My knitting has been OFF THE CHAIN lately with regards to how productive I am. I don’t feel like I’m knitting any faster or even more frequently than usual, but I’m averaging a finished piece every month and a half or so. My ultimate goal is to replace all my cheap/pilled acrylic RTW sweaters with beautiful wool handknits, so I like to think I’m making good progress here 🙂
And here’s my newest one! Isn’t it pretty?
(I know these pictures are awful and washed out; I tried using my camera on “auto” for this photo set. Um. NEVER AGAIN, holy shit).
This pattern is Audrey in Unst. It’s been in my queue forever – I actually started swatching it with the purple yarn that eventually became Peggy Sue. The pattern calls for DK weight yarn, but I could NOT get gauge with such a heavy yarn (I’m a loose knitter), so I set the pattern aside and made, well, Peggy Sue.
Two sweaters later, I was ready to try again. I’ve been very good about stash-busting for the last few projects, so I treated myself to a new fancy yarn from my local yarn store. This is Malabrigo sock yarn – a merino wool in a light fingering weight. Again, I know the pattern calls for DK weight but since my gauge was all crazy (and when I did get the stitches small enough, they were so tight that the fabric felt stiff), I took a leap of faith and sized down in both yarn and needles.
Spoiler alert: it worked!
I still consider myself a relatively new-ish knitter, so please don’t take my word for gospel, but I assume you can go up or down a yarn weight as long as your gauge swatch matches that in the pattern. I had the same number of stitches per inch, even though my yarn was lighter and I was using size 2 needles, and my cardigan fits perfectly. Which is even more impressive to me, since this sucker is knit bottom-up – which means I couldn’t try it on as I went. I’m so daring, y’all.
This pattern was very straightforward and easy to follow, although I gotta say – I don’t like how she wrote some parts of it. When doing repeat rows, she doesn’t give you an exact number of rows to do, or a finished measurement, so at first I was kind of guessing and hoping I was following along correctly. Think like: “repeat decrease row every 4th row one time, then every 7th row five times.” Usually a pattern will follow up with: “… for a total of 39 rows.” I like to follow patterns that hold my hand through the process, so I didn’t like that. But, you know, minor complaint.
I knit the size 32.5 for everything except the waist and the sleeves, which I did in the size 30.5. This was pretty easy – the pattern gives you stitch counts, so once I got to the waist shaping, I just continued decreasing until I got to the stitch count for 30.5. When it came time to increase, again, I followed the stitch count until I had the same stitches for the 32.5. I wanted my sweater to be very fitted and it is exactly that!
I love how it looks open.
Fingering weight might be my new favorite yarn weight. It feels so dainty to knit up on tiny needles, and it feels SO NICE to wear in this heat! Not bulky or hot at all! Well, ask me again come winter, but for now – fingering weight FTW!
It does feel drapey and stretchy, which makes me slightly anxious and gives me flashbacks of cotton yarn stretching out, but I took these pictures after wearing the sweater for an entire day and the shape is still nice. That’s wool yarn for ya!
Isn’t the yarn such a pretty color? It’s slightly variegated – enough for visual interest, but not so much to take away from the design of the sweater.
I love the lacework at the yoke! So much fun to knit!
The twisted rib too foreeeever, but it does look nice.
I tried to get a good picture of the buttons, but it was difficult. They have an argyle design etched into them. I bought these specifically for the sweater at last month’s flea market – they were kind of expensive (they’re from the 20s-30s and the guy tells me they are vegetable protein), but they are perfect so I had to.
I guess that it’s! Full Ravelry notes are here!
LLADYBIRD 
Gorgeous!! Isn’t fingering weight awesome? Welcome to the world of lightweight sweaters. I started an Audrey in Unst once but petered out due to falling out of love with the color, but it’s still on my future list to knit.
And yep you are right about the gauge swatch, although as you found you might notice a difference in the feel and drapiness of the fabric. I mess with pattern gauge and yarn all-the-freaking-time. 😉
Consider me sold! I LOVE fingering weight now, yay!
