Ariana Cardigan

9/9 – This project will likely take more than one or two months to complete, but I’m hoping to finish it within the Pigskin Party timeframe.

One skein of each of my five contrast colors were my actual September Personal Stash Yarn skeins, but when I decided on this sweater (which seems perfect for this yarn), I knew I’d need much more than I had, so I’ve ordered a second skein of each of those colors and four skeins of Ash, as my main color (joining and bands). Fingers crossed it’ll be enough!

This is quite an oversized cardi and I definitely do NOT want as much positive ease as the largest size would give me (almost 20″!). So I’m going to work from the smaller size and adjust as needed. I need to do a test square to get an idea of how much size difference there will be in the squares to begin with since I’m working with sport instead of worsted. One I get the yarn I have caked up, I’ll start that process.

9/12 – I’ve done two “swatch” squares trying to find the right hook size to get the fabric I want. First a G, which was ridiculous as it was larger than what the pattern even called for; next an E, which might have been ok had I not added the single crochet stitch between the granny clusters on the sides that the pattern calls for (I never do them in my usual granny squares). So I’m going to try again with an E and no extra chain stitch and see what I get. My squares both ended up being about 6″ on the diagonal, which is definitely too big.

What I wrote above was kind of confusing. If I work with the smaller size and adjust up, my squares WILL need to be larger than the 5.5″ called for, and I’d prefer smaller than larger squares. So I think I’ll try for smaller squares and the larger size? I’m not really sure at this point. We’ll see how it goes.