cardi in progress.

Despite resting all weekend, minus the mandatory Mother's Day activity, that cold virus got the best of me and I missed Monday and Tuesday at work.  In between naps and soup, I knitted.  I couldn't do much at once without resting, so I wanted to choose something mindless that was just ribbing and stockinette so I didn't get confused with any patterning.  Also, though I enjoy knitting lacework, cables, and the like - I tend to wear simple things in ribbing and stockinette much more often, so I wanted to make a basic I might use.

I'm making a variation of this Knitting Fever pattern, minus the lace front panels and a bit shorter length in the body.  I hope I have enough yarn left to make the sleeves come below the elbow. I managed to get a fair bit of knitting done in the 6 days I was ill.

This evening, I finished the last bits on the neckband and placket & the ribbon I ordered from etsy to trim the placket arrived yesterday.

This yarn is called 100% Soy Silk.  I got it for free when it first came out in 2005 and there was a giveaway on the knitty.com forums. 

I've had it since then because it's not a colorway that I would ever choose for myself - but the feel of the yarn once knitted up is really soft and drapy.  I hope it will keep an airy quality and not get too bagged out of shape. It's much lighter than cotton, which is really nice.  I think it will make a comfortable summer cardigan for work.

Now that I am feeling better, I don't have much time to sew - my husband's birthday is this weekend and we will be out of town the next two weekends after that - so I will content myself with finishing the sleeves and hand stitching the ribbon on the plackets before I can really get down to sewing in June.

All my treasures from fabric.com and Sewaholic arrived and I can't wait to get down to making some real clothes - not just "wearable muslins" and the equivalent in sweaters. I also ordered the Emery from Christine Haynes - it's on sale through this weekend, 30% off - I couldn't resist!  I can see myself making many of these dresses for work in all seasons.  It's a really flattering shape and it looks like it will be fun to make... but I have to be patient for a few weeks.

I am really excited to use this "wearable muslin" cardigan to test the ribbon placket, in the meantime, though.  I found an awesome tutorial by Tasha from By Gum, By Golly, writing a guest poster on Elegant Musings.  This is profoundly helpful & even includes a link to an adorable 1940's basic cardigan pattern.  It gives me a lot more confidence about the steps and her finished product looks beautiful!  I love her tip about just adding the extra number of stitches to the cardigan front body pieces and not worrying about picking up and knitting a separate button band, only to cover it with ribbon.  Too late for my test-sweater, but I think this method would make top down raglan cardigans even easier and more awesome!