Bling Bling.

I told you those leaves were on the ground. I spent the better part of a Saturday raking them into a massive pile, an effort that yields no visible signs of productivity, as there are still leaves strewn about the lawn upon completion. No amount of careful raking seems to help. This is an especially irritating task for a person with compulsive tendencies. Oh, well. If you can't beat them, join them.   

There is something about a leaf pile that begs to be played in- and rain puddles. They bring out the kid in me. Besides, yard work is overrated. 

Ah, but you're here for the sweater. So, let's get on with it. Today, in projects from the pile of reckless FOs, is the Dagmar sweater by Handy Kitty. This, too, is knit in a cotton variety yarn. However, unlike my Neon sweater, the cotton lends very nicely to the drape and built-in positive ease incorporated into this design. The yarn I used is BLING BLING  by Berroco, a currently discontinued variety purchased at the mother load of estate sales. 

This yarn is a cotton/acrylic/metallic blend. It's impossible to see in the photos, but it actually has bits of gold foil leafing throughout the strand. This yarn is something I would never have purchased for full price in a yarn store, but I was drawn to it. There's a lot of room for regret-free experimentation when the yarn is $1 a ball. After knitting with it, I have a feeling one of the reasons it was discontinued is that it sheds little bits of gold dust as it's knit.  I felt like a knitter version of Rumpelstiltskin as I worked.    

However, the resulting sparkle effect is subtle and really perfect for a sweater pattern like this one where there's texture without an overwhelming amount of detail. 

The sweater is knit in the round up until the divide. There is a high-low hemline created through the use of short rows and a moving cable detail that creates a fun visual effect along the front of the body. The sleeves are a seamed raglan. This was the only tricky bit. I recommend that a knitter have a good handle on seaming before tackling this, because there is only a single buffer stitch between the edge and the cable pattern. If you miss, you'll be seaming into the cables. And, that would get messy looking fairly quickly. I suppose you could also incorporate a few 'bonus' stitches at the raglan edge to allow a little room for error. 

There is a large amount of positive ease built into the sweater. I knit the size medium, and it's roomy. It did grow a bit while I was wearing it, not as much as the 100% cotton I used in my Neon, but noticeably so.  Between wearings I lightly wetted the bottom rib and tossed it in the dryer. It sprang back into shape beautifully without affecting the rest of the sweater.  This is the type of sweater that probably couldn't be too big. I will definitely be able to carry this one into fall. It has MEGA layering potential and a huge cozy factor. 

This style is a bit outside my normal tailored and fitted silhouette. I've been doing that a lot lately, trying new shapes, and I'm excited to report that I'm pleasantly surprised by the things I've discovered I like. I love having a classic set of staples in my closet, but it's nice to throw-in a few curve balls now and again. I adamantly refuse to ever be trendy, but I worry that I'm at that age where it all starts to fall apart- like the woman who currently rocks the same haircut she had in the 80's, because that's when she hit the pinnacle of her style evolution. Do you mix it up and try new things?