Autumn Leaves Cardi

A finished cardi! This is my Autumn Leaves Cardi, all finished in time to watch the leaves turn brown here in Texas.

All the details and mods: The pattern is the Summer Solstice Cardigan. I used Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool in Ruby (color 2055 - which is currently sold out), which I had in my stash and was from two different dyelots. The dyelots seem to be identical, both prior to knitting and after knitting and I've looked at them in daylight as well as different types of artificial light. I was a little short on yardage so I made the sleeves 3/4 length and because the yarn I used was 100% wool, it tried to roll up more at the edges than the design would have done in a linen or cotton blend yarn. To compensate for this, I added garter stitch edges - narrow at the sleeves and neckline and wider at the lower hem.

I really love the way this came out. I chose to knit the 38 inch bust size so I'd have some wearing ease since clearly I would be tossing this over something (being a cardi and not having buttons). This gave me 5 inches of ease which gives me plenty of options for things to put underneath and it gives me enough extra to overlap the fronts and pin it closed if I want to also. This was my first sweater with this type of construction - center back out to sleeves, down from the yoke and then add the neckband - and when I was done, all I had to do was weave in my ends and block it and it was finished. There was no sewing together involved. Despite the simple construction, I wouldn't recommend this for a first sweater unless you have a bit of the OCD. There is a lot going on shaping wise and you have to keep up with what you do on what row. It's not a difficult sweater, but you have to keep up with things. I could definitely see myself knitting this again!