I’ve finally reached the sleeve divide, which means that I can try the cardigan on for real, rather than just draping it over my shoulders. And I’m super pleased to say that it fits pretty well.

This, in turn, means that I can finally cut all the annoying yarns across the chest!

The colour fade from yellow to orange meant a lot of switching between colours, and quite often the live end of the yarn I needed was on the other side of the knitted fabric. I considered just knitting from wherever the yarn was – purling if the yarn was on that side of the fabric, even though the pattern called for a knit row – but was afraid that that would make it too hard to keep track of all the increases. So I just let the yarn jump the gap to where I needed it. As long as I was unsure about the fit, I didn’t dare cut the yarn (wouldn’t want to end up with lots of small pieces if I had to unravel it all) so I had all these fiddly yarns going across the chest, from one edge to the other. Now I’m going to chop them all, which is going to make things a lot easier!

The result of yesterday’s yarn shopping.

I’m reaching the point – or maybe I’ve already passed it – where I really, really don’t need any more hand-knitted socks. I’ve got a few yarns still waiting and I’m going to use those, because I can already picture the socks and they will all look so fabulous, but I do need a new plan for meeting knitting.

First up: a scarf to give away.

I try to hold back with the knitting posts because I imagine you all get tired of them, but now I see the last progress photo of the cardigan was six weeks ago, so I can get away with one.

I had planned a colour fade which looked good when the yarns were still in hanks, but now that I’m knitting it, there is less gradual fading than I had hoped and more of a striped effect.

The fade is much softer and, you know, actually fade-y, on the reverse of the fabric. I’m starting to understand why so many of the knitting patterns that incorporate a colour fade are made in reverse stockinette or garter stitch. But I still like the overall impression of the right side much better – the colours look more brilliant and the yarn more lustrous. So I guess I’ll have to deal with the stripey fade.

My cardigan-to-be looks like a geometry puzzle, not like a cardigan-to-be. Like a middle school maths problem, where you get two measurements and have to calculate all the rest, or something.

Here’s the beginning of my next knitted cardigan. I browsed a lot of patterns and had an idea of what I wanted, but couldn’t find any pattern that delivered on all my requirements, so it’s going to be a mash-up of Nala but with a different gauge and probably without the cables, and probably some ribbing along the sides like Fade-It Brioche and this faded cardigan. And as for the colour fade, I guess I’ll just wing it.

I am approaching a point (or maybe I’ve even already reached it) where it doesn’t make much sense to knit more socks. I have lots of wonderful, woolly socks now. Not quite in all imaginable colours yet, but close. I can’t remember when I last wore a pair of plain, black, store-bought cotton socks. I also can’t see myself doing so in a foreseeable future. But I don’t want to stop. I can make room for more knitted socks in my sock drawer if I pack away the cotton ones to the basement.

I can also keep the drawer from filling up by knitting socks for others. Adrian is always happy about more socks, and I found these beautiful, crazy yarns that almost seem made for him. Zauberball Crazy – colour gradient yarns in brilliant hues with no repeating pattern. Four socks from one ball, and nothing repeats.

I wonder how they even make these yarns. Are they actually random, or are they carefully designed to appear random? How do they wind the balls so tidily, with the colours so clearly separated? Has this company invented not only a unique way to dye yarns, but also a matching machine to wind them?

Among my errands on Wednesday I bought buttons for the black cardigan. This allowed me to finish it by knitting the button band and buttonholes.

Overall it came out really nice. The lace looks pretty and has good definition even in the black, fuzzy yarn. The fit is good, my pattern tweaks mostly worked out, and it feels super soft and fuzzy without being too warm. I already started wearing it before I had the buttons in place because it’s just so cosy.

There’s some bunching around the armholes – I had to go up several sizes for the sleeves (this was clearly sized for ladies with twiggy arms) and it wasn’t easy to adjust the raglan shoulder shaping to fit them in.

I did plan to go yarn shopping yesterday, but I was only going to buy a single hank, just for swatching. After swatching I was going to measure and plan and think, and only then would I go back to buy yarn for real. Instead I came home with the materials for an entire cardigan.

I had my sights set on Tosh Merino Light, a luxuriously soft yarn in the most brilliant hand-dyed colours. Kind of expensive, but hey, the last cardigan I knitted took me a year, and 1500 kronor or so for a year’s entertainment is pretty good value for money.

To my shock I saw that there was only a single hank left of the colourway I loved most (Tosh Merino Light – Carolina Reaper). The yarn is made in the US, so ordering more would mean unpredictable weeks of waiting, which I didn’t feel like, at all.

So I grabbed that single hank and designed my next cardigan project around it on the spot. Together with three matching colours it fit into a yellow-orange-red fade. Which means the pattern should be seamless (to make that fade work) and relatively pared-down, with none of the lacy or textured patterns I’ve been considering. Constraints always make decisions easier.

My black cardigan is more or less finished. I steam blocked it today, and later also added a collar and a button band. The only thing missing is the buttonhole band, which I cannot make without buttons, because I don’t know how many or how large the buttonholes will need to be. But I can’t wait to start using the cardigan because it is so incredibly soft and comfy, so I’ll just pretend for a short while that it’s meant to be worn unbuttoned.

1 finished pair of socks: 48 grams.
Leftover yarn: 54 grams.
I can get a whole other pair of socks out of that, which is so much better than having yarn for almost-but-not-quite a pair and then having to make up the difference with something else.