I have some fingering weight in my stash but as a relatively new knitter, I have always followed the ravelry recommendations for yarn weight. Definitely need to try modifying the needles and yarn so I can finally use the yarn!
The only thing I’ve used that weight for was Elphaba (on Ravelry), which I did with KnitPicks Palette. I guess that was more sport weight, but I LOVE it.
I’m kind of torn – I adore the look of lightweight knits, but they take sooooo much longer compared to chunky ones. I did o w l s in 14-ply and it was blocking three weeks after casting on.
But I think I need more cardigans in my life. So much more versatile than jerseys!
I love cardis so that is what I normally knit. I totally agree about the lighter weight stuff taking FOREVER to knit (and I am 47 bust so I have a lot more to knit that LT!)
Lovely sweater – I’m going to have to add it my queue. You’re right – as long as you’re on gauge & like the fabric you’re getting, you can play with yarns & needles. I’ve even followed the instructions for a size other than mine, if my gauge was such that the math worked!
Stop iiiiit, I don’t have time to learn to kniiiiiiit. Just kidding – gorgeous as always. I’d love to replace my junky sweaters!
this is lovely! audrey in unst going to my ravelry queue… the color is beautiful, too.
Gorgeous! I love the lacework detail of this pattern, and the colour is beautiful and elegant.
Oh lord, this is lovely. I’m so thrilled it worked out for you. Malabrigo make the most beautiful yarns. This is a stunning colour.
Love it! The buttons are great. I finished an Audrey just last week, and I kinda want to make another one.
I hesitate to give advice where it hasn’t been asked for, but, as a self-taught knitter, I wish I wouldn’t have had to learn so many things the hard way. So, feel free to completely disregard this. It appears that your tension differs between the right and wrong sides (knit and purl stitches) of your work, which is why your vertical rows aren’t quite vertical and are slightly uneven throughout the stockinette portions. Once you’re aware of which side you’re knitting tighter, you can train yourself to correct this, or you can switch needle sizes to accommodate the difference. Tech Knitter has some great posts on this http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/02/uneven-stockinette-fabric-how-to-tame.html
Hey, I am fine with constructive criticism, especially if it can help me improve what I’m doing 🙂 Don’t ever hesitate to offer advice! I had no idea the tension being different from knit and purl would be an issue (which, you know, now that I’m thinking about it OF COURSE that’s an issue!), but yeah, I do purl looser than I knit. I definitely don’t want to loosen up any more than I already knit, which means I will need to retrain myself to purl tighter. Thank you for the advice, I’m going to lurk that link now!
I’m going to check this out too, thanks for the link and the knowledge
I had the same knit vs. purl tension problem. For me, switching knitting methods from continental to english fixed it. English is slightly more awkward, but my stitches are definitely more even (I’m left-handed, IDK maybe it’s a lefty thing). I use continental now only for knitting in the round.
Really, really pretty! I’ve always loved this pattern– it’s so delicate and sweet. I really like that color, too. I love how fingering-weight yarn looks, but I swore it off after knitting a tunic with 3/4-length sleeves in fingering… it took me FOREVER and then my dude accidentally felted it after I’d only worn it a couple of times. Not sure I’ll ever fully recover from that tragedy, ha!
I am seachless! I love it! You are so talented!
Love the color. Fits great!
LOVE this one!
Gorgeous sweater! I wish I could knit at your speed…..mine all seem to take months to complete.
I love Malabrigo yarn and the color you used is just perfect. I am always so appreciative of thorough comments on knitting patterns. It is super helpful to the knitters that make the project after you, so thank you!
This is really gorgeous, I love how it turned out, neat and petite! Your knitting skills are as enviable as your sewing skills. I’ve also knitted this but my version was a disaster!
Gorgeous! Makes me want to take up knitting …
But I’m definitely on the sewing side, so of course, I want to know what dress you’re wearing underneath 🙂
It’s my Stripey Belladone! Love this dress, I wear it aaaaall the time 😉
THIS is why I’m learning to knit!
That’s a great wardrobe staple! The color is beautiful.
