Acer Cardigan in Progress

Stitches Midwest is coming up fast and I'm working on my Acer Cardigan as a new sample for our booth! I'm knitting it in Yowza in Oyster, which is a soft warm grey. Yowza is probably my favorite yarn to knit sweaters out of (and one day I'll get to keep one for myself - so far they have all been samples.)

Acer is a lovely cardigan by Amy Christoffers with some cable-and-lace detail. I've actually had it in my queue to knit for a long time, so I was happy when Babs asked me to knit one up.

It's been an easy knit so far - the body is knit all in one piece up to the armholes; the textured pattern is easy to memorize; and the sleeves are plain. I can see myself wearing a cardigan like this all the time, with jeans and a bright top underneath to show through the lacework. 

I've blocked the body already - you can see my tape measure and the corner of the pattern there - have to make sure it's the right size. As we've discussed on Ravelry recently, Yowza is a superwash wool, which has a tendency to grow a bit when it's wet. I was careful to spend some time with the tape measure patting it gently into the correct dimensions. Blocking really opens up the lacy areas and lets all the stitches get nice and even. Those wiggly edges on the fronts will be smoothed out when I pick up and knit the button bands. 

Of course, because I'm a picky knitter, sometimes I don't follow ALL the instructions exactly... the pattern calls for the sleeves to be knit in the round. I prefer to knit my sleeves two at a time, and flat, so that is what I am doing. (It'd be a tangled disaster for me to knit them two at a time in the round... trust me, I've tried.)

I like to knit while watching a movie or a soccer match with my husband, which is what I think I'll do tonight to get the sleeves finished up. Then I'll block them, join the shoulders, set them in, and knit the collar and button bands. And oops, I need to find buttons! How long is it until Stitches Midwest again?

I won't get to go to Stitches Midwest this year, but I still hope you can stop by the booth, squeeze some yarn, and maybe try on my Acer Cardigan. I think you'll like it.