Purple Karma

Pattern: Anthropologie-inspired Capelet by Peonyknits
Yarn: Knitpicks' Wool of the Andes Bulky (2.5 skeins) in Grape
Needles: size 11 (8mm)

I really liked knitting this pattern. Very easy and straight-forward to knit. And in the end, you get a great cropped cardigan. Yeah, it's thick wool and wouldn't be worn outside during the warm spring/summer months. It might work out well in my office though. With the air conditioning blasting during the summer, it'll be a little bit of armor against the chill.

This capelet was the third incarnation for this yarn. Originally, I bought it to make the long sleeved v-neck sweater from Fitted Knits, but that didn't work out. I wasn' t sure about the color, I wasn't feeling the pattern, etc. The yarn was so tough at the gauge I thought it should be that my knitting needle cord snapped due to too much pushing and pulling of the stitches around my needles. Resistance is futile. Who said that? It was true in more ways than one. I do know better than to force yarn and needles into a gauge not meant to be, but, at the time, I obviously wasn't thinking.

Then, I came across the Rorschach Jacket pattern from Elizabeth Zimmermann. Again, the yarn had too much resistance on the needles (incorrect gauge) and miles of garter stitch with this stuff was not making me happy. Frogged. Although I will make this EZ jacket some other time with different yarn.

Finally, I remembered this cropped cardigan pattern and it used bulky weight yarn. I got gauge on size 11s (bigger needles than with the other two attempts at size 10s). The yarn was so much easier to knit. The stitches moved smoothly around the needles. Happiness. Good karma.