Sittin' & Knittin': String Dolce Cocoon Sweater

And, this is done.

Well this has been quite the labor of love...

I first saw this sweater on my LA Yarn Crawl earlier this year at the L'Atelier in Brentwood.

I fell in love with it immediately until I found out that it would require 13 skeins that cost 48.00 EACH!

I immediately fell OUT of love.

Well... fast forward to August when my BFF asked me to make her a big cozy sweater for her wedding and I flashed back to this gorgeous Cocoon sweater.

And two months later, here it is!

This yarn is simply GORGEOUS!

It's 100% cashmere and I'm not kidding when I tell you that it literally feels like lotion in my hands!

It's ridiculously soft.

Funnily enough, this yarn comes from String in NYC (my not-so-favorite shop on the Upper East Side).

I shoulda known right there how this would go.

String Dolce Cashmere in "Oatmeal"

I was very good and made my swatch, per L'Atelier's instructions.

There really is no 'pattern' to this pattern other than to make a swatch to figure out your gauge and then figure out how many stitches you need to cast on.

Based on this swatch above, I needed to cast on 195 stitches and work for 40"... (yes! 40 INCHES!)

This was supposed to give me a rectangle of 52" x 40".

Well... at about 10 inches, I was already like 6 skeins into it and I started to panic.

Now, you know how much I love clean insides! When I'm attaching a new skein of yarn to an existing work, I usually at it at the end of the row so there are NO knots in my insides.

But when I started to see how quickly I was going through yarn, I started to really panic so I said "screw it" and started tying knots.

Ugh... I hate how that looks!

Needless to say, it wasn't helpful enough and at 20", I had already used 9 skeins. I had 4 skeins left which was supposed to get me 20 more inches PLUS two sleeves!

I called L'Atelier back and they were nice enough to help me (and patient enough with my awful math).

I had two options:

1) rip it out and start over, casting on less...

2) buy more yarn!

Well, let's just say #2 was NOT an option!

So I did. I RIPPED out the WHOLE thing and started ALL over!!!

Actually... what I did was just cast on with a new skein and took from the existing work.

This time, I cast on 175 stitches and while it wasn't perfect, it was better.

At about 30ish inches, I was at about 4 skeins remaining, so I took a break from the Rectangle-From-Hell and made my sleeves.

These are a simple K2, P2 rib for 11".

There are even knots in there! But, Thank God, I hid them well! :)

I went back to my rectangle and with 1/2 a skein left, I started to get nervous again because I still needed yarn for my seams.

So I cast off.

After casting off and lying this flat on the table, the true measurements ended up being 46.5" x 35"...

And I DIDN'T CARE!

Ok... I was kinda bummed.

But it is what it is and this is one project I need to be done with for my own mental sanity!

My awful insides...

So... a word on this yarn.

It truly is gorgeous and lovely and la la la...

BUT!

It had breaks in it!

See this loop or nub below?

It's a break in the yarn!

Now this really bums me out because of the fact that I hate messy insides but also because when you're working this, it could end up in the front of your work (right side), making your right side look messy!

So I tried to keep these little nubs in the back (wrong side) but to do so, I'd have to pull the yarn loosely on the purl side, making it even more obvious on the wrong side.

I know it's not the hugest deal but for the price of this yarn, I think it should be FLAWLESS!