Background

Years ago, before I really knew how to knit (at least before I had made any garments), I received Nancy Marchant’s book Knitting Brioche as a gift. From the patterns in the back I selected the Book Exchange Cardigan as one I would like to try some day. Later, about a year and a half ago, WEBS was having a sale on Cascade 220 ($8/100g) so I bought 10 skeins with that cardigan in mind. And finally this October I cast on!

In the book, Nancy says the pattern is named after a used bookstore she frequented in Amsterdam. In a synchronicitous turn of events I finished the cardigan on December 20th, and my family had decided that we would (for the first time) do a “white elephant” style book exchange on Christmas Eve as our Christmas gathering this year. So I got to wear my new Book Exchange to a book exchange.

(Thanks as always to my sister for helping to model and make my knits look good!)

To Block or Not? -- A Gauge Mishap

I made a small swatch with 3.75mm/US 5. After washing, the swatch flattened and lost some fluff, but the gauge didn’t change much from the dry swatch: about 16x24. At that gauge the size M would give me at least 4” of positive ease, and that sounded about right.

However, 1) my swatch was too small and I probably stretched it a bit while measuring, and 2) at some point (probably after reading mrknitwear’s project notes I decided I wasn’t going to wet block in order to preserve as much brioche bounciness as possible. After joining the second ball of yarn and knitting a total of 16” of the back, I finally took the time to measure it across: it was several inches more narrow than I expected!

I decided to start over with 4mm/US 6 needles. After several inches I measured again and my gauge was still a little tight with the larger needles but I calculated that if I followed the M instructions I would end up with a cardigan with the dimensions of the S (still about 2”+ of positive ease). I continued… and I’m happy to report that the finished object is probably the best fitting garment I’ve managed to make for myself so far.

Before seaming the pieces together I pinned them to size and steamed lightly with a steam iron. I plan to try to keep it clean with steaming and wiping for as long as possible; some day I will probably have to actually wash it, and on that day I bet it will loose much of its fluffiness and gain some nice drape.

One other small mishap occurred during the knitting process: preparing to travel I left my backpack with project bag, book, and needles leaning up against a car’s tire (not smart) and it got ran over. The book got beat up and my 4.5mm needles (which I used for ribbing) were damaged but luckily the 4mm that were in my project were unscathed and I already had a spare set of 4.5mm tips at home.

Notes and Deviations

• I did the Italian cast on everywhere. That means to match the pattern for the back piece (which begins on the wrongside with p1, k1 ribbing) I began and ended with a knit stitch so that the first row of ribbing began with a purl.

• I realized that every time the pattern says to end on a WS I was ending after completing a RS row. My bindoff shaping might be a little staggered… I don’t think that should affect anything in the end.

• Two issues with the “3-row 4-st decrease” instructions:

  • As the heading implies, it decreases 2 stitches at the beginning and end of the piece -- for 4 stitches total. This is not correct for the fronts which should only decrease on one end (for the sleeve hole). This is a case of a tech editor trying to be overly concise and referencing the same instructions where it does not work, but the schematic is good so the error is pretty easy to avoid.
  • For the back and fronts I thought “decrease every 12th row” meant every 12th row after the 3rd row of the 3-row decrease, but looking at the photos it actually means every 12th row after the first row of the decrease. So I did it wrong and simply had to spread out my sleeve decreases to match -- and in fact adding a few extra rows in the arm hole shaping was probably a good thing to make up for my slightly tighter row gauge.

Back

• 105 brioche rows
• back sleeve shaping: bound off after last increase (no working even)
• blocked dimensions: 21.5” x 25.5”

Fronts

• Note that the pockets are not symmetrically placed in every size so you can’t just naively repeat the front-right instructions for the front-left. (For mine (M): To make pockets symmetrical work 11 (rather than 14), slip 24 stitches to holder, work across pocket…)
• pocket: 24 sitches by 33 rows on 4.5mm needles
• 66 worked rows before inserting pocket
• cast off 4 at start of worked row #212 (WS)
• total worked rows: 300
• rows of the shawl collar after binding off: 74

Sleeves

• rib for 26 rows then brioche for 26 worked rows before beginning increases
• after increases knit 33 rows even (21.5” from cuff cast on)
• decreases to match arm hole shaping (need to decrease over 84 stitches total): every 6 rows 2 times then every 8 rows 1 time then every 6 rows 1 time repeat 2 times then every 6 rows 5 times (106+38=84)
• saddle: 4.25” (50 rows)

Seaming

• I don’t know how many hours, but it took me over 2 days of seaming! I think I could do it much faster a second time, though.
• Vertical to vertical: mattress stitch
• Horizontal to horizontal: under both loops of top stitches
• Vertical to horizontal / curves: mattress stitch on vertical section and then to nearest stitch on horizontal section. This was about a 5:4 ratio except at the top of the shawl which was more like every other shawl stitch. My shawl collar was too long and that seam is gathered/distorted, but not bad enough for me to try to fix it so far.
• Pockets vertical: whip stitch under both strands of selvage stitch and then the yarn over plus closest leg of the stitch column.
• Pockets horizontal: catch both legs of cast on and both legs of brioche column stitches (under both legs of knits and the two yarn overs on purls)

Buttons

• I bought these 7/8” black faux leather buttons on etsy (10/$6). I couldn’t decide between black or brown; I think either would work. For inexpensive wooden fake leather buttons they look better than I thought they would!
• Button holes turned out a little tight, but I think that is good because I know they will stretch with use
• To attach: place button shank through center stitch on button band; run needle with yarn through three times, on third time secure with half hitch; don’t cut yarn but run it up through button band to next button. I hope that holds them. At least I have 5 extra buttons if I need to try again.

