Knit It - Mustard Miette Cardigan

I have tantalised you with a few bad bathroom selfies over the last few weeks, it's now time to properly show off my latest finished knit!

~ Mustard Miette Cardigan ~

Pattern: Free Miette Cardigan Pattern by Andi Satterlund 

Size Made: 38" Bust - My tension made it nearer a 40"

Ingredients: DK weight (I think!) doubled up to make Worsted
24" long 5mm & 4.5mm circular needles 

4 x stitch markers 

8 x 5/8” buttons

OK, so a quick round up on this pattern for those who missed my previous ramblings! Back in 2013, I wrote a super long list of all the UFO's I had around my flat. I aired my list and felt great and really positive about kicking them into finished object territory, but wait, what is this, the urge to cast on something new was calling and I was weak and I gave in to temptation, I raided my stash for some yarn and began knitting myself a Miette!

I would dearly love to tell you what yarn I used for this cardie, but sadly the label has long been mislaid (AKA binned) and so I can only guess that the yarn is either from Stylecraft or Robin. The ply is also a bit of mystery, I think is 4ply but it could be DK (it's so close in thickness to both?!?). The colour is a gorgeous mustard yellow the prefect vintage cardie colour if you ask me. Ok thinking about it a bit more I'm going say it's most likely to be this Mustard Stylecraft DK but without buying more I can't be sure. One thing I am sure of is that to get the correct tension I doubled up the yarn, this is my goto technique for knitting worsted patterns and so far it has always worked out really well!

Miette is knitted from the neck down on circular needles, which is a very new concept to me. Around the neckline, there is a lot of pretty holes which are crated by decreases and yarn overs and they look wonderful when you get them right. I got them wrong a lot. It is a pattern which requires you to jump straight in at the deep end, so it's worth noting if you're new to knitting, you might want to work up to it! But after my 50th attempt (OK I'm totally exaggerating, probably...48th) I had it sussed and felt quite proud of myself!

After the neckband it becomes much easier, it's just a simple knit and purl stocking stitch with a few decreases for bust shaping and increases for the sleeves and more yarn overs continue the holy border along the edges of the front openings. After a while you will need to put some stitches on to a stitch keeper for each of the sleeves while you continue to knit the rest of the body of the cardigan, this to me was such an ingenious idea!

The body finished I went back to tackle the arms. I pulled out my DPNS, for this as I could not get the super long circular needle to work well using the magic loop method, and this is where I hit my first hurdle! I may have said it before, but it's worth repeating, I find that my tension changes dramatically between knitting on straight needles, circular and DPNS. I can knit on exactly the same size needles and have three very, very different outcomes. Circular being the loosest tension, next straight and finally, DPNS on which I knit the tightest!  So when it came to picking up the arm hole stitches I just could not get it right, So it was put in the UFO pile.

Until October last year when bought a bigger set of DPNS and whilst on visiting my mum and dad on the Isle Of Wight I set about finishing it off, I was a bit unsure as to whether I would have enough yarn to finish as I only had one medium hand wound ball left, but as it happened there was plenty and I even managed to knit the arms a bit longer than the bracelet length they are in the pattern. So that brings us to a few weeks ago when sewed on some bright red buttons and tidied up the loose threads so I could finally add it to my wardrobe!



I have worn my Miette lots since I finished it and really love it, it is certainly very warm and will look great with summery dresses in the once the weather warms up a tad, plus the colour should work well with lots of things, especially my new box pleat skirt, once I finish it!

The fit is pretty good too, though it is worth noting that this style of cardigan is designed to be close fitting and so will draw attention your bust, this is great if you want to enhance that area but if you are a little more self-conscious (like myself) then you might feel more comfortable wearing it unbuttoned or perhaps knit yourself a slightly larger size. As you're knitting the cardigan in one piece you can try it on as you go to check you are happy with how it's all going which is great and also means no seaming up at the end which is a massive time saver!

Which gives you more time to pretend to play the Ukulele!

Wendy x