Tag: lace

Knitting Project Review: Magnolia Chunky Cardigan

This sweater knitting project was a fun one. Although there were a few things to figure out, I recommend the pattern to any fairly experienced knitters out there.

The Magnolia Chunky Cardigan is a beautiful sweater design. It is offered by designer Camilla Vad, and you can find the pattern to buy here.

I like to read through the comments by knitters who have previously knit a pattern. In this case, I think it was very helpful. I wrote a blog post about this when I first began to knit the sweater in September.

My finished sweater is a size Large, knit using 1 + cones of Harrisville Designs Highland wool in color Suede.
Magnolia Chunky Cardigan hanging
Lace and bobbles and hem, with sleeve of Magnolia Chunky Cardigan
Back design of lace and bobbles
Yarn cone and sweater

These photos were taken in the early morning, before the bright Florida sun could interfere.

A Pattern That is Fun and … Quick

I don’t think I have ever said that a sweater pattern was a quick knit. I always see knitters saying this, and usually I completely disagree. Being quick while knitting is not something I care about. I knit for fun, and it’s not a race. But, this time was different.

The types of sweaters I have knit usually become more boring as I knit down the body. Sleeves are usually slow-going as well. Because this pattern gives us something to concentrate on toward the hem and cuffs, I was not bored.

The body, with the nupps (or bobbles) did take some time. That one row with double bobbles was super time consuming…! There was always something to look forward to when knitting this project.

The sleeves were the fastest sleeves I’ve ever knit. Yes, they are 3/4, so that helps. Also, it is worsted yarn on size 10 needles. This also helps. LOL … The lace before the cuffs is easy – with no nupps.

Mods I Made

I really only changed a couple of things while knitting this cardigan. I added about 3 extra rows after the sleeves and body division. This is a good place to make the body longer. The few rows I added didn’t make much of a difference.

The nupps, when I made them, didn’t look great. I practiced on some swatches and ended up doing bobbles instead. You can find the link to making Bobbles that Pop on my Ravelry page. They take more time, so it’s your choice.

Yarn

The yarn came from my stash. Like most knitters, I have a stash to use up. I loved the “Suede” color of the Highland Wool (Harrisville Designs) but I had purchased it on cones. The color is mostly gray, but with some brown. It’s so hard to capture the color, but trust me, it’s nice.

Cone yarn leftover from knitting the Magnolia Chunky Cardigan
Leftover Highland wool
Yarn cone and sweater
Sweater from a cone

Cone yarn is a bit different because it’s meant for weaving and machine knitting. Because of this, the yarn (I used) is thin and a bit stiff. Cones usually contain oil, which means the yarn needs to be washed well once the project is complete. Some people wind the yarn onto hanks and pre-wash it to remove the oil.

Below are photos of the lace part of the cardigan taken before and after being washed. It may be hard to tell, but after washing the fabric softened and filled out (bloomed). (The color comes out differently because of lighting.)

Magnolia Chunky Cardigan lace and bobbles before wash
Unwashed
Lace and bobbles and hem, with sleeve of Magnolia Chunky Cardigan
Washed

The Highland wool creates beautiful hand knits. It comes in skeins as well. Most buyers use the cone put up for weaving. The cones tend to be without knots and ends – just one very long strand (450 yards). I remember finding only one tiny knot when knitting from these two cones. And the knot was way at the end of the first cone.

Cost is another consideration when knitting a larger project, like a sweater. Sweater yarn usually costs me around $100, give or take, depending on the yarn. I knit the Magnolia Chunky Cardigan using less than 2 cones, and each cone cost $25.50. That is less than $50 for the yarn to knit this sweater. And the yarn is nice wool.

How I Washed My Sweater Knit From Cone Yarn

Washing a garment made from yarn on a cone takes a bit more effort. I am no expert, but most places I found for advice said to wash in hot, or very warm, water. (This could be a problem if you use cones for colorwork, or combine various colors in a garment. I’m not sure about colors running and bleeding together in warm water. The addition of vinegar can usually help, but I’m not sure about that in warm water. Please leave a comment if you have some experience with this.)

