I know I always tell you that I love my latest sweater, but I do love this!  I always knit with yarn I love and take pains to make sure I like the fit.  Goldie is meant to be oversized and blousy, but I wanted to reign in that feature a bit.  I made my dolmans smaller, in fact made the entire sweater smaller by casting on less stitches.  My notes are terrible so I can't share exactly what I did, but the sweater is one inch narrower than the smallest size and a has about 3 inches less in the dolman area.   I then had to pick up less stitches when I did the ribbing on the sleeves.  I did however keep the low wide V.  I love that feature.  My friend made Goldie and warned, "Don't freak out when you are almost done with only the neck ribbing to finish.  You'll try it on and the V will be practically down to your navel!"  She advised, "Just pick up the stitches like the pattern says and the ribbing will bring it in to a less exposed and more lady-like V!" Also, because I'm always changing things up a bit here and there, when I pick up stitches, I rarely pay attention to how many stitches the pattern tells me I should pick up.  I pick up 2 stitches for every 3, or 3 for every 4.  I play around with this as every pattern and yarn and stitch you use will determine which ratio looks best. Ripping out is part of knitting after all, so I don't hesitate to do that little thing if necesary!

The fabric is MAGNIFICENT--two lace weights held together: Rowan's Kidsilk Eclipse and Fine Lace.  You know I'm all about using fine fiber as I can't see spending time knitting with anything less than wonderful.  These two stranded together make a dense, fuzzy, slightly sparkly, and heavenly dk weight fabric.  It was easy to knit and I don't remember it being needle fussy.  I've seen quite a few patterns using these two together; Kim Hargreaves especially likes this combo.  The fabric is a bit warm and the low V and the shorter sleeves keep me from getting too warm here in California.  It's elegant to wear out in the evening with my faux leather pencil skirt, pearls, and spike heels, but is great with jeans too.  Very versatile!  I love this pattern so much and ever since it was finished I'd been thinking about how I could make this for summer.  My LYS had a sale so I purchased 8 skeins of bright pink Rowan Panama (man, I love that stuff) and have cast on.  You may know Panama as a fingering weight yarn, but for me it knits more as a sport weight.  When subbing yarn in patterns, it's important to know how the yarn knits up for YOU and the way YOU knit.  Panama has a lot of drape and I thought it would be perfect for this pattern, and I'm able to get gauge.  Since I want my summer sweater to fit similarly to this one, I occasionally lay one on top of the other to make sure I'm making the same size (since I didn't take any notes, ugh!)

The links!

The pattern is Goldie from Kim Hargreaves Honey Book

Rowan Kidsilk Haze Eclipse

Rowan Fine Lace

My Rav project page has all the details

I have some fun news to share; there are some nice giveaways coming to Knitionary in March!  First, there is a book giveaway--you will swoon--it's so sweet and dear--I cannot wait to show it to you.  Also: the best, by far, most useful, by far, sweater de-piller EVER invented. I've been using mine for years.  And I have three to give away.  Yep.  Stay tuned.  xo