May Made: Apex Cardigan II

This is my first lever knitting project, but I will talk about the lever knitting aspects separately. 

The Making 

The beginnings of my second Apex. 

I must be crazy, but this is the second Apex Cardigan I have made this year. I learnt quite a lot from the first one I made.

I exaggerated all the things I loved about the first one.

I made it wider. This emphasized the drop shoulder aspect, and will also allow me to use a shawl pin to hold the fronts closed if it gets particularly cold.

I also chose to knit it as long as I could given the amount of yarn I had, after seeing Ririko's version. It definitely reduces that weird bump I had on the back too.

But I think the best thing I did for my second version is to use a much drapier yarn and fabric. I think it looks more elegant and feminine this way.

I actually did knit the pockets, but the yarn I'm using is somewhat puffy, and it looked oddly bumpy at the hips, so I took them out.

The Materials

I used Illimani Amelie, which the proprietor of Illimani, Alvaro, kindly agreed to sell directly to me, even though he normally only does wholesale.

Amelie is a blown yarn. They make it by knitting a silk tube, and blowing it full of lovely alpaca fiber. You get 150m per 50g and it still knits up at a true worsted-aran gauge. This makes it extraordinarily light compared to most aran yarns.

And it feels absolutely glorious. This yarn deserves to be a next-to-skin garment. I very much would love to keep this cardigan as a house coat, and if I did that, I would only wear shorts and spaghetti strap tops at home to keep as much of the cardigan next to my skin as possible. I am currently working on a cashmere-silk shawl, and I firmly believe that Amelie feels much nicer.

The Wearing 

I have to admit, there is not anything new here. I made it long enough to be a proper Swoat, unlike my first one, and that's about it.

But here are some photos of me posing with it after I did the Three Needle Bind-off for the body, but without side seams or sleeves.

I put the cardigan back in front, and tied the cardigan fronts to wear this as an apron. I'm just going to pretend that Olga found this funny. :D 

I briefly, but seriously, considered keeping it as a cape.

If I hadn't already finished the sleeves, I might actually have left it like this. Linda Marveng's Wa has a similar sort of shape. If you would like to use the Apex pattern to make something like the Wa, I would recommend using the largest size chart, because it is not wide enough to even cover my upper arms like this.

View from the back. 

With the matching scarf I made to keep my front warm. 


The Notes 

I am of the opinion that this design looks better oversized and long, maybe more so than in the modeled pictures. Despite using a bigger gauge this time, I actually still went up a size in width (from 40 to 42). The main thing is, you probably want to make sure that the drop shoulder ends before your elbows begin. It will be less in your way.

If you should attempt to try it on after joining the fronts and back and blocking, it should be longer than you need it to be. The seams will 'pull up' the hem.

Choose your yarn, gauge and fabric wisely. This is a great project for choosing your own gauge, so rely on your preferences rather than worrying about getting gauge. The only thing I dislike about my drapier gauge is that the cables are not popping as much.

May Made: Apex

The Making

Olga Buraya-Kefelian's Apex in Zealana Artisan Heron. 

Another sweater by Olga Buraya-Kefelian!

This gorgeous oversized sweater coat was originally designed to be longer, but I'm pretty short and I wanted something I could safely cycle in without snags, so I made it shorter.

I, uh, did not swatch, but just cast on the smallest size. For the body, the only modification I made was to knit fewer rows in the cabled/lace pattern because it would have been too long to cycle in otherwise.

I added a row of plain knitting to the shoulders (both front and back) before doing the three-needle bind off for a little added structure. It actually also looks much nicer this way. I do plan to reinforce the shoulder and bought some cotton webbing for it.

I also knit the sleeves in the round, and I made them quite a bit smaller because I have skinny arms.

Instead of a crochet cast on, I used a tubular cast on for the ribbing. I also used Tech Knitter's trick to make the transition of ribbing to stockinette look nicer, and I'd definitely recommend doing that. Very little extra work for quite a bit of pay off.

This is a garment that needs seams, and the bigger and longer you make it, the more it'll need them. I wouldn't recommend changing it to be worked in the round.

Closeup of the right side. I did this one second, so it looks nicer than the other side. 

I spent an entire day seaming this, to make sure the sleeves set right and the pattern was aligned. Totally worth it!

The Materials 

Leftover Zealana Artisan Heron in colour Red Chilli. I originally bought 16 balls because I was afraid I would run out. 

The yarn is Zealana Artisan Heron, which is a 80/20 merino possum blend.

I really love the resulting garment, but I did not enjoy knitting this yarn. It's very stiff, and it made it impossible for me to do the cables without a cable needle. It's also worsted, which I don't typically like knitting anyway.

The stitch definition is very nice, and it spit splices like a dream. It feels very sturdy, and only broke once during seaming despite the number of times I ripped them out and reused the yarn.

This yarn gets softer with wear. I was kind of disappointed when I first put it on because it wasn't as soft as I had hoped. But I've been wearing it for a few days now, and it's much much nicer than right after I seamed it. So don't despair!

The Wearing 

Apex over black top and bespoke wool trousers.

Apex with knee-high boots! This is a really great combo. 

This is a beautiful garment that is comfortable to wear. It works from house coat to nice cardigan over tailored clothes for work, and everything in between. Definitely be a great travel piece too.

I would recommend picking a yarn that would be comfortable at a variety of indoor temperatures. I'm a little concerned that mine will be too warm indoors, but the generous open front and reverse v-neck makes it a bit impractical outdoors.

I really love this garment. I am seriously considering making another one already, and to be honest, the more I wear it, the more I want another one. :)

A Bactus

A bactus is a traditional shape for Russian Orenburg shawls. It is basically a very shallow rectangle, with increases every 4th row rather than every 2nd.

I just finished this one last week.

This is the only WIP photo I have, mainly because I knitted it in 6 weeks.

As you can see, it is a very shallow triangle. At the deepest point, it is approximately half a meter wide, and from end to end, approximately 2.4m long. 

Close up of the lace. I am aware that the variegation distorts and hides the lace somewhat, but I loved the look of the yarn in garter stitch so much that I decided to run with it anyway. 

It's knitted in one of my favorite blends: alpaca silk cashmere. This particular one is a Miranda Lace from Posh Yarns. By my count, I knitted about 70 thousand stitches and just over 800m of yarn.

I have named the project Bactus #1 but I think Orenburg #1 would have been better. I am not a very big fan of this shape, as it would need to be incredibly long to become as deep as I like my shawls to be.

I have therefore mostly worn it as a scarf, wrapped many times around my neck.