A very important question. If you were making this cardigan
with this yarn color
for Austin, TX, where 90F is pleasantly warm, which of these yarn bases would you go for?
I know they are calling is Sandbar, but this reads fall to me. Cinnamon coffee and pumpkin pie and warm on a chilly day. <– wishful thinking, there are very few chilly days in Austin during our very short fall.
This is my big reward to myself for finishing The Inheritance and the yarn is pricy, so I don’t want to stumble. The pattern calls for sport, but I’m thinking maybe DK weight.
What do you think?
I think I would have to make the cardigan 3 or 4 inches longer. I am short waisted with too much tummy. I look horrible in tops that stop just below where my middle should be. When did they start making tops so much shorter. I understand manufacturers skimping on material but charging the same or more (PROFIT!). But you’d think yarn manufacturers would want to sell you more!
cotton linen blend (from this list)!
pure cotton will stretch out and be so heavy. ideally you would go something like a merino cotton blend as the merino (in a woolen spin) would provide the “memory” or bounce back (comes from the crimp in the merino fibre) and lightness while the cotton would provide that texture and add to the drape factor. other blends that would work beautifully would be: merino and silk, or merino and linen. all three of those I’d be looking for a ~70% wool 30% other.
Realistically you can make this cardigan and it will be beautiful no matter which yarn you choose. but best long term wearability would be the blends I suggested.
The pattern and yarn are both lovely!
The only bases I would personally use for lace would be harbor or anacostia. The other bases are lovely but are not designed for a project that will need to hold its shape and not be all stretched out the third time you wash it.
Severn or Chesapeake
Kent, probably. Pretty cardigan!
It’s a beautiful pattern with lovely stitches, so I would go with the Atlantic Mercerized Pima Cotton, or one of the linen blends.
The mercerized cotton will probably hold shape and definition the best, but linen will probably add some structure to the other blends.
I would not recommend any of the other cottons or rayon blends because those drape/stretch and will not hold the shape very well.
Definitely the Seven.
I’m an lace knitter for the Deep South and would choose the Atlantic base for several reasons. First, prima cotton will be incredible soft and still show the lace pattern beautifully, which, if you’re going to knit lace, let the pattern shine. The Montgomery, because it has texture, won’t. it will do what I call argue with the lace pattern, making it la k definition. The pattern choice is lovely and I often wear cotton sweaters during warm weather if I’m going to be in air conditioning because kit seems most kept it on polar ice cap cold. The pina cotton will be a more versatile sweater you can wear all year round. Please show us what you but and what the sweater loks.like when it’s done. It will be lovely no matter which yarn base you choose.
Copy that on air-conditioned buildings! I almost froze to death in a training- in Austin, as a matter of fact. Sweaters for the win, especially this one.
I am run bot always(think shorts in late fall and late winter/early spring i add sandals to the mix(and only then due to sensitive knees now being able to handle the “bounce” in too cold)) so im going to go with the monocacy, personally. Given the information given thiugh maybe atlantic for this project? something that holds up in hot weather, keeps color and shap with minimal shrinking.
Sometimes varigated (sp.) yarns lose the stitch pattern. Beware. For fiber in Texas, linen, but in combination? Cotton gets heavy. Linen has drape that can lose shape. What does the pattern use? I love wool, cashmere, and alpaca – but I live in Indiana not Texas . Happy knitting
I love the warm highlight in Severn, but it’s quite similar to your Sandbar. It sounds like Monocacy is probably closer to what you might want.
You could get gauge in the fingering weight by sizing up needles or double stranding the yarn. This is one case where I would highly recommend knitting the dreaded swatch. Cute project!
Lovely 😍
Love the pattern. And I like the Anacostia that is pictured. It looks like it’s sliding into fall rather than slamming into it.
That is the most beautiful cardigan pattern ever! Those blended variations will look fantastic especially with well-loved denim. Classic!
I like touching yarn to get an idea of what I’m doing, but from the picture I like Chesapeake or Severn best
DK would work because of the lace pattern, but (I live in Houston) I would go with sport or fingering.
I crochet (because I can’t purl worth a damn) In Scotland we get very long, very chilly dark winters and Aran weight yarn is perfect weight for all things cardigan and sweater.
We have a slightly different metrics for yarn weights, lace, dk, Aran to name the most popular UK weights, I love vintage patterns but found the weights listed like sport and baby weight confusing so I did extensive research and after much trial and error (mostly error) and many, many tension swatches later I found the solution to my dilemma. So if I was recreating a vintage pattern that listed sport weight yarn, I could use a dk weight yarn and add a single strand of lace weight yarn like Rowan kid silk haze in a neutral colour so it blends seamlessly together which will bring up the yarn weight up to sport.
If in doubt play around with several yarn blends, cotton is smoother light weight, whereas mohair blends are fluffier so adds bulk but not necessarily weight to the fabric. Best bet is to do tension swatches in pattern with many different yarns from your yarn stash and see which one is closest to pattern tension gauge as nothing is as soul destroying than spending weeks on a project only to find the tension is a mile off and the garment won’t fit, (yes I am the wise voice of experience on that goof up) and needed to rip out an entire bodice worth of yarn and restart my project. It’s a good idea when using two strands to glance over your stitches at the end of a row/round to make sure both strands were knitted/hooked together…Yup, made that mistake too and had to rip out five inches worth of solid fabric to correct that blunder but experience made me a better hooker. Looking forward to seeing the finished masterpiece. Happy Stitching!
I would go with whichever cotton/linen blend you can get a good gauge with, and that you like the drape of. Very pretty pattern, and I love the colorway.
I think I would go for Harbor in DK maybe a size smaller than you think you need since it calls for sport? Hopefully won’t matter too much since it’s a cardigan. It’s lovely! I would pick the linen cotton blend to hopefully mitigate the fact of how much cotton can stretch and lose shape.
I would get one of the bases that have linen and rayon in it. Linen because it is hygroscopic is cooler than cotton. Knitting an all linen yarn is like knitting string but if you added in the rayon it’s much more pleasant to use.