FO: Little Grapes Cardigan

Pattern: Based on Little Coffee Bean
Yarn: Patons Decor, less than 1 ball each of Aubergine and Winter White
Needles: 3.75 mm and 5 mm

Behold the power of stripes. I’m not sure what it is, but doing something as simple as changing colours every two rows somehow seems to make a project fly off the needles. A little aran-weight stockinette cardigan isn’t usually much of a time investment to begin with, really, but this one almost seemed to knit itself.

Pattern specified buttons all the way down the front, but I thought it’d be cute with just three closely-placed ones instead. Buttons are vintage, too, but I’m not sure of their original source.

Am pleased with how clean the button bands turned out. I rarely knit anything that requires button bands, but I haven’t dreaded picking up stitches along a vertical edge since I stumbled across a rows-to-stitches ratio that works well every time, and allows for a band that both lies flat and looks neat along the join.

I’m honestly not a fan of the yarn. Much more of a natural-fibres girl, I guess. There are some synthetic and synthetic blends that I like–Sirdar Snuggly is good for tiny-person knits–but Decor makes my teeth hurt (please tell me that makes sense to someone). It’s popular around here, though, and this little sweater is for the LYS.

The first one worked up so fast that I think I’m going to have to knit a second, in different colours and with a few more pattern mods. Next time around, I think I’ll change the YOs to M1 increases on the last right-side row before splitting the sleeves from the body. The underarm seam, although small, was rather fiddly and imprecise with the YO holes around it.