Knitting For Me: Whisper Cardigan

This little number was finished and blocked in time to be worn in Maui.  There were tons of mods, the details of which I no longer recall, and which may not help anyway because there is no method to them at all... but here's my best shot at a recap of what I did:

Pattern: Whisper Cardigan (Hannah Fettig for Interweave Knits, Spring 2009)

Yarn: Recycled cotton/cashmere from a thrifted I.Magnin sweater

Needles: US6 aluminum dpns + circulars; US3 Addi turbo circulars

    
[difficult to take pics of a piece that is the same color as one's walls...]

I wanted straight sleeves so knew from the get-go that I wouldn't be casting on 90 stitches.  From sock-knitting, I knew that 60 sts in the round on US1 needles could be a sweater sleeve for me, which helped me determine 64 as a cast-on number for the Whisper Cardigan -- with positive ease from the larger (US6) needle size.  As you can see from the photos, the sleeves are not tight around my arms at all.

Accordingly I decreased the number of stitches cast off at the underarms.  The only other change I made was to do increases for the 'flaps' every 4 rows, instead of every 2 as called for.  So the sweater still drapes, just not a whole lot.

Although you can't see it in the photos, the back/shoulder is a bit longer than ideal:  it got stretched out a bit in the blocking.  Doesn't make it unwearable, but it does fall off my shoulder every now and then.   If I were to knit this again (a great gift knit) I'd make the shoulder length a couple inches shorter than called for in the pattern, to account for the slight stretching. 

Here's another shot I took -- in my kitchen this time instead of the living room -- so you could see it a little bit better.  

[Please excuse my peeking pajama bottoms!]

The cotton/cashmere makes this sweater sooooo buttery (like the color) soft, and so warm!  In sum: a great sweater, clever design, and definitely wearable -- success!