Fucking hell I wish I knit faster. I took a leap of faith last year and spent $100 on silk/wool fingering weight yarn to make a slouchy sweater in. Last time I checked I had approximately 2 inches done. Yarn throwing and tiny needles are not a match made in heaven. I love this cardigan, but my love is tempered with jealousy of yous speedy fingers.
Psst, try learning Continental… it’s faster 😉 In all seriousness, though, I think it’s less my speed and more that I just knit for an hour or so every day. That shit adds up!
Yay, another pretty cardigan! I have a finished navy cardigan to blog about too… the spookiness continues?? Lol!
You are really motoring along, awesome! And you’re right, the buttons are perfect. I usually go colour matchy with buttons but I do love the contrast look too. Awesome job 😀 it’s so delicate and sweet 🙂
Very nice sweater. I love the color. Isn’t Malabrigo just yummy yarn to work with? I am knitting up some kilt hose for my brother in it and just love the tonal qualities and the nice feeloing fabric. BTW I read your blog every day. You rock!
Gaaaaaaahhhhh!!! Your Audrey in Unst is stunning!!!! It’s in my queue from forever too and I will knit it soon! Let me say that you’ve understand the principal of knitting very well!! As the best knit teachers in the world says: Gauge is all the matters!! I’m a loose knitter too so I have to down needle size or yarn weight each time. Gudrun will be happy to see it, she is such a lovely designer and person in real life too. Xoxo, Giusy
Your sweaters rock! Makes me judge every RTW I see now these days… You’re going to be so ready for fall. I don’t think knitting could ever be my thing… I’m thinking about getting checked out for ADHD and sucked at crochet back in the day. I would jack it up all the time. Sewing patterns is easier for me because I can just stop after a step and know in the instructions where I left off visually very easily.
I might have to pay you the big bucks to knit me some sweaters.
Girl, I don’t know if I’ll ever take on knit projects for profit. They take a very long time and honestly, even if I was charging minimum wage… you’re still looking at hundreds of dollars in labor 🙂
Zounds, how do you have time to hand-wash all of these beautiful creations?! No seriously, you may have posted about this before but I gotta wonder about your laundry routine and time commitment to taking care of your woolens and other delicate fabric. Having nice clothes drives me crazy with their washing requirements! I usually cheat and put stuff in the wash anyway, in a delicates bag.
I *don’t* handwash all my clothes! Ha! Ain’t nobody got time for that 😉
Seriously, though – almost all my me-mades are machine washable/line dry (I could put them in the dryer, but I prefer line-drying so I don’t have to iron so much!). Those that aren’t are typically silk or wool, which means they don’t really hold a stink as long as you air ’em out after wearing. I spot clean if they need it and that’s it! Same with sweaters – my sweaters get washed, like, once a year, if that. They’re wool so I promise they don’t smell! 🙂
You don’t handwash? You rebel you! Makes me feel liberated – maybe I won’t wash either! 😛
I will never stop being in awe of your newfound knitting skills! My knitting ground to a halt last year and I’ve not touched it at all in 2013..makes me sad, but maybe I just don’t have what it takes. Anyway, this particular cardi is soooooo gorgeous! Everything about it looks perfect, excellent job done!
Niiiice. Y’know, it’s your fault that I’ve got this weird urge to knit (noooooo! I’m a crocheter for life!!), but c’mon: you just can’t get a look like that in crochet. Then a friend gave me a whole bunch of knitting needles and I’m going to have to back-stalk your blog to see the past sweaters. (And tell me that you’ve got another post planned this week, ’cause I’m pretty sure the world would have imploded already if Axl were ever photographed in a cardi. lol)
Oooh, it looks beautiful! I knit the same pattern in a light sport weight wool (same issue with the gauge) and I think it’s warm enough even up here in NY where it stays coooolllld all winter. I see some more fingering weight sweaters in your future, perhaps?
Lots and lots more fingering weights! I love them so much :3
Yum yum! Vegetable protein buttons! I’ve never heard of them before, but they are really cute and really work with your cardigan! I totally get the whole uber-productive thing – I wonder if it’s to do with the weather? Maybe that’s why I’m so slow since we moved somewhere with no seasons?! Yes, that must be why…! Love, love, love this cardigan! The lacework and variegated stripes look awesome!
