I haven’t been using my knitting machine over the summer but over the past few weeks I’ve put it into action again.  I have just finished a simple fitted cardigan for my mother made from Berroco ‘Memoirs’. 

This yarn feels so light but due to the mohair it is really warm.  My mother feels the cold so a good combination for layering!  However I’m not sure this is the best yarn for machine knitting – it is made from two strands together and even though I kept the tension fairly loose it has quite a tendancy to snag.  In fact I managed to twist on of the needles in the process and had to change it.

Even though the knitting itself was simple with just some waist shaping, I added a large shawl collar at the end by hand in a 1×1 ribbing.  I love shawl collars, I really need to knit a cardigan for myself now with  one!

With this cardigan I tried out a tubular cast on for the first time.  It seemed a bit fiddly starting out but I like the finished effect.  From the knitting book I got the description there was a suggestion for a non-elastic yarn like cotton to pull some elastic through when you are pulling out the provisional cast one by tying it to the end.  I would like to see how that worked – must find a project that it would be good for!

I’m so happyt to have found a project for this yarn.  I bought it on sale and haven’t been able to figure out for over a year what I wanted to do with it!  I think simple works best, between the color changes and the mohair any amount of detail would just have been lost!