My sweater is all one color. I washed it twice using Woolite. Some people use shampoo, or dish detergent. Those first two washes were done in quite warm water. I couldn’t bring myself to use hot. I saw a lot of gray water in those washes, meaning something yucky was definitely coming out. I let the sweater soak for about 10 minutes each time.

I did a cool water rinse, and then a second. The last rinse was clear, and that is when I added the Eucalan (Amazon paid link) to soften the wool.

A Worthwhile Knitting Project

The Magnolia Chunky Cardigan is unique and beautiful. It’s not the fit that looks best on me, but I couldn’t resist giving it a try. It is an elegant sweater, and probably deserves to be knit with some very pretty (and probably expensive) yarn. But my choice of wool works too, and I’m very happy with the outcome. Now, to find buttons.

Knit / crochet buttons links:

Wearing the Magnolia Chunky Cardigan

Update: Since finishing (minus buttons) this sweater, I have been wearing it often. Thankfully, it’s “winter” weather here in Florida – at least for part of some days. I love the 3/4 sleeves, and the fabric is soft and warm. I love it!

Pattern Review: Beginning the Magnolia Chunky Cardigan

I’m knitting a beautiful cardigan pattern by Camilla Vad. The Magnolia Chunky Cardigan is knit top-down with lace and bobbles on the body and sleeves. On this page I cover some issues I had in the beginning.

This is such a pretty cardigan, with lace at the bottom of the body and sleeves. The Magnolia Chunky Cardigan (Ravelry page) is a design by Camilla Vad. Although “chunky” is in the name, it is knit with a worsted weight yarn, or a combination of yarns held together that equal a worsted weight. The finished sweaters on her Ravelry page (link above) are so beautiful.

This button up sweater is shorter, with a boxy shape and 3/4 sleeves. Many knitters have lengthened it and knit long sleeves as well. Usually, I like a longer sweater, but this one is quite pretty as is. Personally, I like the way it is meant to be, so I will probably follow the pattern as written. Don’t hold me to it….:)

Heads Up

This is not a beginner pattern. It includes lace, which means yarn-overs done correctly. It includes bobbles (new to me), increases, knitting and purling through the back loop. There is a button band, or one with buttonholes. You should have experience with most of these things to complete this pattern.

The Yarn I Chose

Harrisville Designs Highland Wool, on a cone, is the yarn I chose for this cardigan. It is worsted weight, in the color Suede. The light gray yarn has a bit of brown in it, but the color is very neutral. Each cone contains 450 yards, and I have three cones. The yarn came from my stash, but I love the color for this project.

Harrisville Designs yarn cone Highland wool in color Suede.
Highland wool cone – color Suede

This yarn is awesome. I love wool, and it is strong and consistent. There are knots, but they splice nicely.

This one can be a little tricky

Almost as soon as I began the sweater project, I had some trouble.

With this pattern, for whatever reason, some things could have been made much clearer. Thankfully for me, I am late to the party, and over 2,000 cardigans have already been knit from this pattern…. so it is popular! I want to thank the knitters who kindly shared helpful notes on their Ravelry pages.

Edge Stitches

This seems to be the biggest problem knitters have with this pattern: Edge stitches. At times they are included in the line by line directions, but not always. More about that in the “yoke increases” section below. But first…

The First Wonky Thing

The cast on and twisted rib neckline are done on smaller needles. Once the rib is complete, you simultaneously switch to a bigger needle while also beginning short rows.

If you are familiar with how short rows are done, you will know that a short row is just that – it stops short of the entire row, and then turns to knit back (or purl back) the opposite way. Knitting goes back and forth like this to lengthen the back part of the sweater so it will fit correctly. It is needed. You will be working off two different size needles until all the short rows are complete.

When I got to the “turn” I mistakenly picked up the smaller needle to knit because it was there! I had to rip back and use the larger needle while letting the stitches on the smaller needle just hang there. This was very odd, but worked out fine when I paid attention!

When expanding past each turn, just knit those few stitches off the small needle. And remember to pick up the larger needle as you knit, or purl, back.