Wow, I love EVERYTHING about this outfit. Not just the sweater, but also the dress and SHOES! lovelovelove
I’m knitting this up right now…it will take me ages but it is my ‘Didyoumakethat’ sewlution of the year. I am at that first confusing bit you described (the waist decrease), I’m not sure how many rows I’m meant to be doing. I found my gauge didn’t match either, I tried smaller needles to no avail, so I decided to add extra length (as the width is fine) like you would grading a sewing pattern, anyhoo yours looks great, love the colour. It’s people like you and Tasia, new to knitting and doing great things that have challenged me to try something more complex than a scarf.
Beautiful! You’re going to have such a great sweater collection. I love the lace yoke.
I just started learning to knit. As in 5 days ago haha.. any suggestions for first projects?
Atm I’m just doing squares…
I would start with something easy and rectangular, like a scarf, just so you can really practice getting your tension perfect. My first project was a simple scarf pattern that I added button holes to, then my next two projects upped the ante a little (one with very simple lacework, the other with simple decreases). After that, I went straight to sweaters 😉
But really, I think the most important thing is to knit something YOU want! You’re not going to want to work on it if you can’t actually see yourself using the finished product because you hate the yarn or you don’t wear scarves or whatever, you know?
Gorgeous! Really well done.
Maybe the pattern quirks are down to the tech editing? Gudrun’s own published patterns are set out beautifully and so clear. I knit her Moch cardigan twice, I fear Audrey is next!
I think I just don’t care for the way she writes her patterns. I lurked a lot of reviews when I got confused, and pretty much everyone raves about how easy her patterns are to understand – so my beef is just something personal. However, I still enjoyed the pattern and it was still relatively easy to follow, so it gets a thumbs up from me 🙂
so – not gonna lie! pretty excited to see you knit and sew. and super happy you’ve done audrey in unst! i first saw that one when i tasia did it, and i have it faved on rav. can’t wait to do that one myself. thanks, lady, for posting some awesomeness! 😉
Love this!! I JUST started knitting, but I have SO many projects I want to make and this is one of them 🙂 I know zero, really, but I suspected the same as you – I think you can fudge needle size and yarn weight as long as your swatch matches. Obviously you have proven this theory! 🙂 How did your yardage compare to the pattern specs? Your detail shots are lovely – it looks so neat and perfect! 🙂
I definitely used less yarn than the pattern calls for! I bought 2 skeins for a total of 880 yards, and the pattern requires 800. I haven’t measured what I have left, but there’s definitely more than 80 yards of it. The body alone was knit almost entirely on one skein, so the sleeves didn’t use up a whole lot of the remaining yardage.
This is beautiful! Those buttons were such a find, and they were definitely destined to be on your sweater. It looks perfect paired with the stripey Belladone. I love the whole outfit!
Ooooo! So pretty! I’ve got knitting on my must learn list, but right now I have so many crochet patterns I want to do first! lol!
P.S. Thanks for your interfacing recommendations on Twitter. I did end up doing a shopping spree at Fashion Sewing Supply. I can’t wait to get the package. 🙂
It’s pretty pretty, especially the lacey part at the top 🙂
Oh yes! Very very lovely! I had never considered knitting a cardigan in Malabrigo sock but now you’ve got me thinking – oooh! Soft! Colours! Mmmm!
I knitted my Audrey in fingering weight too. But yours is lovelier than mine! Where’s the “jealous” button?
