There Is No Perfect Yarn for the Champagne Cardigan
I've been thinking a lot about the Champagne Cardigan. It's our next project inside Club Crazy for Ewe, and I've been doing what I always do when I'm thinking about a new sweater: swatching.
PetiteKnit calls for a DK-weight merino held together with a lace-weight mohair silk. Easy enough.
We have this beautiful new yarn from Bramble and Fleece, and my first thought was to use that with either Rowan Kidsilk Haze or Ito Sensai, depending on the color. I wanted navy blue, so that's what I swatched.
I loved it.
I could have stopped there.
But then last week while I was reviewing (and swatching) the Rowan Mohair Tweed, I'd pushed the gauge up to 18 stitches. I liked the fabric, but wondered if it might be just a little too drapey for this sweater.
So I added a strand of Kidsilk Haze.
And suddenly it was wonderful. The extra strand gave the fabric just what it needed.
Well. There's another option.
Then we started talking about it in Flock Talk.
Several Club members live in the South, where the thought of knitting—and then wearing—a sweater with all that mohair isn't particularly appealing. They wanted something lighter and cooler.
Sabri II immediately came to mind. It's the yarn we used for the Susan Shell. Its chainette construction gives us the gauge we need while keeping the fabric beautifully light and drapey.
There's another option.
Softyak DK would be perfect too.
Then Susie asked me about Mode Alpaca Haze because she doesn't like mohair.
Alpaca Haze is a little heavier than the lace-weight mohair the pattern calls for, so that meant I needed to think about a finer base yarn.
Fortunately, Bramble and Fleece has beautiful four-ply yarns in both Sheepsoft and Wooltrace, so I wanted to swatch those with Alpaca Haze.
Except I couldn't find the Alpaca Haze at home during Flock Talk.
What I could find was Alpaca Classic.
So I tried that with the Bramble and Fleece four-ply.
And what do you know?
Perfect.
And Then There Was the Pink Swatch
But there was one more surprise.
When I tried to show my navy swatch during Flock Talk, I realized it was going to be much too dark to use for teaching. You simply couldn't see the stitches well enough on camera.
I had some Cotton + Merino at home in pink and thought, Well, that will certainly show up.
So I swatched it.
And I really loved it.
Not just “this will work well enough for the class” loved it. I liked the fabric so much that I changed my plans.
My first Champagne Cardigan is going to be the pink Cotton + Merino.
The navy one will be next.
Which seems about right, considering that I started this whole process thinking I already knew exactly what yarn I was going to use.
At this point, what started as a fairly straightforward yarn choice had turned into a whole collection of possibilities.
And I think that's the more interesting lesson.
There Isn't One Perfect Yarn for the Champagne Cardigan
You can make it the way PetiteKnit designed it: a DK-weight merino held with a lace-weight mohair.
You can use a yarn that's already happy at 18 stitches over four inches.
You can take a yarn that's almost the fabric you want and see what happens when you add another strand.
You can look for something lighter because you live somewhere warm.
You can find an alternative because you don't like mohair.
Or you can pull something off the shelf because it's what you happen to have sitting beside you during Flock Talk—and discover something you never would have thought to try.
The important thing isn't finding the yarn I've decided is “right.” You might have the perfect thing in your stash and just need something to put with it. You might even have two yarns in your stash. Who knows.
It's deciding what you want your Champagne Cardigan to be, choosing a yarn or combination that seems likely to get you there, and then making a swatch.
Look at it. Feel it. Wash it. See what happens.
Because, as I seem to say over and over again:
Whatever the question, the answer is always: you're going to have to swatch it and see.
Want to Knit Champagne With Me?
We're starting the Champagne Cardigan October 15 inside Club Crazy for Ewe. We'll work through yarn and size choices, raglan fit—including how to look at your own raglan depth and modify the sweater if needed—adding structure to a seamless sweater, that gorgeous double-knit button band, and all the inevitable questions that come up once we actually start knitting.
You absolutely don't need to join Club to knit Champagne. But if you'd like to knit yours along with me and the Club community, I'd love to have you.