The Gramps Style

Hey hey, look what's finished!

When you're excited about your new sweater, you wear it with your jammies!

Pattern: Gramps Cardigan by Kate Oates, size 8
Yarn: Berroco Vintage (50% acrylic, 40% wool, 10% nylon), in color 5152/Mistletoe, approximately 3.25 skeins
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm)
Started/Completed: September 26/November 1
Mods: see below

This sweater marks the fourth time I have knit the pattern and I still feel like I could knit it again without becoming bored, so I think that's a pretty good indication that it's a good pattern.

Each time I knit this pattern after the first time, I made adjustments, and that was certainly the case with this iteration. The main place I made modifications was on the sleeves. I really like symmetry, and it bothered me that the cables on the sleeves did not mirror each other, so I switched the twist direction on one and attached the sleeves such that the cables on both sleeves cross toward the front of the sweater. I also adjusted the cables at the top of the sleeves, making them narrower so that the cable stitches would not be eaten up by the raglan decreases. Speaking of the raglan decreases, I switch the order of them so that the decrease lines would lean away from the markers (the pattern calls for doing ssk before the marker and k2tog after; I did k2tog before and ssk after). Finally, because I picked up fewer stitches than specified for the button bands, I eliminated one set of short rows for the shawl collar.

While I love how this sweater looks, I will say that it does seem to run a little small, especially in the sleeves. Rainbow wears a size 6 and is pretty slim, but even the size 8 sleeves are very snug on her. I think if I were knitting this again for her, I'd add four or eight stitches to the sleeves and omit some of the increases. I'm not ripping and redoing at this point, but I am going to try steaming the cuffs to see if I can get the acrylic content of the yarn to relax a bit.

Overall, I'm calling this a win, though there were some hiccups along the way and the yarn isn't necessarily what I would have chosen (though Rainbow is perfectly happy with it, and that's what matters). I'm hoping that this will fit for at least a couple of years; if not, expect to see me knitting another dark green sweater next year.