lace cardi

this cardigan is the Celery Cardigan, by Veera Välimäki. i love what it does for the gorgeous kettle-dyed manos lace, especially the garter stitch sections. it's impossible not to like manos' colors! and the short rows were a lot of fun, though i did feel like i needed to do a whole section at one time so as to not lose my place.

this project took me two months of on and off knitting to finally finish (and still needs a name!). partly because i was in italy, partly because this summer has been incredibly hot already, and my hands tend to sweat anyway, and this would make the yarn tight on the needles, no matter how loosely i tried to hold it, and end up making me really frustrated when i couldn't get my stitches to move.

i also had a problem with laddering. it seems that i can't avoid it on cardigans that have markers separating the fronts and back, that no matter how tightly i pull the yarn across the marker, it ends up creating a mess. so i used purl bee's fake seam tutorial again. and it may have made it worse... i really hoped that it would all even out in blocking, but i've been having a hell of a time with that too. i got advice from my boss, from my mother, and from knitty, but it hasn't really helped. i lay it out on my yoga mat, and spritz'd it with some water, but i don't think it looks any different, and the laddering/fake seaming is still evident. this blocking didn't seem to make these stitches relax at all. does anyone have some advice? the yarn manos lace, and it's a baby alpaca/silk/cashmere blend.

i wrote a haiku to this lace weight cardigan:
two double fake seams
fingers crossed you will block out
messy, messy knits.

i might just stick to sock weight or bigger...

EDIT: i soaked it with some yarn wash for 15 minutes, and rolled it out in a few towels to get the water out, then layed it out for a few days. it seems to be pretty ok, but that seam is persistant. might just have to live with it.