Juniper cardigan

November has definitely be a sewslowvember for me. I'm not sure whether I burnt myself out in October or whether the darkness has sapped out am my energy but I definitely don't have much to show at the end of the month... anyway one thing I have finished is my Juniper cardigan from a pattern by Jennifer Lauren Handmade.

I cut the pieces in October (!) from this gorgeous berry knitted fabric I bought last winter from Fabworks. It is so soft and fine that cutting it as straight as possible was a challenge in itself!

Constructing the cardigan wasn't too difficult even with such fine diaphanous fabric.

I used the "wrong" fluffy side of the fabric to do the waistband, the cuffs and the neckline band.

The neckline band gave me quite some trouble i must admit. First the one I had cut somehow shrunk on the part that wasn't interfaced. I tried steaming and pulling and crying but nothing worked. And of course I didn't have enough length left to cut another one... So my neckline band is made of 4 pieces after all and a little wonky I must admit...

Fitting the neckband on the cardigan was rather difficult and there was more crying there! Plush fabric is not very stretchy and with my rescue neckband I'm not sure how the grain runs on it so it was rather difficult to ease it around the top. Plus it is virtually impossible to unpick on this knitted fabric....

A good press with the iron made a difference to the overall look but it is definitely a fine knit that well easily pull. Because of that I decided to put enough snaps to keep the cardigan into shape once worn. It was my first time trying the colour snaps from Prym and they were easy to fit.  I bought silver so as to make sure colours wouldn't clash and I like how it looks on the finished item!

So just in time for the #cosycardi challenge on Instagram and for One monthly goal  for November! And of course this is one more OPAM and one of my Q4 FAL list.

Celine