Welcome to week two of our spring KAL for the Goodale Cardigan! I hope everyone’s projects are cruising right along without any issues. I’ve had just a few questions so far, but it seems like a lot of the issues are being cleared up over on the Ravelry thread. Everyone has been so nice and forthcoming with their tips and tricks, it’s so much fun to see everyone helping each other out over there!

The start of something Good-ale. :)

I was actually able to make some pretty good headway over the weekend and now have about 5” of the yoke done (I am desperately trying to finish a baby gift by next weekend and toggled back and forth between the two projects all weekend, otherwise I would have gotten a bit further.) I really truly love this Cascade Venezia Sport though and couldn’t be more happy with my yarn choice! It’s so silky, smooth, and so soft on the hands when knitting that I hardly want to put it down! It glides so easily off the needles and has just the right amount of silky sheen. The stitch definition is absolutely amazing as well and I know that my finished Goodale is going to become an immediate wardrobe favorite!

A view of Jeanne's full project in Tosh Pashmina- Alizarin

The only complaint is that the blue dye left a little residue on my hands after knitting for a couple of hours.  I think that is normal with these rich saturated colors, and will just be really careful when soaking and blocking to get as much of it out as possible so that it doesn’t bleed on my clothes. I might also try and set the dye a bit more with a small amount of vinegar as I read in this blog article. I am pretty confident that this will do the trick.    

Jeanne is using the increases specified in the pattern.

One of the biggest debates I am seeing so far in the Ravelry group thread is in regards to the raglan sleeve increases.  In the pattern, Cecily uses a k1-r/b increase which gives a nice and tidy increase.  Now, if you have a particular increase you like to use or prefer, I don’t see why you can’t substitute and do that instead.  I personally prefer the look of a M1R and M1L increase on either side and have adapted my sweater that way. I recently had the pleasure of taking a top-down sweater class from Diane Soucy of Knitting Pure and Simple, and learned that of all of the increases, this one is my favorite both visually and in execution. I think this preference is different for many folks so follow your heart!

Leanne's Goodale in Frog Tree Pediboo, so soft!

Lastly, the kind folks over at Cascade Yarns sent me some Cascade Venezia Sport to share with you all! In addition to the fabric giveaway for the roll call, we will also be giving two winners each three skeins of the Venezia Sport in the color of your choice!  That means there will be three winners total!

Three skeins are actually enough to knit up to a size 45.25” bust Goodale sweater, or use it for another fun project. In all, this yarn is awesome!  If you haven’t added yourself to the roll call for the KAL yet, please do so in last week's blog post if you’d like to be in the running to win some of these fabulous prizes for participating! I’ll announce the yarn winners in the Week 5 blog post so be sure to enter by May 15^th at Midnight (Pacific Time).

Thanks everyone for tuning in this week, and for joining us on this adventure!  We’ll see you next week with a guest post from Goodale designer Cecily Glowik MacDonald!

Happy knitting,

Kristen