Machine Knit Striped Cardigan

Another machine knit sweater! This time I adventured into a different type of yarn instead of the good old Caron simply soft. I actually found a bunch of wool yarn in goodwill for 1.59 each. So I bought all of them without thinking about what to make. Among them was 4 skeins of organic wool from the Full Belly Farm – two beige and two brown, 250 yds each. I thought together they would make a nice striped sweater. The funny thing about those wool – the sheeps on that farm must have rolled in the straw a LOT before they were sheared for this batch of yarn. There was SO many straws and dried grass stuck in the yarn. I picked them out as I balled the yarn, as I knitted, and still have to pick some out after I was done. But I cant complain that much given that they cost less than $10 total for organic wool!!

I knitted this on my knitting machine as usual (pattern below). I sewed two in-seam pockets in the side and I am so glad I did 🙂 The edges are all hand knit since the machine doesnt do anything than regular stockinette knit, which curls a lot.

Other than that, I really love the end result – its really warm and light and not too scratchy – I expect it to become softer with more wear too. This is the first time I used non-cheap yarn on my machine and it turned out beautifully – giving me confidence to try other expensive yarn on the machine next time!

(btw, my color/stripe inspiration for this sweater is here).

You can see the inseam pocket in above picture.

The front view is the least flattering since its just a rectangle on the bodice. I think i should do some shaping on my next try.

I LOVE the view from the back! Those stripes! *swooon*

join shoulder

sleeves:

• 6 rows of dark
• 4 rows of light
• 8 rows of dark
• 4 rows of light
• 10 rows of dark
• 4 rows of light
• 12 rows of dark
• 4 rows of light
• 14 rows of dark
• this is when i actually started knitting all 160 stitches at the same time. insert 3 rods for weight
• 4 rows of light
• 18 rows of dark
• 4 rows of light
• 26 rows of dark

Then take the sweater off the machine and onto size 6 knitting needle – do 8 rows of knitting (garter stitch) then bind off.

Hand join the sides together, maybe stitch in an inseam pocket.

pick up X stitches along the front and neckline. I actually dont remember how many I picked up, but I measured the garter stitch length on the bottom and the length of front&neckline to figure out how many stitches to pick up along the front&neckline (31 stitches for every 7 inches). Then I knitted about 14 times – when I almost ran out of yarn of one of the colors & then bind off. Note that I stitch colors every row so that I use light colors on top and dark on the bottom.