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Elda Cardigan – Finished!

Details

Pattern:   Elda Cardigan by Vera Sanon

Yarn:  Cochrane yarn in Bramble Picking colour from Ripples Crafts 

Cost: $7.20 (£5.71) for pattern and £65.90 (incl. postage, but excluding extra yarn gifted to me buy Helen, the yarn dyer.  So cost to me was £71.61, excluding labour for an indie dyed, yummy yarn, hand knitted cardigan.

Value = Priceless 😀

Link to Ravelry Project page.  (Quite a lot of notes made on my Ravelery Project page.)

 

Pattern summary

If I knit this pattern again, which I may well do at some point, I would find it much easier the 2nd time.  The reason being there was a lot of trial and error on some of the aspects of this pattern, like the picking up of the slipped stitch sections not having numbers given for each size.  There was just an example of a number of stitches but that wasn’t clear what size that example was for.  So it took 3 or 4 attempts at getting it right for me.  (This was made harder as the dark colour and woollen nature of the yarn making it tricky to pick up 3 of every 4 stitches.)  
 
This is only the 2nd cardigan I have finished.  I would have liked there to be some more details on the expected stitches per row for the different sizes.  You get the starting stitches number, but I like to check I’m on track so more details would have been welcome.
 
If I knit it again I will have plenty of spare yarn yardage than the pattern dictates, so that I can have long sleeves and the body be at least 2” longer.  It would also have been useful to know approximately how much yarn the slipped stitch band was going to use.  If I’d knit the arms first, weighed it and then done the border I’d have an answer for you, but I did the arms last.  Next time I’ll do the arms first then body and band.

Yarn summary

I am a regular user of Ripples Crafts Reliable Sock Yarn and have hats, gloves, scarf and mini shawls I have knit out of it!  Oh and 2 pairs of socks too!  I still mourn the loss of a hat I crocheted with a gorgeous yarn of Helen’s, last seen in Verona!  She regularly changes her colourways so it can’t be replaced, plus I made the hat pattern up as I was making it…anyhoo I digress. 
 
The Cochrane yarn was commissioned by Helen, where she sourced the fibre from UK farms, arranged for it to be spun and then dyed it. This was originally a limited edition for her 10th Anniversary as an Indie dyer and I bought 3 skeins from that original batch, with no pattern in mind.  As there’s a long time in its prep, it isn’t always available in her online shop.
 
The yarn is woollen spun 50% Bowmont and 50% Blue Faced Leicester.  (Bowmont is a cross-breed of Saxon Merino and Shetland.)
 
I can’t tell you how much I love this yarn.  It has a hint of toothiness like Shetland, but it’s much softer.  It has a lovely sheen to it from the BFL.  It was a pleasure to knit, didn’t split (it’s 2 ply but Sport weight) but best of all….this yarn gets an A+++ for its ability to withstand frogging.  I frogged the neckband twice or possibly 3 times, when I look at the notes I’ve scrawled on the pattern, I frogged an almost completed arm.  It feels lightweight but I think it will be warm.
 
When I knit my previous cardigan with malabrigo rios yarn there was some bobbling and wear happening to sections of the garment as I was knitting it, this did not happen at all with the Cochrane yarn.
 
With me looking short on the yardage needed to have long arm version, Helen said she would see if she had any left from a shawl she had knit with this yarn.  I met her in Inverness and her spare yarn was a slightly darker purple, but for the band it toned well enough.  This was sooo generous of her to gift me it.  Of course I tried to re-pay that generosity buy buying a gradient set and more sock yarn.
 
As I write this my Elda is out on the blocking mats and the house smells of yummy wet wool.

Photo Gallery

Hottest day of the year so far, so just some quick selfies.
 

7 comments

  2. It is beautiful, Liz! Worth all the work you put into knitting, and re-knitting where necessary. All your trial and error experience and notes will serve you (and others) well in the future.

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  3. Wow, it looks great, it definitely was worth the effort. And a great idea to use the additional yarn for the band, it looks like you used a slightly darker yarn on purpose.

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