Knitting circular needles ribbing in wool
Short Rows while changing needle size means some stitches hang from the smaller needle.
Cast on, ribbing and short rows Magnolia Chunky cardigan
Short rows completed

Yoke Increases

The designer makes a note at the beginning about making sure we don’t stagger the yoke increases. They should line up over one another. Each knitter must figure out how to space their set of increases. For the size Large sweater, which I am knitting, 11 evenly spaced increases must be figured.

I THINK that the trick here is to not include 2 stitches (the edge stitches) when dividing up the number of stitches for increases. Now that I’ve passed that part of the pattern, I can’t be sure. Next time I would try that.

I used Mimi Codd’s Knitulator to figure my stitch increases. I divided up the total number of stitches. I should have reduced that number by 2 (for the uncounted edge stitches).

This threw off my subsequent rows. Things did not match up to the pattern, but I marked the increase locations and kept my increases lined up – even though they were not exactly where it seemed they should be. All my stitch counts were correct.

The Lace and bobble making

If you follow the pattern, the lace section will begin right after the body and sleeve separation. I knit a few extra rows here before beginning the lace. This is a good place to add length to the body, if you want it.

The pattern has some stitches that do not show up in the lace chart, or the lace written directions (the pattern has both). These stitches are mentioned before beginning the lace section. We simply must remember to add them when we knit, or purl, each row. The best way to do that is to use stitch markers.

Place one marker after the first stitch on the right side, and one just before the last two stitches. Also mark off each section for the lace repeats.

I’m following the written out lace pattern. I rarely knit lace, and when I do, I usually have trouble. Those darn yarn overs get me every time!

Bottom lace section begun on the Magnolia Chunky cardigan.
Stitch markers for end stitches
Markers for end stitches

Those end stitches will remain knits – except for the extra one. Refer to the directions for changes to it.

Nupps or Bobbles – Swatching for Practice

I’ve never done a knitted bobble, but this pattern has something called nupps. They look like little knitting bobbles.

Before trying my hand at bobble making on my sweater, I decided to practice on a swatch. I practiced making the bobbles shown in this video. She goes a little fast, but it’s easy to pause and catch up.

To practice my bobbles and nupps, I knit a couple of swatches. I had a hard time at first with the pattern nupps. They are easy to do, but didn’t look very good.

Image below: Nupps tan swatch, and bobbles gray (many mess ups).

knitting nupps and bobbles

A bobble is fairly easy to unravel FYI, just in case it looks really awful.

My question is this, will the bobbles be too large compared to the nupps? Maybe I can find a nupp video. YAY… Mostly Knitting has a good Nupp making video which you can watch here.

To Be Continued

The directions for this sweater are actually pretty good. It’s just that you have to be careful and go back and reference particular rows and stitches. I’m grateful that all the lace rows are also written out! I’m not good at reading charts.

Now, I am going to finish the lace and ribbing and then start the sleeves. If I come across any other tricky directions, I’ll be sure to share. And if anyone who has already knit this sweater wants to chime in, please do so in the comments and help us out.

By the way, Camilla Vad has other beautiful sweater patterns. Her pullover, Magnolia Bloom, contains this same lace pattern, but it’s on the yoke. I have already knit the immensely popular Field Sweater.

divider image animals in sweaters

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First Attempt at Knitting Clotilde

I didn’t get far when I began the Clotilde Cardigan pattern, but it’s a good looking cardigan, and I’ll try knitting the pattern again.

The Clotilde Cardigan is made up of a “bold, diamond lace pattern” and the first time I saw it I knew I wanted it.  This sweater is unique and gorgeous.

This chunky sweater is knit using a worsted weight yarn along with Mohair. It is knit with large needles – size 10US for the neck and 15US for the main part of the sweater.

See / Buy Clotilde Cardigan pattern

I have only one photo to share because this is as far as I got with my knitting. I was having no fun, so I frogged it.

Yarn used is Alafosslopi and I had hoped to use up most of my Lopi during this project. Alas… I just can’t do it. I’m not done for good, but I’ll do things differently next time.

knitting Clotilde cardigan
Clotilde begun

Biggest reason I disliked this knit

Big reason I stopped was that I don’t like using big needles. The stitches were so tight on that size 15 needle that I struggled with every one. The collar is knit with a smaller size 10 and it went fine.

