gathered cardi

The Gathered Cardi is complete. The pattern is from Knit.1, Spring/Summer 2008. I used 6 skeins of Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in taupe on size 8 needles. The only modification I made was on the gathered seam. I was worried about the gathered seam hitting across the chest, and decided to try to just block the heck out of it. It helped a bit, but not quite as much as I had hoped. However, now that it's finished, it turns out I don't really mind! I'm actually pretty happy with the way this looks. Sure, it's big and swingy and slouchy...but I like it like that. :) It's sort of cute and it's definitely comfy and even though it's a pretty uncomplicated design, I appreciate the simple design elements it does have: the wide seed stitch borders, the cuffed, shortish sleeves, and the big wooden button (which I found on eBay). I'm still really happy with the way I bound off and picked up stitches for the gathered seam---it was definitely worth the pain and effort! Part of me wishes I had chosen a bolder color, but when I buying the yarn I was thinking that a big, gathered, swingy cardigan in a bright color would be a bit too much. Even though it's very similar to my Patti cardigan, the Gathered Cardi looks much more casual (to me), so I don't care much that I knit two such similar garments. There are more slightly blurry photos taken in a smudgy mirror on Flickr!