Walnuss - Same same but different

For quite a few years  I was having only two projects at any time . One a bit more challenging like lace or fair isle and one relatively easy, usually with lots of  TV stockinette going on. Lately I broke my habits and rather much more projects were cast on quite enthusiastically.
Same same but different is one of them. The designer  ANKESTRICK  got some nice cool modern shapes in her ravelry store. I was eyeing Walnuss for quite some time , and when the right yarn landed on my lap I had to cast on.

My dear friend the knitting cyclist which featuring heavily in my posts ,a mighty prolific knitter , travels often to the french parts of the continent and brings some nice merchandise back. This  was the first time I saw Secondo by Lana grossa, a fingering weight yarn - mix of cotton and silk woven into a sleek shiny rope in an unusual metallic silvery taupe colour. It was agreed this yarn needs some muting down and a partner was chosen - Rowan kidsilk haze in a light baby blue 640. Shamelessly I pestered the poor woman until she gave in - some yarn changed ownership .

The pattern comes with two options and I've decided to try for myself the contiguous method developed by SusieM which seamlessly  knits the shoulder seams and sleeve caps of a garment from the top down.



The Cardi have some understated beautiful details; the pleats along the saddle shoulders;

Pleats along the fake side seams of body and sleeves. Those details are somewhat obscured by the fuzz of the mohair but are still effective.

By the time this post is published the body is almost done. 

Laika and her adopted bunny (my youngest Xmas's present) could not care less  :)

Ravi - Photo shoot

Ravi is all done and I took advantage of sunny morning to get this photo shoot.
The camera plus the sun amplifies the brown tones in the yarn. Its actually bluer.

Clue 4 was all about the sleeves. I had to frog half the first sleeve as it was too wide and loose. So on the first row I knit together few of the live stitches to minimise the sleeve circumference.
The location of the lace bit is very handy and clever as it allowed me to minimise the circumference without affecting too much the shape and stream from shoulder to sleeve. I also wet blocked it to give it the final neatness.

I was nervous somewhat after I pulled the cardigan from its bath as the garter become over stretched. But gentle patting it to the right measurements plus the drying gave the yarn its former springiness.

The back reaches the mid bottom -exactly where it was intended. Sleeves were knitted to three quarters length but I narrowed them further towards the icord hems

I feel very comfortable in my Ravi . The KAL was superb every step of the way. Thank you Carol :)

Ravi-Clue 3 !

Clue 3 was very quickly knitted . I was holidaying with the family in Dorset whilst clue three was published and my hands were twitching to grab and knit that lovely back curved hem. What was great in this KAL is that every step of the way you could make your own mods under the guide and care of the designer .

I know some knitters preferred to knit a less curved hem as not ,ahem ,make a big butt feature but I went along with a nice deep curve reaching mid bottom. That whats took my attention when I first saw carol modelling it. It looks especially nice in side view I think.

The buttons were purchased in Liberty-London in this trip. They made out and look like the stuff you see on the dashboard of expensive cars. There is acute little arrow inside them. I think Ravi deserves those lovelies. They go nicely with the brown shades in the sock yarn.

The back does not need any blocking even with all those dozens short rows. The sock yarn is thin enough.
 I do love that nifty icord bind off.

And now eagerly awaiting clue 4 - the sleeves finale !