Project Info
Pattern: Cardigan Aran by Irina Lyubaeva
Yarn:
- Berroco Ultra Fine Wool (5 skeins):
This was a nice find at our local yarn store, while the dark color hides the cabling somewhat, it’s a beautiful color and super soft.
Time to Completion: June 20, 2020 – August 2021
The long completion time was mostly due to a lost game f yarn chicken and then a prolonged search for replacement yarn after the local yarn store was backordered and I ended up finding a replacement on clearance at a yarn store that was closing that had something close.
Project Notes: After I made my first cabled item I came across this pattern and decided it was far too complicated for a second cabling project. After my friend requested something with cables a few months later, I decided that it was time to tackle this cable-filled beast, as long as she was willing to wait up to five years for me to finish. Luckily she was game with that extended timeline so I began to embark on this complex cardigan project.
Over the course of many months and side projects to give me breaks, the cardigan began to take shape. With some minor mistakes, I got much better at the aran pattern on the back which lessened the mistakes as I went on. Somewhere along the way I miscounted my stitches so the cardigan ended up being about a foot longer than I expected, this oversight placed the pockets far too low for them to be useful but I refused to pull out that many rows of my hard work.
Finishing the body of the cardigan felt like a huge accomplishment and the sleeves, with their much simpler pattern flew by quickly. No second sleeve syndrome here, I was excited to finish and send this off to my friend. In my insistence on ensuring the sleeves were long enough, I made them too long. A challenge that was starting to feel more like a problematic habit. I picked up the stitches to finish the final ribbing along the from of the cardigan and noticed that I was running low on yarn….refusing again to pull out the base of the cardigan, I soldiered on and decided to play a game of yarn chicken. A game which I lost just 4 rows from the end.
Knowing that I would be faced with incorrect dye lots, I called up my local yarn store just to find out that Berroco was back ordered and that they didn’t know when they could get me more but they’d add my name to the list.
And then I waited.
And something like three months later, on a separate trip to a different yarn store, I found Berroco Eggplant yarn, could this be it?! I didn’t have the original yarn with me, I didn’t think to look at this blog, I just decided it was close enough and bought it and brought it home. Not only was the yarn the wrong gauge, but it was the wrong color entirely. I decided it would be a design enhancement and I pulled out what I’d done on the collar, picked up fewer stitches, and finally finished the cardigan. I declared the shades close enough, blocked it, took a picture of me in it, and then delivered it to my friend. I had told her to expect five years so getting it just 14 months after I’d started it seemed like it a good deal for her.
#adventuresabroad 