I decided to try this pattern using a smaller, size 10US needle. This was much easier and I knit a swatch from the “front” in the XL size.

Clotilde pattern
Size 10 needle

Intricate Pattern, and Knitting From Charts (Many Charts)

I read all the comments from previous knitters of the Clotilde and the big complaints were about the charts. All of the lace parts – which means most of this sweater – are in chart form only. Not only that, there are many charts to accommodate each section of the sweater (ex. sleeve, back, fronts, etc.). As you knit along, you must do each ROW of knitting using various charts. 

I don’t knit lace, but I realized I would have to do so for this sweater. Yarn overs are still something I can screw up nicely, and that “left leaning decrease” got me. I don’t think I was doing it correctly. 

That number 3 is explained on the “Key” page. I saw complaints about no explanation for it, but now it is there.

Ds or Double Stitch

And then I was stumped by the Ds – double stitch abbreviation at the beginning of the new row of knitting. It simply means do the German Short Row stitch. (Pernille Larson, the designer, gives links to tutorials but they are all in Danish.) The work is turned from the previous row of knitting and then the stitch is done first thing on that following row. (Yarn forward, slip stitch from left to right needle and pull the stitch up and over. Continue knitting, or purling, as needed.)

Before I knit this again…

I already know I will attempt to knit this pattern again at some point, because I love the look of this sweater! I plan to do a large swatch (at least one) and learn how to correctly combine the yarn overs and the stitches I had trouble with. I can’t successfully knit this sweater if I can’t accomplish the stitches!

Smaller needles are a must for me. Someone asked if they could knit the Clotilde in a larger size but using smaller needles, to get the same effect. I didn’t find an answer, but I wonder that too.

In the End

While knitting this pattern, I didn’t get far. A couple of rows of German Short Rows and I quit. I’m so glad I did not buy yarn specifically for this project. The pattern is an advanced one for me, so I’ll use one single yarn – not two or more held together. I’ll try it with smaller needles. I’ll practice all the stitches on swatches to be sure I know what I’m doing. 

Any advanced knitter, who is comfortable with knitting lace and reading charts, could handle this pattern. This one is not for beginners.

More on the blog

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Knitting a New Little Crescent Shawl

I think I first saw the Interisland Shawl, and pattern information, on Instagram. The shawl caught my eye because it is small, and crescent shaped. (Link to pattern down the page.)

Usually I have more than one knitting project going at a time. Many knitters do. For me, it’s because I like one simple project and one that needs more attention. Mornings are good for knitting more complicated things. Evenings call for simple knits and purls while watching a TV show. Even though I am still working on the Rebel Cardigan, I wanted something else to do. Also, I’m attempting to use us some old yarn.

Crescent Shaped Shawls

Shawls can be knit in many ways. They can be large or small, knit in fine or heavy yarn. I prefer a crescent shape that is not very wide. The Interisland Shawl is shaped like that.

Often a shawl begins by casting on at the top center. Knitting then expands outward to create the long, curved shape. This one is knit differently. The pattern begins by knitting the border, which is a repeating lace pattern.

I have completed the lace pattern, for the border, twice – see my picture. And, I did make a goof, but I am not good at fixing lace. In fact, I rarely knit lace. It’s a bunch of yarn-overs and knit 2 togethers. I don’t find it especially fun, but it looks nice. Because it’s not a wide border, the pattern’s lace rows are manageable. I look at this knitting project as good practice. And I expect to have a wearable, lightweight scarf when done.

knitting lace
Lace edging

Knitters Need to Know

Here’s what knitters should know about this pattern.

The lacework is charted and written out line by line. I’m following the chart. After the entire lacework border is finished, all stitches will be picked up along the edge and the remainder of the shawl is knit. Short rows are involved to create the rounded shape.

The name for the shawl is explained on the designer’s pattern page. Or check out more of Donna Smith’s Shetland designs – Ravelry page.

View the Interisland Shawl pattern page.

Please keep reading…

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