Any knitters out there?

[tephra]

morganalilith you alive?

I'm trying to find a pattern, preferably free or cheap, for a circular knit cardigan. So far I've found these:

Nigella by Berroco, part of a pattern booklet that costs $7 and only has two patterns that I would actually wear. This one is a bit plain and has a disturbing nipple like thing going on at the center back but it has the general size and flow of what I want.

Kia Kia by Berroco, this one is free but... well it's just fugly. I hate the yarn and I'm pretty sure if I could actually see the stitch work I'd hate that too. It uses a lot of drop stitch ladders and I never have liked the look of those. It's also not as big and swoopy as Nigella and lacks sleeves.

The DROPS cardigan has a wonderful stitch pattern but is much too fitted. This is probably the closest to what I want though, and it is free... but can I manage to alter the pattern to make it all nice and loose and sized for me? I like the way they do the arm holes though, that's clever.

I'm contemplating trying to locate a circular shawl or tablecloth pattern and trying to figure out where I could stick sleeves in it at this point. :P

I probably won't end up knitting it, yarn is not cheap and I'd have to buy knitting needles as well since I never had my own (I used mom's) but... I hoard. :)

Trying to knit with three cats in the house might be pushing my luck anyway.

Comments

[tephra]

I think this would do it.



I'll need to check my math a few more times, the double layer conversions with both two sets of knitting gauge and the metric to imperial conversions make for too many places for mistakes.

But, I got out my handy dressmaker tape that is both metric and imperial and worked out that I need 60cm for my upper arm which is six times the gauge so 90 stitches... heh, found a goof already, you pick up 6 in addition to the amount you worked with the scrap (which is doubled) so I should work 42 stitches rather than 40 for the armhole.

The 76 stitches works out to about 20 inches which is what I need between the sleeves but then you have the straight versus curved problem.... *ARGH!* but I think it's right based on the pattern directions, I'm basically making it "XXL" with wider sleeves and more material in the front, which is the rounds after the sleeves.

I tried keeping the lace to stockinette proportions of the pattern but since I added more to the front/outside rounds I don't know if that is a good idea or not, as you can see it makes the center star extend into the front a bit more. On the other hand it keeps from sticking the sleeves in the middle of the lace....

I need to let it stew a bit. Time to try to figure out what sort of yarn it use. It's rather annoying when a pattern lists brands without an indication of the yarn weight. Do you think it's sport weight? Worsted? It seems thicker than lace weight. But then again, it's being used with another yarn so maybe it is lace weight.

*sigh* I wish they included yardage with the grams, then I could make a reasonable guess.

...

Aha! I found an online store that has it and lists the weight and yardage, 197yds and 1.75oz for Alpaca and 120yds for the cotton-viscose. So if I want to use one yard rather than two (and boy, I don't want to think about tackling lace with two yarns) do you think sport weight or worsted? At least I have an idea on yardage now. :)