Slade Cardigan Pattern Review

Today I wanted to share with you this adorable tweed cardigan that I knitted for my amazing boyfriend Alex. He picked out everything; the pattern, yarn and buttons. There's always a better chance of sweater approval if the recipient is on the design committee.  

The pattern I used is Slade, by Michelle Wang. It is a well written and easy to follow pattern. The most difficult part for me was the Tubular Cast on. I'd never done anything like it before but with a little trial and error it ended up looking lovely and is a technique I'm glad to have in my arsenal now. It makes the edges of the sweater look smooth, rounded and very professional! 

I did make some alterations to the original pattern, I moved the buttons and button holes to the edges of the collar placket instead of centering them. I knitted the collar with the button and button holes in the center of the placket at first but the fabric kept rolling over the top of the buttons in an awkward way so I frogged it and placed them at the edge of the sweater opening. I also made the button holes vertical instead of horizontal. I found the instructions for the horizontal buttonholes confusing, especially since I added an extra button hole and it made all the math wonky. 

I made the mistake of using a Tubular Bind Off on the collar and it, of course, was not stretchy enough and had to be redone after blocking. I ended up using this Elastic Edge Bind Off instead and it worked wonders. 

One of my only complaints about this pattern is the collar. Due to the horizontal ribbing, it will always lay shorter than the front panels of the sweater. I blocked it like crazy but the front portion is always gonna be a little shorter than the back. :(


The yarn I used for this project is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed in Reindeer Heather. It's 80% Peruvian Highland Wool and 20% Donegal Tweed. It's just wonderful. (Also, it's super affordable.) It's soft and knits up quick and has great stitch definition. It also has a super nice shine to it for a Tweed blend. It is a little high maintenance since it's Hand Wash only but it's worth it for the quality of the finished project. I will definitely be using it again. 

If you'd like to try this pattern for yourself you can find it here, and if you'd like to try out this magical yarn you can find that here. 
 

Thanks for stopping by! 

-Ashley