My winter cardigan - the Hetty

I finished my winter knitting project! Actually it was finished and blocked just before Christmas so I have worn it quite a bit already.

I wrote about my plans in this post.

The pattern is Andi Satterlund Hetty (Ravelry page here) and the wool is Malabrigo Worsted in Sweet Grape bought from Tangled Yarns.

I knitted the medium which gave a couple of inches of negative ease at the bust. I decided not to adjust the shoulder width following the advice of helpful Ravelry people (they are so helpful!). I skipped 2 decrease rows at the waistline to add 2" and added 2" in length to the body and 1" to the arms.

I think it worked out well - it's not tight across the shoulders and the waist is fine.

 

The wool was beautiful to knit with.  It's really soft and smooth and knits up so nicely. It's got a slight sheen which is gorgeous and shows off the stitch pattern well. And given that it's not itchy in the slightest I can barely believe it's 100% wool!

I found the  pattern to be slightly hard going as I'm not the greatest at counting stitches along the row - I prefer to understand the pattern so that I remember it. I had to take so many rows back (probably not helped by the fact I knitted the bulk of this when I was on flights and while jetlagged). But the shaping etc worked well and I found the short rows of the sleeve caps much easier than the first time I did this on my Deco cardigan.  And I love not having to seam at the end! 

 

I had my usual button indecision so decided to go for something inobtrusive. These clear buttons came from John lewis and were chosen by N. They are a little bit small so don't stay tightly done up, but I tend to wear cardigans open anyway so it's not a big problem. 

The colour took me a couple of weeks to work into rotation in my wardrobe but now that I have I have worn it loads.

I've done a couple of smaller projects (to be blogged soon) but I am trying to decide whether to take on another big knitting project. Maybe Miette or Owls (have you seen Lauren and Tasia's versions of this? So cute!).

Following a lot of discussion on KLine's blog about knitting styles I have been thinking about changing my knitting style. I'm a British knitter (as you might expect) and it's quite slow. I've also been suffering from carpal tunnel issues which I think would improve if I didn't "throw" the yarn. Perhaps eastern european style?

What knitting style do you use? Have you ever changed your style? Any cute patterns I should consider next?