Cinnie 2013

 Cinnie 2013 is finished.  With hubby out of town and me anxious to blog about Cinnie  I relied on self-portrait shots.  Sorry.

Pattern:  Cinnie by Bonne Marie Burns

Yarn:  Raffaella by Sirdar  5 balls minus a few yards.

Needles:  4mm

Modifications:  About 2 inches shorter than pattern recommends

Lots more stitches picked up for front bands.

Back neck turned down to create facing.

Obviously this view should be called the broad beam view.

In 2012, my first Cinnie needed a bit of a re-do.  After completion, I ripped back the front bands, and  shortened the entire sweater a couple of inches.  The  pattern-suggested length meant  it fell to a wider part of my hips.  Without shaping for that increased width, it pulled.  For me, being short, a slighltly shorter sweater was a better option. 

I also re-did the front bands of Cinnie 2012, increasing the number of stitches picked up, especially in the bust area.  This curbed the tendency of Cinnie to ride up  over those hills. Horizontal lace panels crossing the bust area made that 'ride up' very noticeable. With that experience still fresh, Cinnie 2013 was knit with those modifications  first time around.

The only other modification I did was to turn under a crescent  shaped piece at the centre back neck.  The nature of the zig zag lace pattern leaves quite a large point in the centre back neck area and for me, makes the back neck just too darn high.  Turning under and tacking down the excess, works beautifully. 

Cinnie 2013 was less fun to knit than last year's version.  The yarn, Raffaella, has a bit of a boucle-like kink in it and it caught  - often - on the needles.  It made the knitting more of a struggle than Cinnie 2012 which was knit with  smooth, Sirdar Click yarn.

But finished now, I will forgive it for the bumpy ride through the knitting process, as it is lovely.  A perfect little summer cardi.  Now we just need some summer weather.