I think my needles are smoking

Because this cardigan knit up crazy fast!  It took me 13 days from start to finish to make it, usually it takes me at least a month to make a sweater and far more than that when I make mistakes (like my Nantucket Red that took almost a month and a half).

The pattern is Lilas by Hilary Smith Callis, and is a very easy to follow top down raglan sleeve construction.  It seemed kind of odd at first since you are knitting that huge collar first, but as I went along it made more sense to me.  There is very little shaping to this cardigan as it is meant to be more of a casual summer layering piece.  All of this made it great for tv viewing, I just placed stitich markers between the stockinette body of the sweater and the border stitches so I could happily knit while engrossed in catching up with my DVR (mostly Falling Skies which shows a lot of promise to be a great show, here's hoping they keep making it better).  As for changes, I just made the body of the cardigan about 2.5" longer than indicated, yes the pattern is for a cropped sweater but since I am a bit squashed through the body a longer length looks better on me.  I also briefly contemplated making the sleeves 3/4 length but then realized part of the reason I loved the sweater was the great picture of Hilary wearing it over a long sleeve shirt so I followed the pattern exactly in the end (I need to go shopping for long sleeve tees once the stores get their fall collections in, I could wear all my short sleeve cardis this way!). 

For the yarn I picked out Comfy worsted by Knit Picks in the sea foam colorway that was purchased for me as a birthday gift from Chatty-Cathy and Grumpy.  I lurve this yarn!  It's a blend of cotton with acrylic which gives it a bit of stretchiness making it very easy and comfortable to knit with, unlike most cottons.  One of the reviews of this yarn on Ravelry describes it as feeling like your favorite tee shirt that's been washed a million times into comfy softness and that is exactly how it feels!  I will definitely be using this yarn again.

I am looking forward to wearing this sweater again soon, well at least when it starts to cool down again!  I really like the casual look to the floppy collar when the cardigan is left hanging open and that it can be pulled together for added warmth but still looks great.  Another great addition to my growing collection of hand knit cardigans.