Although most of my knitting over the past two weeks has been ravelympics inspired, and though I finished up another cool woven ball (which ravelers can see there), this one in grey, olive green, and striped khaki and multigreys, earlier in the week, and then just this morning finished grafting the end of the thumb of my second Latvian mitten, I'm not ready to write about that one yet (and particularly because the second mitten is drying, so photography... well, later.
Instead, there's this, which I have decided is right enough to be considered finished.
It is my somewhat modified version of A Cardigan for Arwen, knit in Textiles a Mano Bariloche.
The modifications? Seamless construction. I knit the body in the round up to the armpits. Then I knit two bands of the cable pattern, grafted the bands shut into cuffs, picked up stitches along one edge of the cuffs, and knit up the sleeves. Then I joined the sleeves to the body and did your normal raglan shaping for the sleeve caps. I as I got close to the proper armhole length, I had a few more stitches along the back neck than I wanted, so I did a row or two with extra decreases in the middle, and in the end I think that actually helps the collar/hood hold its shape well.
I like it. The pattern doesn't call for any closures on the front, and I think I'm OK with that. There's a chance I'll want to put some sort of single clasp closure on it... but I'm not sure about it. It's a snug fit pulling the edges together, though I could do it--I could even do a zip front if I really wanted to do that.
The one remaining question is... the hood. I am very, very unlikely to wear the hood up, for two reasons. One, I almost never wear hoods, and two, it is, as I suspected, a tiny bit too short, so although it's wearable, it looks a little awkward. The question is, do I leave it as it is, as a design element, or do I do some other kind of collar. I'm thinking the answer is leave it as it is, but I'd be interested in strong opinions toward the other possibility.
OK, and what the heck... a picture of the first Latvian mitten.
Yeah, just a few ends to weave in. Just a few.