and say that I’ll be joining the Marion KAL (knit-along) that Andi is hosting. I was all set to start on the Miette cardigan, but – long story short – the yarn just wasn’t quite right for that particular project. As I was contemplating next steps the KAL was announced, and so I thought why the heck not? I find these to be helpful motivators as a knitting beginner.

I’m going with the recommended yarn for Marion, which is Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks. Can’t get over how inexpensive this yarn is: six skeins cost me just $16 total! I’m on a bit of a green kick right now (as you’ll see in my next two sewing projects) so I went with the Jalapeño color.

Marion seems like a nice project to practice knitting cables since they are only along the button band/neckline edge. Should be good times. I just discovered Kristin’s video tutorial, which really helps me visualize how cables are formed. Now the process/instructions make so much more sense, so thanks, Kristin! Didn’t realize you also had a knitting blog. :)

By the by, I am someone who never wants summer to end. It’s not that fall is bad (I guess), but it’s followed by the season which must not be named. I’m hoping that by sewing fun cold-weather clothes and knitting cozy cardigans, frigid days ahead will be slightly – slightly – less of a bummer.

Is anyone else knitting up Marion?! And do you love the fall or, like me, do you try to hold on to summer as long as possible?!

I knit my very first sweater! The Myrna cardigan by Andi Satterlund of Untangling Knots. Woohoo!

This was completed as part of the Outfit-Along, as I mentioned in a previous post. I did sew a dress in the challenge time frame (my peach dress that I shared last week), but I didn’t originally intend to wear them together. It just happened to be the dress I was making at the time and since the summer has been so busy I never got around to making the pencil skirt I had planned.

In any case, I was just so thrilled to have finished this cardigan by the deadline that I wore it with the peach dress and shared them in the OAL thread on Ravelry. A few days later, these photos were taken in Bryant Park and I’m much happier with how this cardigan pairs color-wise with my Colette Parfait dress from two years ago.

The yarn I used was Worsted Cotton by Blue Sky Alpacas. The color is Mediterranean, which is perfect since it reminded me of crystal blue water when I spotted it at Downtown Yarns at Avenue A and East 3rd Street. This yarn may be a bit heavier than what’s recommended, but I think it worked out all in all. The one issue I noticed is that it shed on my white dress. Little blue furries lightly sprinkled over the fabric. Hmm, was that supposed to happen?

Oops, should’ve evened out the cardigan before having my picture taken. :)

The pattern calls for size US 8 (5mm) needles, but after my first gauge swatch I went down to a size 7 (4.5mm).

I thought Myrna was a great first sweater project. It came together surprisingly quickly considering I really only worked on it on my subway commute, lunch breaks, and travel (and I was watching a lot of technique videos that I now know by heart – thank YOU, knittinghelp.com!). After a few false starts trying to figure out this whole knitting-a-cardigan business, I started for real in mid-June and, as I said earlier, finished by the July 31st deadline.

By the way, if you happened to buy this pattern before mid-June, or thereabouts, make sure you have the updated pattern instructions. There was an error and some people had armholes that were much too long. Since I was a bit behind, this didn’t really affect me, but I wanted to share that with you just in case. I believe you would have received an update from Andi on Ravelry (as I did).

I made my version without the keyhole at the upper back.

This is an extra small, which calls for approximately 440 yards of yarn. My three skeins gave me 450 yards, but oh did I ever struggle to make it to the end! Halfway through the bind off I ran out of yarn. I didn’t want to buy another skein so after frogging I ended up with one less row at the button band. At least now I know how to go backwards halfway through a bind off…

I was even thinking that for my next cardigan I would knit the button band first and then the sleeves. I figure it’s better to have to shorten the sleeves slightly than end up with an unfinished button band should I run out of yarn.

I wonder how I ended up with too little? One thought is my ribbing, which came out looser than the stockinette stitches. I think my purl stitches are the culprit – too loose – but I could be wrong. My finished waist circumference was 26″ and the schematic says it should be 23″. Also, the cardigan’s length is about 1/2″ to 1″ longer than it should be.

Finding the right ratio for picking up stitches, particularly at the armholes, was the trickiest part. I ended up picking up two stitches for every three at the armholes, but now I’m thinking they should have been picked up a bit differently at the sleeve cap. No idea! Anyway, it’s something to work on.