As it happened…

09-06-2023

Swatch and cast on size M

09-12-2023

Finished the first hank of yarn: the back is about 10 1/2” long so far (128 worked rows of brioche)

09-16-2023

Disaster! After completing 16” of the back panel I measured its width for the first time since starting the ribbing… it is almost 3” too narrow! I’m unsure what went wrong. I think probably my brioche is tight and has pulled in a lot more than my short gauge swatch indicated.

In any case, I am probably going to start over with 4mm needles and see how it goes.

The gauge was so much tighter that I thought I had maybe accidentally swatched with the wrong needle… but after beginning again with 4mm needles I think I just tend to do brioche very tight (apparently even more so when I’m not swatching)

09-29-2023

I took a couple of weeks off of this project (and learned how to crochet doilies), but I’m back to it now!

After swatching with 4mm needles I get 15.5-16.5 stitches/4” depending on how I measure. Good enough, casting on for reals!

10-04-2023

Finished first cake of yarn (again). A little over 10.5” in length after 126 worked rows.

Even going up to 4mm needles my gauge is still tighter than pattern. But this time I can gently stretch the piece to the desired width, so I know I can block it to size if needed.

10-07-2023

Reached 17 1/4” after 105 worked rows. Beginning armhole shaping.

10-11-2023

Finished second cake of yarn while working on back arm hole decreases.

10-13-2023

I finished the back (a little over two cakes of yarn)! I decided to block it before moving on to the right front. I pinned it out to the Small size even though I’m working the Medium size (22.5” x 25.5”) and then lightly steamed it. I did not wet block because I don’t want to lose the fluffiness of the brioche.

10-15-2023

Began right front (Italian cast on 49 with 4mm needles). I started it yesterday, but the selvage stitches on the button band were looking loose and wonky, so I started over. Looks better this time.

10-23-2023

Finished knitting right-front. I couldn’t figure out how to calculate how long the collar should be, so I did about 6.75” (between the S and M sizes) and left the stitches live for now. I might try to connect the left and right collars with Kitchener or three-needle bindoff.

I also blocked most of the piece (couldn’t fit the collar on a single blocking mat -- might block it separately). I pinned it out to about 11” wide and steamed lightly.

Have used almost 400g of yarn.

10-23-2023

Got about 2” into the front-left when 1) I realized I forgot to mark the button holes and 2) the cast on looked a bit wonky. So I’m going to start over on it.

10-26-2023

Got the pocket flap connected to the left-front piece. One tricky thing: except for sizes S and L, the pockets are not centered on the front panels so you can’t blindly follow the instructions for the right front pocket placement. Instead make sure to space them symmetrically from the button band.

10-27-2023

Oops, accidentally put the third button hole 4 rows too early. Oh well

11-02-2023

Took several days off to create a Halloween doily, but I’m back at it now and have finished the button holes.

11-07-2023

I finished knitting the left front piece yesterday. And then today my project bag got run over by a car! So far it looks like the main casualties are my 4.5mm and 5mm needles (and my new 0.6mm steel crochet hook )… I need the 4.5mm to cast on for sleeves, but I have an extra!

I’m going on a weeklong road trip / hike soon, so sleeves might have to wait until I get back anyway.

11-23-2023

Back from vacation and finally back to this project! I cast on a sleeve and did a couple of rows before doing a Turkey Trot this morning.

11-27-2023

Still doing increases on first sleeve. Spit-spliced 7th ball of yarn… I forgot until now I’m using wool and can felt splice to join!

12-03-2023

Still working on first sleeve. Took a little break to make a little lace bandana. My plan is to finish this cardigan by Christmas!

12-09-2023

Finished the first sleeve. Decided to block it and pin together all the pieces so far. The sleeves fit perfectly; the body is maybe a tad slim for me, but I think it will work! I need to shorten the shawl on each side slightly but that is easy since those are still live on holders. Going to start the second sleeve and also probably start seaming what I have so far

12-17-2023

Finished increases on second sleeve. Also wound and joined 9th (and final!) ball of yarn.

12-18-2023

Finished and blocked the second sleeve! Now for seaming…

12-20-2023

Finally finished. And it fits, even buttoned up! After the seaming and buttons I steam blocked (without pins) it one last time to both clean it and help relax the seams. Hopefully I’ll get some photos tomorrow.