Oh so pretty! Thanks so much for posting your knitting, it’s giving me all kinds of ideas. I’m not a knitter myself (though I’ve done it and would rather like to become one) but currently have an arrangement with a knitting friend: I’m going to make her dress for a military ball we’ll be going to in March (and my own – and they’re both going to be copies of Charles James designs, eep!) and she’s going to knit me a pretty, pretty sweater. The ones you’ve been posting have gone directly into my ‘for consideration’ list. I don’t suppose you would ever need a ball/formal gown made I could trade you for a sweater? ;o)
Haha, weeeell if I ever had a need for such a garment, I’d make it myself 😉 But it sounds like you have a good trade-off with your friend!:D
I figured you probably would make such a thing yourself, but it never hurts to ask, right? ;o) I wouldn’t mind a closet-full of hand knit sweaters myself, so I’ll bribe and barter where I can! lol
This sweater is super nice, and yes the fitted version on you is the moistest! I am attempting the pattern as I write this message!! help..Ive been reading the pattern, I cant seem to grasp how the sleeves are done :p.. I was wondering if you could help me out in a simple way for this? or do you know of a website tutorial on this pattern. PLEASE please let me know.. your work is Outa this world, sewing, knitting everything I see is great.!
What part about the sleeves confuses you? The short rows? Here is a good tutorial on short rows. As far as knitting in the round, you can do that either with DPNs or Magic Loop. I used Magic Loop. I couldn’t tell you any good online tutorials for either off the top of my head, as I learned both in-person, but I know there are tons online. Once you get the hang of short rows and knitting in the round, the actual sleeve knitting is really easy- stockinette with a rib at the bottom!
Yes that’s it the short rows I really never did that before, its only for 2 rows then its knitting on 4 needles? cause that part is fine for me. it looks kinda confusing.
No, you short row for looots of rows (almost all the stitches on the sleeve hole, minus the live stitches iirc). What it will do is give you a nice sleeve cap that is widest at the top and narrows to nothing toward the bottom. I would recommend doing the short rows on either very flexible needles (like Magic Loop flexible) or just use DPNs like you would for knitting in the round, but you will be knitting back and forth until the short rows are done. Just be warned the short rows will take a while – I think it took me like 2 hours on one sleeve cap, ha – but it’s not hard once you get into a rhythm 🙂
Oh good god! I will need some help on that part, thanks for your email link I hope I can manage with that. Do I understand correctly if I say these short rows the looping and switching sides is it on each stitch?
What you’re going to do is knit 5 stitches past the shoulder seam, then follow the wrap and turn directions, which at that point you will flip the sweater over to the purl side. Purl 5 stitches past the shoulder seam (which should be 10 purled stitches total), wrap and turn back to the knit side. Knit 11 stitches back – so the last stitch knitted is the one you wrapped – then wrap and turn, purl until the last stitch purled is the wrapped one, wrap and turn, and just do that over and over until you’ve wrapped every single stitch minus the live ones. Each stitch only gets wrapped once. I hope that makes sense; it’s hard to explain without pictures. This is a pretty good explanation with pictures.
I basically want to make every single sweater that you have. And you knit so much quicker than me, so I’m WAAAAAYY behind! lol This one is just lovely, and I love the slight tonal varigation your yarn has here. Beautiful!
Bravo young lady this is lovely! I moved four years ago and can’t find my yarn stash! I’m petrified it will be shredded and moth eaten by the time I figure out what box it’s in. Makes me sad to even think about it!
What a lovely cardi! The yarn is so pretty, and the details of the pattern are perfect – not too plain, not too fussy 🙂
So can I go ahead and call dibs/shotgun on this sweater when you tire of it because it is bananas adorable.
God this is beautiful! You are so freaking amazing that it’s inhuman.
As I’m still working on the same cardi that I started in January, I’ve decided I’m gonna try the knitting at lunch time thing. Was going to start today but forgot to pack it so am commenting on blogs instead. This is gorgeous and makes me determined to remember by knitting tomorrow@
Great sweater! I am a little jealous of your fast knitting, but then again, I always have a project going, and I finish eventually. It’s adorable and it fits well – Congrats!
Lauren, how did you learn to knit? Did you take a course or something? (If you mentioned it on here, sorry, I forget).
No worries! 🙂 I had a local friend teach me the basics and I picked up bits and pieces as I approached them through books or videos (just googling, I couldn’t link you to anything specific. No, wait, I take that back, I really like the picture tutorials on the PurlBee.com). I’ve never taken a knitting class, other than what my friend showed me 🙂