The Hourglass today looks nearly the same as it did on Friday. Except now it has two attached sleeves, and is entirely unsuited to subway knitting.

Its house-bound until completion.

The above photo, ten seconds later..

Today at lunch, without even really meaning to, I bought 5 skiens of Kid Soft to make the Rebecca Wrap Cardigan. The weather in NYC was a welcome teaser of spring. The sun shone. Temperatures reached 60 degrees. I felt like a spring project was in order.

My color choice here will shock noone who knows me: slate grey/blue. its one of my favorites, very calm feeling.

Here's the first sleeve for the Rebecca Wrap Cardigan. I made a sleeve instead of a swatch.. right now it seems a bit small, but might grow when washed/blocked.

I had my doubts about this sweater. I like the yarn, the design is interesting, and knitting it is challenging (all good things). But lots of people in blogland are knitting it, and its not really my style to jump on the bandwagon. But, the sweater is cute and has a different look. so, onward.

I learned how to do a nice edge on this sleeve. Leila from the suggested slipping purlwise the first+last stitches on the WS. It looks so nice! Here's a close-up:

This photo is of the WS. See how the edge stitches kinda float away from the side? They actually turn about 90 degrees from the RS. This should make seaming very smooth.

The Rebecca wrap cardi is moving along at a very fast pace. This weekend, I finished all the pieces, blocked and seamed them.

Here's the Left Front:

After completing the back and midway through this piece, I realized I was following the chart wrong. There's supposed to be more stockinette between the eyelets. Ooops. So there are more eyelets than there's supposed to be. Its all good, I like it this way.

A more pressing issue came to my attention while trying it on last night. Its way short. I don't know if I can wear this over tank tops and such as intended. Its very comfortable, but I just feel silly.

Tomorrow: the tricky practice of adding length to a sweater. Luckily, I make things the wrong size all the time. Here's hoping that 3 inches of 2x2 ribbing does the trick..

A rather cropped sweater is nearing completion:

For those of you unfamiliar with this pattern, it *is* supposed to be this short. This length was pretty much intentional, and correct for the smaller pattern size. But does it work? Is it really wearable?

At first, I thought it was too short. I strongly considered adding some 2x2 ribbing to the bottom. But after wearing it around the house for a little while, I like it. Its different, and that's ideal. Plus, if longer, it wouldn't be so wearable in the summer.

So onward to the finishing - wrap ties, crochet edges and neck edging.

As many others are doing, I've picked up stitches from the front edges to knit the wrap ties. Since I slipped the WS edge stitches, these stitches are picked up along a chain selvedge. I was able to use a repeat of *pick up 3, skip 1*, ending with pick up 3, to get the required 18 stitches for the tie.

View a close-up

Its done! I do hope I still find this sweater comfortable and wearable once warmer weather hits. Yes, this picture is strikingly similar to the one from a few days ago.. but check out the side ties!

Side view

Yarn: GGH Soft Kid in this slate blue color. I used nearly all of 4 skeins for the smaller size.
Gauge: 18sts/4", on size 7 needles.
Pattern Modifications: No neck finishing (yet), relocated side seam opening.

Some Technical Notes:

1. Neck Edging. I didn't end up doing the neck edging. I tried it, picking up stitches around the neck and binding them off per the pattern. It looked very nice, but instantly made the sweater uncomfortable. I even tried binding off with size 10 needles. still too tight. Maybe will try a crochet edging at some point. but for now, I am down with how the neck edge looks.

2. Side Seams. I used embroidery floss to sew the seams. I imagine this is much smoother than the mohair. The pattern says to leave an opening 15cm up for the longer side tie to thread through. This was waaay too high. Maybe it was a typo and they meant 5cm?? I ended up with the opening about 3 inches from the hem.

That's it! This was a pretty straightforward knit, finished in about a week and a half. Working with mohair was interesting. Its very delicate and airy.