What an effort this cardigan was, but sooooo worth it! This is the ‘My Everything’ cardigan by Joji Locatelli. It’s my first major knitting project and took quite some time. I like challenging projects because of the new skills you can learn. Wrapping, grafting, provisional cast on and tubular bind off were all new techniques for me. Thank you YouTube!

I started this cardigan in July last year, and finished it just before winter this year. I was inspired by a circular cardigan that Jane Fonda wore in the show Grace & Frankie (hilarious show, check it out). I Googled the cardigan, discovered it’s a $1000 Ralph Lauren cardigan and promptly decided I’d have to make my own. Searching Ravelry, I quickly found a few suitable patterns. The cable on this sold me!

The construction is genius! you start with the back panel and the cabled ‘spine’, then pick up stitches all the way along the spine and work around in a semi circle. You then work the other side and graft them together at the top to form a circle. You can see below the before and after of the grafting. For a first go, I’m really happy with how this turned out and the join is almost invisible.

Since this was the first thing I’ve knitted bigger than a scarf, I stuck with some moderately priced yarn. I was worried I’d get half way and be so flustered that it’d get put in the naughty corner never to come out again. The yarn I used, Cascade 220, was good for this project and it makes a nice and warm cardigan without feeling too thick and heavy. It did make the gauge a little off, and the cardigan turned out a bit shorter as a result.

Once it was done, it was a bit of a lumpy mess, but a good blocking really made a difference. And I couldn’t believe how much dirt came out of it! I’ve never really had much need to block an item before, since I’ve always stuck to smaller projects. I can see how much of a vital step it is! Here is a before and after of blocking.

I made a few minor mods to this as I went along. You can read about them all on my Ravelry, here. The pattern itself is intended to have a bit of a ‘tail’ at the bottom, which I wasn’t a big fan of. I tried a few mods to get rid of it with no luck, so I left it as is. When the cardigan was finished, I folded the tail under and chain stitched it in place with a crochet hook. I’m happy with how this hides it. Another Raveler had the same problem, but seems to have found a workaround, so I would follow that if I ever made another.

I feared knitting such a large project might put me off knitting forever, but it doesn’t seem to have…I bought some more yarn to make a sweater.