Que Sera, a Sweater will be

Well, this one has been a long time coming. I've had this lovely pattern in my ever growing list of things I want to make for quite some time now and finally started it about 3 months ago. The pattern is Que Sera by Kirsten Kapur. I stumbled on to it while searching Raverly for a vintage inspired cardigan to go with my growing number of summer dresses. The dress pictured is another amazing thrift store find. It's a Hawaiian souvenir dress, I assume, as it's made very cheaply with thin cheap fabric that says "Aloha" in it. But hey, for under $10, I'm in love with it. Anyways, here in Alaska, more often then not, it's not quite warm enough to wear our lovely summer dresses without a little something to cover up. In fact, I had to wait over a week to get decent photos because it has been pouring down rain almost all summer.

The pattern is very well written. I was nervous, having never worked a lace pattern that was more than 2 rows in a cardigan, but I did all right with it. There was one night I had to un-knit 3 rows of lace work (ZERO FUN) but I blame that on a second glass of wine. I also have very limited experience with set-in sleeves and my seaming skills leave a bit to be desired. That's why when I got all the pieces done I decided to wait a while to sew them together. I was in Anchorage with my dad at the time and I knew I was in no position to be sewing pieces of lace together. I decided to wait till I was back home to conquer this feat. When I did finally get back to it, the first sleeve went very well. Too well, because I must have relaxed as I did the second one. After, when I went to try it on, I realized that I had sewn the sleeve in inside out. GARRRRRRR!!!! Needless to say, my sweater took a 3 day time out before I had the nerve and calm needed to meticulously undo the mess. I finally got the sleeves in right and continued on to the button bands. No problems there, thank the knitting gods.

After the button band I finally got to try on my new creation. OH NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! It was way too small. I just wanted to cry. I did a gauge swatch, what did I do wrong?!?! I knew some of it would come out with blocking, but I was feeling very discouraged that day. Maybe something else was bothering me and messing with my knitting confidence. I'm not sure, but it took almost a week for me to do the blocking. Nobody likes to do blocking anyways and I sure wasn't excited about doing it just to have a sweater that didn't fit.

Thankfully, the blocking worked. It's snug, but I had planned on it being form fitting. While knitting I adjusted my needle size during with waist section. I went down a needle size for 2 pattern repeats to create a bit of waist shaping.

I use Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash in Cobalt Heather. It's a great neutral but vibrant blue that is so versatile. Not only does it go with a few of my dresses, but also will be great with jeans as the seasons change. Although it's wool, the lace keeps it from being too warm in the summer but will transition nicely into fall.

One last picture I just have to share. My friends daughter was helping me with pictures and brought me a prop. What an absolute sweetheart.

Well, this one may have taken me a while to complete, but I think it was worth it.

As always, thank you for reading. Until next time, be creative and take time to blow on the dandelions.

Cherry