Sometimes when you cast on a project that you’re excited about, it takes forever to come together. No matter how many rows that you knit and how much time you spend knitting them, the project never seems to progress. In fact, taking the time to measure your project seems to reinforce the fact that you are indeed in a knitting black hole until you suddenly measure and discover that you’ve managed to work past your desired amount. The Fading Lines Cardigan by Joji Locatelli was not one of these projects.

Perhaps it was the fact that I just bound off a lace shawl (more on that to come!). Perhaps it was working with Mary Ann from Wonderland Yarns, a yarn that slid over my needles like a dream, or the understanding that I had a test knit that needed to be worked up and passed along to them. Perhaps it was participating in Joji’s Fall KAL. Honestly it could have been a number of things or the combination of them all together, but in less than two weeks I was binding off the second sleeve and prepping to pick up stitches for the gradient collar. From casting on to binding off, I started and ended this project excited to wear the finished cardigan and never entered the “when will it be done” phase.

Fading Lines is worked top down with a small amount of waist shaping. Once the body is complete, the arm stitches are then removed from stitch holders and worked in the round. The final piece of the sweater, the collar, is created by picking up stitches (probably the slowest and most mundane part of the entire project — but completely worth it!) and knitting with a gradient yarn.

Normally, I’m not a purple person, but as I poured over the different gradients found in Wonderland Yarn’s Blossom I couldn’t help but be drawn to the colorway Euphoria. Euphoria, which fades from purple to yellow to teal (or the reverse depending on how the yarn is caked), begged to be turned into something that would bring a pop of color to my winter wardrobe. As I mentioned in my first Joji KAL 2021 post, the project was chosen after the skein of blossom was chosen, and then the color to knit the body of the sweater in was chosen. The amazing team at Wonderland Yarns paired three choices with Euphoria for me to choose from: Curiouser (teal), Mince Pie (purple), or Tulgey Wood (brown)

My go-to color should have been Curiouser, but for some reason it was the only color combination that I nixed off the bat. From there, I posted the photo to my Instagram story and asked you for help: Mince Pie or Tulgey Wood? All the while hemming and hawing over it myself, wondering if I would end up making the same decision as the winning vote. In the end, it was very close. Mince Pie won by three votes and seconds before learning the victor I had decided that I too was leaning more towards having a purple sweater over having a brown one with a pop of color.

The deciding reason is the same one that will have me reaching for this cardigan all winter: it’s so easy to wear a lot of brown and black. Sure, I can wear a black top underneath the cardigan, but this version of Fading Lines will wrap me in color in a way that the Tulgey Wood wouldn’t have been able to. So thank you to everyone who voted for Mince Pie, but even more to those who took the time to private message me the reminder that winter is already filled with beautiful neutrals.

Modifications were made to the pattern, but mostly in the form of length: I shortened the overall cardigan length by three inches and increased the sleeve garter rows to match the bottom. The other modification I made was working 17 garter rows on the collar instead of 16 before the final four rows were worked. The main motivation for this was to ensure that all of the colors appeared in my collar, but honestly I wish I had worked closer to 20 garter rows instead (I chickened out due to a fear of the collar being too large. It’s not, it could have been bigger!).