Shapely Stripes Cardigan!

By popular demand (lol!) , I'm sharing the Shapely Stripes Cardigan that I finished last week. The house sampler has to wait for another day. I've worn this cardigan to work this week and it feels oh-so-comfortable and snug. When I started this cardigan, I was going to call it the Shapeless stripes, given my shapeless shape. (Shapeless shape! sounds funny.) But, this cardigan is pretty flattering to my figure and I'm thankful for that.

I love the length of the body and the sleeves and the best feature I like in the sweater is the hood I added to it. It didn't come in the pattern but, I wanted to add one. So, I winged it. It turned out nicely and goes with the sweater. Here is a view of the hood.

Here is how I added the hood. I hope it helps anyone who wants to add a hood to a sweater.

• Pick up as many stitches you cast on, along the cast on edge. If you had foresight unlike me, you’ll do a provisional cast on and use those stitches later.
• Knit 2 rows and increase 4 stitches evenly in every right side row till you've increased 12 sts. That is, 3 increase rows. You can go on increasing if you prefer a fuller hood.
• Stop increasing and knit as set for about 11 to 12 inches and begin the crown decreases.
• Pick 2 center stitches (or 1 center stitch if you picked up odd number of stitches at the cast on edge) and decrease on either side of the center stitches in every alternating row till you comeback to the original number of picked up stitches.
• Fold the hood and Kitchener stitch the top of the hood or do a 3-needle bind-off.

Hood is done! Here is me with the hood on. :-)

I got perfect buttons from Itsy Bitsy. I got carried away with the button holes and put in about 10 of them. The sweater looked cartoon-ish with all the big buttons down the front. So, I took out about half of them and it looks alright now.

A Rav Friend mentioned to me that the colors in the sweater reminded her of Calvin and Hobbes. Its true, isn't it? Its one of the brightest garments I own currently. ;-) The bright orange yarn was from my Clapotis that was sitting in my closet without getting any use. I'm glad I frogged it to use for this sweater.

Here are the stats:

Pattern : Shapely Boyfriend
Yarn : J.Sagar Wash n wear Blended wool
Needles: 4.5mm and 4 mm(for ribbing)
Started: Dec 3rd,2011
Finished : Jan 29,2012
Ravelry Project: Shapely Stripes

-Josie

This post is linked to FO Friday hosted by Tami's Amis.