Cute Coraline

I'm so happy to finally be able to show you my Coraline cardigan, which I have been working on for a good while now, and which waited for a long time in my shelf before I got the right buttons for it (and actually sewed them on!). But here it is now - and I love it!

The pattern is Coraline by Ysolda. I did make quite a lot of modifications, read on for more.

I used Novita Julia, a Finnish wool/acrylic blend which is pretty much my "workhorse" yarn. I've previously used it for my Xylem sweater and a lot of mittens. My needle was a 3,5 mm Knitpics circular (is circular needle plurar or singular, by the way? It sounds weird to say just needle, not needles)

Anyway, even though I used a dk yarn and the same strength needles that the pattern calls for, I knew that my gauge will be far from the suggested gauge. To compensate, I chose to knit the cardigan in size small, even though I would be at least a medium according to the size charts. As you can see, that worked out fine! The cardigan fits me wonderfully, with pretty much 0 or +1 inch ease.

Due to the change in gauge, I also had less rows than suggested - instead of 95 I knit 87 rows of stockinette between the hem turn and the yoke.

I also didn't like the sleeves in the pattern; they were just too poofy for me. So I started them wider than the pattern said with 54 stitches and increased 2 stitches every 8 rows until I had 68 stitches, and then knit 111 rounds straight. The result looks nice, I think!

The yoke I did exactly as the pattern said, with short rows and all. I addes buttons all the way down, as clothes that are only buttoned from above kind of give me the pregnant look! I also did button loops in crochet, not the thread loops Ysolda suggests.

All in all a very nice knit, and very lovely to wear too! It's now getting so warm though, most likely the Coraline will sit in my closet for a few months before I can really start using it, but that's perfectly OK for me.

How do you like it?