My Juniper Moon Farmer's Market Cardigan

We had a little snow--just a couple of inches, much less than what we'd been told to expect--which seemed like a great time to take a picture of the Farmer's Market Cardigan.

Farmer's Market Cardigan (mine ravelled here),

knit in Juniper Moon Farm's Moonshine in colorway 3 Conch Shell

The yarn is one I've not worked with before. It's very soft, made up of 40% alpaca, 40% wool, and 20% silk. There were a few inconsistencies in the yarn, but I chalk that up to using real yarn. The only other complaint I have is that it sheds a lot. I keep forgetting and wearing it with black pants, which is a mistake. I should use one of those handy pockets to carry a lint brush.

The sweater itself is not hard, but Good God Almighty there's a lot of sewing and blocking. I complained about that before, and I stick to my belief that anything under the Finishing heading in a pattern should take less than 2 hours (not including drying time). After the body of the sweater is knit, the provisional hem is picked up, there's more knitting and some purling and some creating a fake hem. The pockets have hemmed bottoms, which nearly killed me because apparently I can't follow a line of stitches in a straight row. The sleeves are sewn into the armholes, seamed all the way down, and then hemmed the same way the body was. Then Blocking #1 happens.

Next I knit the edging, which was all separate.* The edging is then blocked, which I did by pinning it flat directly onto the sweater. (You'll note this is Blocking #2.) Once it dries, it's sewn on.

At this point, I wore it for the first time. I wasn't pleased with the way the edging was laying, so I blocked it again (Blocking #3). I'm much happier with it now.

I really like the sweater, but I do think my next sweater will be a top-down raglan!

*Note to anyone making this sweater: For the love of alpaca, DO NOT try to cable on any row associated in any way with a short row. It will end in tears. Do not ask me how I know this.