And that’s it! Thanks to Lauren and Andi for hosting the Outfit-Along, my Instagram buddies for cheering each other on during this challenge, and everyone else for having to listen to me discuss this knitting project. Oh, and thanks to Maggie of Stitch-n-Thyme (great blog name, right?!) for the moral support on Ravelry as we both ventured into the world of knitting sweaters. This somehow turned into an acceptance speech.

I’m excited to hear that the OAL will happen again next year. I’ll definitely be better prepared now that I know I can do this – I CAN knit a cardigan! Yep, I certainly can. And so can you! :) Speaking of which, did you join in too and/or will you do it next year?

Babs and Gromit, two knitting greats.

Happy Friday, all! This is quite a late post, but I’m kinda sorta joining the Outfit-Along currently being hosted by Lauren of Lladybird and Andi of Untangling Knots. I say kinda sorta because I’m not 100% sure I’ll finish in time, but I’m totally using this as the push I need to fulfill my dream of knitting a cropped cardigan (it’s the little things).

I’m working on a dress right now that would look great with such a cardigan, but I’ll have to see if I like the color combo together. The dress features a Sewaholic Lonsdale skirt with a Sewaholic Cambie bodice and Vogue 2902‘s neckline (I’ll explain the whole random combo thing in the finished project post).

Yeah, so back to the knitting part. Knitting and me go way back, but it’s been an iffy relationship. Sure, there’s half of that boring scarf I started, um, 10 years ago maybe? And the squares that my friends and I were going to knit into a baby blanket for a classmate’s newborn that, oh, just turned nine.

But, hey, I did start to get on the right track with the snood seen round the world thanks to Karen of Did You Make That? fame. Clearly I’m on the up and up!

So here we go! My first attempt is Andi’s Myrna cardigan, the official design of the knitting portion of the OAL. Yay! Exciting! In the past few years I’ve been thinking how nice cropped cardigans would look with my dresses and high-waisted pencil skirts, and they are truly the reason why I want to knit. So why not just knit them? I love a creative challenge, and the projects I’ve done in the past, while useful, just weren’t that exciting to me. And as they say in the musical Damn Yankees, “You’ve gotta have heart.”

Anyway, this is still very much a sewing blog (my love for life!), but I’m excited to tackle these cardigans. Like Lauren mentioned in a past post, I feel like a total Andi groupie. I really just want to make a bunch of her designs. And I think that’s kind of fun, like someone who has a favorite author and reads most or all of his/her books.

As it turns out, knitting is quite handy in my life. From waiting in a really long line to see the Germany v. Ghana World Cup match last Saturday at Loreley (whoa packed house of Germans and about three brave Ghana fans) to my daily rides on the subway. Here’s where knitting has also come into play:

Enjoying a beautiful Saturday in Bryant Park with friends as I completed my gauge swatch. I had no idea you’re supposed to make one of these before starting, by the way. Thankfully I happened to see this on Andi’s Instagram feed! Oh, and seated next to me may just have been two pieces of fabric to make the Grainline Studio Maritime shorts. Yep, snuck in a trip to the Garment District while I was in the area. :-D

Contemplating chopsticks and knitting needles over lunch in the garden next to our office. Perk!

Chillin’ with Basquiat (he seems to approve?) by my cousin Andres Bella.

Dog-sitting and catching up on the latest with old man Jepetto. I had to bug him to get him to look at the camera, otherwise he would’ve happily kept on snoozing with that ball of yarn on his side.

Awaiting some tasty dim sum (I’m pretty sure these guys know what I’m going to order every time I set foot in here).

Sitting at a city agency public hearing for work as I await the application I’m here to see (waiting time varies by month). That guy on the right looks like he could use a rewarding hobby too.

And finally, admiring the sunset views of midtown Manhattan as I finish the upper back. You hear that, New York? One complete Myrna is comin’ for ya! (Please fit.)

As you can see, I omitted the keyhole in the back. If you’re making this cardigan note that there was an error in the instructions that has now been updated. I’ve had to frog this baby (now that’s a phrase) a few times, which is why the piece you see in all these photos hasn’t really changed in size. It’s cool, it’s cool. I’m learning.

I’m working with Blue Sky Alpaca worsted cotton on size US 7 (4.5 mm) circular needles, both of which came from Downtown Yarns at 45 Avenue A (between 3rd and 4th Streets). It has a cute little screen door. The yarn color is Mediterranean, which is perfect because it definitely reminds me of crystal blue water. :-D

Oh, and I’m on Ravelry! I’m still the same ol’ sewinintherain over there (knittinintherain was taken, alas!). Anyone else participating?