#OAL2017 Green Lace Cardigan

As I detailed in this post I've been attempting to join in with the 2017 Outfit Along #OAL2017 this year.  I had the sewn dress made quite early in the competition, but the knitted portion took a lot longer.  I also took a couple of weeks off knitting as I did a road trip with the kids and my best friend for 2 weeks, and avoided touching any wool during a couple of heatwaves so I wasn't entirely sure that I was going to finish this in time.

But finally two days before the deadline I managed the knit the last stitch.  I got the buttons sewed on, sewed in all the ends and did a quick steam block then headed out to take photos.

So onto the details:

The wool is  Classic Elite Yarns "Villa" in Emerald.  A  70% baby alpaca, 30% bamboo Viscose yarn that is soooo super soft and snuggly.  

The pattern is self drafted but based loosely on the OAL official pattern the Anaheim by Andi Satterlund.  I was planning on using the actual pattern, but when I looked at my swatch in the wool that I wanted to use I realised that I was going to have to do too many modifications to the pattern to make it worth it.  So I took the basic style and created my own pattern from scratch.  

I originally wanted to use a more complicated lace pattern but after a couple of repeats of the pattern where I messed it up every time I ripped it all out and started again.

This time I used a very simple pattern, the Diamond Eyelet Mesh. which was much easier to keep track of especially with all the increases etc.

I knitted the sweater in the raglan style from the top down using a basic garter stitch for the neckline, the eyelet pattern for front and back sections and plain stockinette for the arms.

The arm cuffs and bottom  were finished with 20 rows of 1x1 twisted rib.

I used two buttons from my stash to close the bottom band creating small loops on the edge of the band to go over the buttons.

This is a great little addition to my wardrobe.  Since I started wearing a lot of sleeveless dresses I've noticed I need a few more little cardigans to go with them. This works perfectly and now I think I need another one.

Overview for the #OAL2017