The Goddess of Apples

… is what Wikipedia tells me of Iðunn: the goddess of apples and youth.

Wow, this project has been waiting for too long at every step of the process. I knit this cardigan in the summer of 2015. Then it waited until winter 2016 to be photographed. And now, a full year later, it’s finally ended up here on the blog.

I got the yarn, 9 skeins of Drops Alaska, at the closing sale of a local yarn shop for the whopping price of 1€ per skein. I would’ve wanted a full ten-skein bag but, alas, nine was all that was left. To make the yarn go the extra mile, I combined it with a single skein of a now-discontinued yarn in a lovely deep pink/fuchsia. Trawling through Ravelry and the search came up with this colorwork cardigan that had been in my queue for quite a while.

• On Ravelry: Iðunn

• Pattern: Iðunn by Ragga Eiríksdóttir from Knitty, Winter 2012

• Yarn: Main color 617 m/675 yd of Garnstudio DROPS Alaska in #04 Gray, contrast color 139 m/150 yd of Utuna Uramatar

• Needles: 5.0 mm for ribbing, 5.5 mm otherwise

• Mods: Added waist-shaping, i-cord edging and a grosgrain ribbon.

This is the first time I tried steeking. It was scary but I survived using Kate Davies’ steeking tutorial. She uses crocheted steeks but I wasn’t convinced the edges were not going unravel so I did both crochet reinforcing and machine stitching, just to be on the safe side.

This is the most time ever I’ve used on finishing a knit. The steeking itself didn’t take that long but what came after it. To make the edges neat, I added an i-cord edging all the way up one front, round the neckline and down the other front. Then I painstakingly hand sewed grosgrain ribbon on the inside of the fronts to hide the steeked edges. Finally, six crochet button loops and, viola, a steeked cardigan!

#knitting #cardigan #steeking #Knitty #colorwork #stranded #Garnstudio #DROPS #pink