Express Line speeds to the finish

Little more than three weeks after I started it, I completed my Express Line cardigan - the joys of working with super chunky yarn!

All done!

Although the pattern described as relaxed fit in the body, I feel that mine came out as quite close-fitting. It's not a problem, I'm perfectly happy with it, but I might make the next size up if I want one with a boxier fit.

The back view shows off the broken rib pattern

Top-down knits are great for anyone like me, who has to shorten bodices. I knitted this slightly longer than my standard schematic-minus-two-inches, but it still came out a little shorter than I wanted, possibly due to the tighter fit. So I added two more rows to the ribbing, which also gives it that deep vintage welt.

Worn with my covid jab top and black skirt

With hindsight, I think that the full-length sleeves could probably have accommodated another two rows. The thing with super chunky yarn is that two rows equals quite a lot of length, and I didn't want them to end up too long, so erred on the side of caution. Something else to remember if I make another one - of which, more later!

Anyone who reads this blog regularly (thank you!) will know that I normally suffer agonies of indecision over button choices. Not this time. I found the perfect vintage buttons in my button box; the right size, look and colour and, crucially, the right number!

The perfect buttons do exist after all!

Because there isn't a huge amount of negative ease in the design, the button bands didn't need to be strengthened with petersham. However, I did line them with some wide satin ribbon, just because I feel it's a nice touch.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the end result, and even ventured out to take photos somewhere other than my back yard! I'm really self-conscious about taking photos with other people around but Port Sunlight, where my friend F now lives, is both picturesque and quiet, so seemed a good place to start. Most of the time I was trying to be sensible, but I couldn't resist attempting one 1950s knitting pattern cover shot.

Getting in touch with my inner knitting pattern model

It turns out I'm not the only person who likes this cardigan. I took it over to show my mum, and she absolutely loved it - so much so that she's asked for one for Christmas! I really did not see that one coming; the idea that I would ever get good enough at knitting for someone to ask me to make them something is mind-boggling. However, Mum is the only person from whom I would actually take requests, and I'm very happy to do so.

Marooned!

Oh, Sleeve Island, you get me every time. I complete the body of a knitted garment, and think that the end is in sight. Spoiler alert for any non-knitters reading this: it isn't.

I added button bands to this and thought I was nearly done. Wrongly.

Really, I shouldn't be surprised. I know from decades of dressmaking that sleeves can be large pieces, and there's no reason why knitted ones should be any different.

One thing which was very different from my previous knitting projects was the experience of knitting a sleeve in the round in super chunky yarn. For Wondrella and Confidette, which I knitted in DK yarn, I used fixed length circular needles of ever shorter lengths as the sleeves got narrower, ending up on 20cm long needles. These don't exist for 10mm needles, and of course thicker yarn requires fewer stitches to make something the width of a sleeve. I struggled with interchangeable tips and the shortest cable I had, until eventually I realised that the solution was actually to use a longer cable, pulled into loops in two places

My method for knitting the sleeves

Another issue was the yarn itself. I'm using Stylecraft super chunky tweed, which consists of four thick strands twisted together. Unfortunately in every ball I've used (I'm currently onto my sixth) there have been sections where either the strands have been poorly twisted, or one of them has not been twisted at all. As a result, I've had to cut out unusable sections several times, which has provided a whole bunch of extra ends to sew in - joy.

The yarn, and an unuseable section

Of course, any knitting project of mine requires a healthy dose of my own stupidity. This time it was the discovery that 10 rows back I had knitted five stitches which I should have purled.

Bother!

I tried unravelling the affected columns of stitches and picking them back up correctly with a crochet hook, but while to first one worked perfectly the second one was a complete mess, so I decided to just undo the whole thing back to a safety line and reknit it.

The pattern has three-quarter length sleeves, but when I tried the cardigan on, I decided that I would prefer full length for winter. As ever with Tasha's patterns, Express Line comes with lots of customisation tips, which included how to lengthen the sleeves.

The original sleeve length, pre-ribbing

Despite all this, in under a week I have managed to complete one sleeve and start the other. On the plus side, I'm far happier with my pick-up-and-knit on this than I was with my Confidette bolero. However, somehow on the second sleeve I have managed to start the knitting in the round section one stitch different from the first one, so there are purls where there should be knits and vice versa.

Whoops

It only affects what would be the sleeve seam if the sleeves had been knitted flat, so I shall just hope that no-one notices, as I'm certainly not going to take it all out and try again!

Good in theory

When I first started knitting, back in February 2023, there was a strong possibility that my blue Wondrella cardigan would be my first and last project. But it was a success, and I got the knitting bug. Even so, I had the best of intentions. I would only knit one project at a time. There would be no UFOs or PHDs. And no yarn stash. Less than 18 months later, how is this going?

Erm. Not entirely as planned!

I am still working away on my Lothian shawl. I wasn't happy with the wonkiness of my first few rows so, on the basis that a special project is worth doing properly, I frogged it and started again.

Much neater

I was far happier with this version, and am now up to 72 rows of the 138 which make up the plain section.

Progress so far

But there is no denying that it's slow going. 4ply feels very thin compared to the DK I have mostly been using, and with the row increases 72 rows is less than a third of the plain section overall. So, I have been tempted away to the dark side of a quicky and bulky project.

Whoops

The culprit is Express Line, another excellent pattern from Tasha Could Make That. Knitted in super chunky yarn, on whopping 10mm needles, I only started it a week ago but already have the body completed.

The image above is a better representation of the colour

I would have even more done if I had picked up the stitches for the buttonhole band correctly. In such a thick yarn it's very obvious that it's wrong, but somehow I only noticed as I was about to start casting off. So again, it was a case of frogging and redoing.

How could I have missed this?

Not only do I have more than one project on the go, but I have had a UFO for ages. Ten months ago I started a third Wondrella cardigan, this time modified to include cable panels up the fronts. I completed the 'full width' section and all of the (plain stocking stitch) back, but put it away in the spring as it is very much a winter cardi. Now that it's autumn, I am thinking of picking it up again once I have the Express Line completed. Unfortunately, I didn't complete writing out the modified pattern, and it's a struggle to remember what I was planning. I will work in out eventually, but it's a useful note to self - don't assume that you will remember what you were doing 10 months ago!

Can I remember what to do next?

Finally, there's the small matter of the stash. A few weeks ago it was the annual Coastal Colours Pop-Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight. This was where I got the wool for my Blue Dahlia shawl last year, and it's almost local to me, so of course I had to go. I was very restrained, and went round all the stalls to see what was available before making any purchases. (Judging from the number of people who were, like me, sitting in the café consulting notes, this approach was being widely used!)

Something which really caught my eye was this beautiful set from Yarn Unique with its glorious rich colours. It was my one 'must buy' from my first look round.

Yummy!

I follow AndKnit on Instagram, and some months ago she posted her version of the Puff shawl (you can see it here). I liked the pattern, and had hoped to find some suitable wool for making my own version at the show. After much deliberation, I settled on these two skeins from Ducky Darlings.

Firepit and Cardomon Spice

The Puff shawl

It will be a while before I get round to making these purchases up, but I don't feel too guilty about making the most of a wool show that's practically on my doorstep. I find that winter is increasingly knitting season for me, so hopefully I will get some projects done before too long.