Needles for cast on: 4.5mm
I need aprox size 41 or a tiny bit more.

Color is too bluish in the pictures. Real color is a bit darker, like the DyeForYarn-picture, but with the spots from my work.

6. feb:
1st gauge swatch:
10cmx10cm = 22,5st and 25rows (on 3.5mm needles) after wash and dry and a very light vertical stretch. That would give me 90% gauge.

Back:
Cast on 118 stiches which “should” yield 53,5cm width on the back piece.

10. feb:
First frogging. The knit fabric became to hard and dense on 3.5mm needles.

2nd gauge swatch:
10cmx10cm = 23st and xx rows (on 3.75mm needles) … No wash. Decided to go with 3.75mm needles.

Back:
Cast on 112 stiches wich “should” yield size 41 if I knit to the instructions for size 36…

Really wanted to knit this in the round, but don’t have the experience or confidence to modify the pattern that much. But - I have a much better feel for this one.

19. feb:
Finished with the back. It came out well knitting size 36 in order to get 41. The back is spot on.

20. feb:
Cast on 56 stiches for the right front panel.

23. feb:
Finished right front panel, cast on 56 stitches for the left front panel.

25. feb:
Ripping back left front panel for second time. First time for not doing the short rows pickup correct on the purl side, second time for starting the decrease for the neck too early. But at least the rip-back is shorter this time…

Finished left front panel.

Cast on 54 stitches for the first arm. I’ll have a pattern repeat on the center of the arm, so the first row went k2, p2, k2, second row went k1, p1, k2, p2, k2, p1, k1. I repeated the same number of rows as on the front and back panels.

First lace row: k21, followed lace chart until the center purl stitch - made thist: m1(purled), then followed rest of the lace chart, k21 (total 55 stiches).

26. feb:
Knit, frog halfway back, knit, frog … That’s the way.
Knit 2 repeats of the lace chart on each arm.

2. march:
ARRRGH! Realized that while I should knit to the number of stiches for size S, I should also knit to the measurements for size M - which I didn’t. So I’ll have to rip back the top of the back and the top of each front piece. Luckily not so much, just to the middle of the armholes. But I’m a bit angry now. “A dark storm is coming near”… me!

4. march:
Redid the top of the back and finished one of the arms. I may have knit the back a bit to long this time.. And I’m not too sure about the 3/4-and-a-bit-length to the arms, but wil keep it for now. Cast on for second arm.

24. march:
I finally got around to blocking the pieces after procrastinating for at least 14 days. No need to worry about it becoming too small. It grows and grows. The cardigan will have long arms as well…

27. march:
Woha! This grew like weeds in blocking. It gained like a size. But since I opted for a small size I hope it will work out OK… I believe that maybe I should have stuck with the 3.5mm needles…

29. march:
Finished sewing the shoulders. The finish could have been nicer, but I’m satisfied. I’m knitting the collar now. Satisfied that I didn’t bind of anything until knitting the collar. That made it easy to ad a couple of rows where needed.

30. march:
Seaming together the pieces and weaving in ends. Hate this work. Next cardigan will be knitted in the round…

31. march:
Finished! Now I just need to sew on some closure and take pictures. It’s a bit wide in the back and the button band pulled a bit, but that came out when I pressed it.
The sleeves was to short, but I pressed them to full length as well. The fabric is more soft and drapes more than I thought. And the neck was too wide, but I threaded in some drawstrings in the button band and in the purl stitch in the center of the lace from chest and back to chest. Then I pulled these strings until I got a satisfying shape and fastend them. The width of the cardi I just will have to live with.

Overall: Not bad for “my first cardi” anyway.

Yarn:
It’s really soft and nice to knit with. It lints a bit when working with it. I wonder how it will hold up in a garnment. The dark color bleed a little in the wash, but the yarn stayed saturated. The garnment grew quite a bit in blocking. Read that it may be caused by the high silk content. Next time I knit with such high silk content I will pick a needle size and a garnment size smaller than usual.

I used exactly 5 skeins for my project.

Pattern:
Very clear instructions - even for me, at “advanced novice level”. But way to much construction work after knitting to my taste.

Regrets (small):

• Would have added light shapening if I knew enough to do that when I started the project.
• Should have used the 3.5mm needles due to the silk content of the yarn.
• Would have knit to the XS size, except for the sleeves.