Yup, it’s now my turn to make something for me–just me! For a long time, I’ve been wanting to make the A-line swingy cardigan from the cover of Bernat’s pattern book Urban Weekend.
It took me a while to decide which colour to use, but I settled for the new Regal Twists shade of Bernat Softee Chunky –and I’m enjoying the choice. The swatch revealed a vibrant fabric that gives the illusion of texture.
I’ll fess up that I normally don’t swatch when making toys, hats or scarves. But I always swatch when making sweaters–ALWAYS! For this project, I had to go down a full needle size to finally get gauge at 15 st per inch (so I’m using 5.0mm instead of the recommended 6.0mm). Besides, a swatch is a good place to try out a new stitch; I tried out the twisted rib pattern in the yoke on my swatch.
As a bigger-than-average girl, I do appreciate that Bernat writes patterns up to 5XL (not always easy to find). Still, I think the hardest part for me is choosing the right size – I admit I’ve made mistakes in the past **blushes with embarrassment**. My problem is always making things too big. Even armed with current body measurements, I still wasn’t quite sure which size to choose for my cardigan: Large or Extra-Large? Sometimes bust size is not enough. So, I took a sweater I currently wear and measured it. Then I compared those numbers with the numbers given for the finished garment. Even though I normally wear XL, L seemed a better fit.
So now I have cast on. Here’s hoping I made the right choices. I’ll keep you posted.
DinaPurls 
I always choose the pattern according to the FINISHED size measurement. Is this what you do also? That seems to work for me. I knitted a sweater once and chose the large size and realized after it was finished and too big that the medium would have more appropriate, as the FINISHED size measurement was more close to my own measurements.
Your yarn choice looks great. Can’t wait to see the progress!
Thanks Philly53. I’m really looking forward to this project.
And yes, I did compare the finished size measurements. And like you, I too have knitted a garment too big because I chose the size I thought I should wear rather than looking at finished garment measurements.
Yay! LOVE that pattern. I know you will enjoy making it, and then wearing it! It’s so fun to wear your own handknits….especially when someone compliments your creation!
Thanks Sandy. Hoping this will be my go-to sweater come spring.