King Cole Cardigan in Opium Leaf: finished!!!

August 18, 2014 by Elaine 6 Comments

I love the way the patterned looks across the back

When I started this project, it was with a quiet confidence that it would be completed in a couple of weeks and handed over to Eldest Mudlet. I certainly didn’t expect it to become a mammoth project and it wasn’t intended to become a birthday present for my first born child. A simple stocking stitch, short sleeve cardi …… just what could go wrong?

It has taken 3.5 months to complete this ‘simple‘ knitting project and the reason for this lengthy period of time? The making up was a nightmare!

Note to self:

When using a yarn with varied thread thickness, like King Cole Opium for example, remember to mark the start of any decrease rows with brightly coloured thread!!!

I hadn’t done that with the armhole and sleeve shapings on this project, so when it came time to set the sleeves and sew up the seams ….. let’s put it this way, had it been a top for myself, it would have been consigned to my yarn drawer, never to see the light of day again!

The front pattern

The problem was that where the yarn thickened up, the edge of the work bulged out slightly but where the yarn thinned to a much narrower thread, the edge of the work curved in …. much like it would when you “decrease one stitch at each end of the next three rows“, to start shaping the armholes or shoulder tops on sleeves for example! You see my problem?

Eldest Mudlet modeled it for me

Setting the sleeves (as you know, not my favourite job at the best of times), became the stuff of nightmares, as I tried to workout where the shoulder decreases on the sleeves and the armholes on the front and back sections started. After I had posted about successfully setting the first of the sleeves, I realised that it was wrong and had to unpick it and start again. That one sleeve took no less than three attempts to sew in before I figured it out!

Thoroughly fed up and disheartened, I set the work aside and left it for a couple of weeks!

Kitchencraft Cake Slice

Then with Eldest Mudlets’ birthday fast approaching which included an over night stay at Mudville by the birthday girl, I had no choice but to try and get the cardigan finished. Gritting my teeth I laid the garment out on the table and measured the set sleeve and marked these measurements onto the other sleeve and side seams, using a completely contrasting colour of spare yarn, to mark the correct decreases. Then determined to finish the piece, I sat down late one night,after the girls were tucked up and set too.

Kitchencraft Cake Tester top detail

Finally, at half past midnight, with the sleeves set, the side seams sewn, the ends tidied, button loop knitted and button sewn in place, the cardigan was finished, ready for pressing but that could wait until the morning. Happily, Eldest Mudlet was thrilled with her cardigan and willingly modeled it for me, so that I could get some pictures for this post. She was also thrilled with her other gifts which included a cake tester and pretty cake slice from Kitchencraft – she’s a keen cake baker.

My next project (for me) includes a lovely ‘complicated’ patterned short sleeved top in a yarn which has a consistent thread thickness!