FO: Dragonfly

august09 513I adore this cardigan and it has already a great deal of use after I finished it last week. It is soft, warm and fits really well. The colours make me happy and it is really easy to co-ordinate it with the rest of my wardrobe. I have worn it for jury duty, worn it whilst cavorting around Glasgow museums with overseas guests, and I even wore it outside as a light jacket whilst knitting under an overcast sky. Basic factsheet: I used just over ten balls of Patons Jet, a discontinued wool/alpaca blend, in shade nine. It sheds a lot whilst you knit with it, but I am yet to discover any post-completion shedding. I'd happily use this yarn again (and will since I have sweater amounts in charteuse in my stash). I knitted it up to a slightly tight gauge (as I don't trust my gauge around alpaca) on 5.5mm/US 9 needles. I replaced the FLS gull lace with an Andalusian stitch pattern and used negative ease as shaping device (it works with my body type). Finally, I found three vintage buttons in the old button stash.

But I think it is time I move on from my top-down, garter-yoke/raglan cardigans with top-only buttons. Dragonfly is my third cardigan to be loosely based upon the FLS idea and I think it will be my last. It is time to explore other ways of constructing cardigans although the FLS construction fits my body type very well and lets me have fun with stitch patterns and textures.