Dahlia Cardi Part 1

Last Fall I started knitting the Dahlia cardi from Interweave Knits Fall 2011.  (You can purchase the pattern here.)  The description is: Uniquely constructed cardigan with wrapped front and an eye-catching back lace panel. Fun to knit and wear.

The knitting is not really difficult once the lace motif is completed on the back. It's a lot of stockinette stitch. Perhaps that is why I lost interest. But I couldn't sleep a couple of nights ago so I picked it up and started knitting on it again. I just completed the body of the sweater and am now ready to knit the sleeves.

A couple of really neat things about this sweater is that the only seaming to be done is attaching the sides to the back lace motif. The sleeves are called 'after thought' sleeves. I've never done these but while knitting the body of the sweater (it's all one piece) you knit waste yarn into the body. Then go back, remove the waste yarn, pick up those stitches and knit the sleeves. In the round no less! How cool is that. The front falls open into soft folds, so there isn't any button band, buttonholes or any type of knit-on closure. You can close the front using a sweater pin.

So here's a picture of my sweater body. The lace back isn't real clear, but the 'holes' on either side of it are the spots where I will go back and do the seaming. The white lines are the 'after thought' sleeve markers.

So I'm kind of excited about this cardi again. Since it is designed for fall, I'll have it finished and ready to wear when the weather turns cool in October.