European Lillian

In my last post I talked about how I'm looking for travel knitting because I'm going back to Europe! I'll be there for a month, visiting Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Scotland, and England! I'm so excited (if you couldn't tell by all the exclamation points)! I've been watching the weather and researching what I should pack. I decided I needed to knit a sweater to bring with me.

I knew that it needed to be a cardigan which would be more versatile while traveling. I also knew that I wanted it to be from stash. One of my resolutions for the year is to knit one pattern from every pattern book I own. So I went pattern searching and decided on the Lillian Cardi from Madder Anthology 2: Simple Pleasures. Guys, this is not only an amazing pattern but an amazing book. I want to make all the things.

I used Knit Picks Swish Tonal, sadly now discontinued, which is a worsted weight 100% Superwash Merino. This was so nice to knit with! It was smooth and had great color but seems very durable.

I used a US 7 needle, my gauge was perfect for the row but off for the stitch so I made the 47.5 bust size which is gave about 5 inches of positive ease for me. This amount of ease adjusted for the tight gauge so the 47.5 fits me perfectly, I couldn't be happier.

This was a really quick knit, 13 days from cast-on to unpinned from blocking. I feel like I should forever knit worsted weight sweaters because that was mind blowing. I decided that the only blocking the sweater really needed was on the ribbing. I made an adjustment to the length of the sweater by shortening the body by 1.5 inches (I have a short torso and I didn't want it to hang past my butt). In addition to shortening the body I omitted the pockets, I like the classic clean lines of the cardi without the pockets.

I loved that the pattern had seamed sleeves! My gauge is always tighter in the round so I had decided for my next sweater I would seam the sleeves so gauge didn't change. I didn't have to change anything because this pattern already incorporated it! I will definitely be knitting another of these sweaters, probably in a solid because that would work best in my wardrobe.