November 4, 2010

Since my Vera is off the needles I've been in search of my next project. I seriously considered doing another Slouchy Cardigan because I wear my green one so much. I would like to do a second one eventually, a gray or black one, but for right now I'm looking for something more interesting to knit.


Thank goodness for Ravelry. Where else can you search a million patterns all in one place? I love their search feature. You can sort by size, gender, type of garment or accessory, yarn type...etc. After many, many hours spent searching for just the right thing I found the Moorish Lattice Cardigan by Kirsten Hipsky. The pattern is for sale on Webs website for only $1.99. A $1.99 people! Now that's a pattern price I can live with!
Picture © Kirsten Hipsky
I love the lattice work on this cardigan and the fact that it has pockets. I'm constantly trying to put my hands into pockets that don't exist on my Buttercream Jacket cardigan.

Since I decided that I'm going to order Wool of the Andes in Worsted Weight from KnitPicks for this pattern (in red of course), I realized that I was going to need another project to occupy my brain, my hands and my needles. I had 3.5 skeins of Berroco Vintage left over from Vera, somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 yards. Too much to just toss into my "stash" (not that I have much of one), so I started searching again on Ravelry for a pattern to meet my needs. I found a lot of things I really liked, of course. But I finally found Valpuri by the Berroco Design Team. This one is a free download.

Picture © berroco

The cables are really interesting on this and I thought in Sloeberry, which is a purple color, it would be nice to wear to work. The pattern calls for it to be knit flat but the construction is pretty basic, so I decided that I'm going to give it a shot and kit it in the round. This will be the first time that I've tried converting a pattern in this manner. It's knit bottom up and so far I've finished the ribbing and one repeat of the cable pattern.
I'm so nervous that I'm not going to have enough yarn to finish this. I'm knitting the size 36 and the pattern calls for 8 balls of Berroco Bling Bling. Each ball is 50 grams and 92 yards. I'm using Berroco Vintage, it's 100 grams and 217 yards. I have 3.5 balls for a total of 759 yards. The Bling Bling is 736 yards, so I should be good but when ever I use something I have on hand and didn't specificly buy for a project I get so nervous.
I'm taking detailed notes for my conversion to knitting in the round and I can't wait to see if I can pull this off. In the mean time, I need to block Vera so I can start wearing it. Even though the pattern shows the finished sweater with a button closure the pattern did not give directions for it. I need to find a way to close it after I get it blocked. I'm thinking a button over a snap. We shall see!

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