FO: Vintage Motif Cardigan

This sweater began as a CAL at both Yahoo crochet-a-long and Crochetville inspired by Artemis who was inspired by Roli, not once, but twice! My version of the Vintage Motif cardigan is finally finished, and with not a yard of yarn to spare as I desperately tried to lengthen the sleeves. I actually unraveled 2 extra squares (I nixed the gussets) and frogged the swatches I had done a year ago when I was deciding what sweater pattern to make with this yarn. There's nothing left, I even had to save the longest ends after weaving in for future repairs. Earlier stories in the saga of the motif sweater can be found here and here.

Project details:
Pattern: Crocheted cardigan aka Vintage motif cardi
Size: medium (with a slightly larger motif)
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in 'Mulled Wine', 1540 yds
Hook: Brittany 5.0mm H hook
Pattern Changes: (just a few)

1. Motif - I added an extra round on the motif (total of 8) to make it just under 4.25" instead of 4.0". The back panel is 5 motifs across, this should give me the 1.0-1.25" extra width I desire.


2. I blocked the squares before assembly and blocked the panels after assembly. Assembly was done by whipstitching across rows and down columns of the panels.


3. I decided not to use the gusset squares as with them the sweater was just too bulky on me (see here).


4. Sleeves: I added 4 motifs (a 3rd row) to each sleeve.
5. Sleeve cuff/edging. I did not use motif cuff as written (where they ease 4 motifs to 2 to make a cuff). I just didn't like the look of it. Instead, after adding the extra row of 4 motifs, I joined between 2 squares on the underarm seam and began the edging of BLO sc and tapered it as follows:

• row 1 - BLO sc in every stitch around
• row 2 - BLO sc in every stitch with a BLO scdec at the square junctures (4 dec per round)
• rows 3-5 - repeat row 2
• row 6 - repeat row 1
• row 7 - repeat row 2
• rows 8-11 - alternate rows 1-2
• rows 12-13 - repeat 1
• row 14 - repeat row 2
• rows 15-18 - repeat row 1