Project Report 26.26: Gradient Yarn is My Nemesis

Happy July, everybody! I don't know how we got here so quickly. Last time I looked, it was the beginning of May. But here we are in July, halfway through 2026 and fully immersed in the season of grilled meats and illegal fireworks (or maybe that's just my neighborhood).

I'm currently in a monogamous season of my knitting life, which means this week was all about my Untimely Cardigan. And puppy snuggles.

To refresh your memory, this is the cardigan I started in May. It's a self-drafted dupe of Libby Jonson's Timely pattern. I made quick work of it until I realized that I'd flubbed the gradient and that the second half of the body was going to be nearly black. I frogged it, let it rest, and now I'm back and better than ever. Arguably.

For this story to make sense, I have to rant about my yarn choice for a minute. My contrast color is a gradient skein of LindeHobby's Flora Soft Cake. This is a 250g monster ball of yarn that I thought was a pink-purple-blue fade. Had I used my eyeballs and the teeniest bit of critical thinking, I would have realized that this was actually a white-to-black fade that passes by pink and purple along the way.

The way this yarn is constructed, one of the four plies changes color every 18g, or every 75-80 yards. It goes like this:

    White, white, white, white

    White, white, white, pink

    White, white, pink, pink

    White, pink, pink, pink

    Pink, pink, pink, purple

    And so on. 

 

In my first go-round, I cut out all the white bits -- all 315 yards of them. Because sometimes I am a dumbass.

In this second go-round, I added back 27g of the white-and-pink sections, about 120 yards.

Depending on how long I make the hem, I should be done with the gradient before I surpass the halfway point between navy and black. That is, assuming I'm moderately capable of math at the moment, which is a heck of a gamble considering I accidentally drank decaf this morning.

Even if my math is wrong and this sweater turns out to be darker than I intended, I'm going to go ahead and finish it. This is one of those times that I have to remind myself that nobody else is going to be measuring the final object against my original vision -- they'll just see a stripey sweater.

I currently have a couple of inches under the arms and I'm about to start the waist shaping. Alas, we're under a severe heat warning this week, so I don't think I'll be flaunting the finished object for another couple of months.

What's on your needles at the moment? Are you enjoying summer knits or have you started to think about festive knitting? The gifting season will be here before we know it!