So, Featherweight, by Hannah Fettig, is my second sweater for the Summer Sweater Knitalong 2014 and my first entry for The Classic "Must Knit" Knitalong. I'm a full fledged member of the Featherweight Club now. 6743 of these have been made and logged into Ravelry. No telling how many more are floating around out there. It is easily one of the most knitted patterns I've ever queued up. But I've always hesitated to knit it because I wanted to lengthen the body and sleeves and knew that would take some time to work up.
I've already posted about my color inspiration, a painting inspired by the colors on the side of VHS tapes of the 80's and 90s. I had such a big stack of those - collections of random 120 Minutes and Comic Strip episodes, along with every episode of China Beach. Ah, nostalgia.
So I found just the colors I needed in Jaggerspun Zephyr (curry and jade) and Madtosh Lace (shire). I balled each skein up, making my arm muscles totally ripped, and toted around 3000 yards of lace weight yarn for two months.
I used a size US 2.5 circular needle for a gauge of 6 sts/ 8 rows per inch, working the sleeves with magic loop. I made the size 35.25" but expected it to block out to 36.5" or so. I worked 20 rows per color until the bottom, where I worked 20 rows of the blue, then 20 more rows of blue ribbing on both body and sleeves.
(Like my necklace? It's from Stephanie of Native Clutter.)
I did the recommended sleeve decreases, then worked the sleeves straight to be full length. I had originally added more decreases but didn't like the look of them and reknit them. They appear more fitted in the upper arm than they actually are. The lace yarn has a clingy look but feels wonderfully stretchy and comfortable. I love the length on these sleeves, too. I blocked my sleeves and body out for width, not length, so I intentionally knit these longer than wrist length.
(on my instagram)
Okay, so I've made two Hannah Fettig designs. I'm a real knitter now!! I think she's undeniably the master of loose and flowy cardigans. But there are other designs I love just as well, like Aproned Tank, Flugel, Bayside, Willard Fair Isle Pullover, and Lightweight Pullover. So much goodness.
Other posts on my Featherweight Cardigan: color combo, sleeve separation, more progress, and procrastinating.