What I made, by Sharon

 I'm not sure when I decided that I needed a plain, boxy, grey cardigan but I was definitely feeling the love for in in March, when I bought the yarn and buttons for it. and then in true knitterly style I bought a different yarn again in July!  In July I bought commercial yarn ( fromThe Australian Wool Store ) and after months of knitting with hand-dyed and hand spun yarns it was actually a pleasure to knit with yarn that was all one colour. No alternating skeins, no different balls being different colours, no run-off when the yarn was washed. I haven't turned against handdyed yarn, but for this project commercial yarn was an absolute pleasure.  I was choosing between a few patterns ( Granit cardigan ,  Champagne Cardigan )  when I realised I love the look of a doubleknit band, so I selected  Step by Step Cardigan by Florence Miller . It was a simple, well written and had an hour and a half accompanying video, which I did not watch. The video did inclu...

I spent the last couple of weeks knitting Kate Davies' It's got A Bend In It Shawl.  The title is a joke in a book I didn't appreciate, but I do appreciate the cardigan. It an odd construction, it starts with a triangle shawl, and then magically turns into a wrap cardigan. Most people show theirs closed, but I like it even better open. At the moment I am keeping it closed with a stitch marker, but once I have decided on the final placement I have some magnetic closures I'll use. One of the interesting things about this garment is when I finished it it was kind of lumpy, and the sleeves were almost too tight. Then I washed it and then laid it out to dry, and now it fits perfectly.   All in all a practical, warm hug of a cardigan. 

 I finished Andrea Mowry's Rose Cardigan last week and it was a fun knit, even with the challenges. These involved knitting flat - I know that's how cardigans are usually knit, but it's a lot of purling. It's also knit in pieces, which made for quite a lot of seaming. I don't hate seaming, but it's been a long time since I did any! I absolutely love the way the fade worked up, it's so good It's a funny garment to style. Here I'm wearing it over a loose dress, but I like it better of slim trousers. I also found that, on me I think it looks nicer hanging open. I was planning to close it with a shawl pin, but styled like that it looks oversize in a bad way. When I let it hang, it looks intentional.  It's an odd garment, but I like it. I never know, when I finish something, how much wear I will get out of it. Obviously I only knit things I think I'll love, but sometimes the things I gush about when I'm finished I barely wear, and garments th...

When I decided to knit Stephanie Lotven's Rainbow Party Cardi on holidays I was hoping it would be simple enough to knit everywhere and also interesting enough not to bore me when I got home. Well, it was the perfect holiday knitting project.  I finished the second sleeve on the plane on the way home, and the fronts, with their short-row shaping, changes of colour and glitter yarn were a quick dream to knit.  it's the finished garment that is taking my breath away. It fits perfectly and it really comfortable. The "rainbow" front makes me smile, And the little peek of stripes on the colour makes me giggle inside. This was a joy to knit and a joy to wear. Delightful.

I finished the Old romance Cardigan, except the button band, on Wednesday. I soaked it, spun in out in the washing machine and on Thursday I picked up and knit the button band. In between these two events our the door on our frequently repaired 15 year old washing machine broke. While I know it's possible to block without spinning out the water, it never ends up nearly as drained. When I spin a light cardigan like this will dry overnight, which is useful, because I have limited space to block. I fixed the machine well enough to spin out the water, and we ordered a new machine which is coming on Monday. Very exciting.  Meanwhile, I'm wearing the cardigan. It's very light and warm. I wanted a plainish cardigan to wear over the leaf and plant print dresses that are my current favourite, and i think this fulfills that purpose nicely. There is some weirdness with the sizing. Despite me shortening the arms by  10 centimetres, they were the perfect length without cuffs, so I sew...

I went looking for a pattern for a very specific cardigan - V-neck, brioche, hits just on the waist, puffy, puffy sleeves. I couldn't find exactly what I wanted, and I didn't quite have the confidence to design my own, because I've never knit a brioche garment before. I found the For the Love of Brioche Jacket, which had the essence of what I was looking for, and then knit it with a few modifications.   I left off a couple of the increases and added waist shaping I shortened it, stopping at the waist I omitted all sleeve shaping, and then halved the stitches when i got to the wrist. look - puffy! I used the buttons that I bought at Bendigo , less than a month ago, and I think they are perfect. This cardigan is big and pink and exactly what I had in mind when I started it.  The photos were not quite what i had in mind - we took them in the evening in the park. It get's dark early, and we just haven't had the opportunity to take day time photos. 

Last week, before I went back to work I knit the French Macaroon baby jumper. It was a chance to use up some old stash, and Australian's Knitting for War Affected Children (AKWAK) has asked for baby jumpers, so a win-win. I've had this cute free baby jumper in my queue for ages, and it is a really fun, simple, effective knit.  The second one took forever - being back at work has really slowed down my knitting! Speaking of being back at work, last Wednesday I wore my new cardigan to work, and realised that the shawl collar wasn't nearly shawlly enough. i ripped out the last couple of rows of the collar, and added a lot more short rows. now that it is (re)done, I realise that for a truly epic shawl collar it need to start lower, but this should be cosy and fun enough. I'm looking forward to seeing how it wears.  

I first saw Ginny's cardigan a long time ago. I don't know how long  but it was well before I had to state that trans women are women and f*ck you J.K. Rowling (maybe 2016?).  Luckily it's in a book called Knitting Wizardry ,which not only has nothing to do with J.K. Rowling, but skates right at the edges of copyright violation. I didn't knit it at the time. there were some odd comments about the neckline, and the bust shaping and I was too new to garment knitting to feel confident making the changes. The other week I was l looking for something to do with this marvelous 8ply I bought last year. I knew I wanted a v-neck cardigan. I originally settled on the Glen Fiddich cardigan but a) I probably didn't have enough yarn and b) I bought the pattern and it is basically unreadable.  I converted Ginny's cardigan into a v-neck, by starting the neck when i joined the sleeves.  i left off the pockets and the bust shaping. After I finished the body I decided to make a...

I finally, finally finished the cardigan for Bee. I got her to try it on, but she put it over the jumper she was already wearing, so who knows? This project was a bit meh for me, but I really like the pattern and might make it for myself too. In wool. Not acrylic, even thought the acrylic is OK ... if you can't wear wool. When she tried it on the bottom buttonhole turned out to me too loose, so i took it home to fix it. I'll wrap it up and give it to her for her birthday, which is the 8th of July. I also finished Elise's mitts . These are a surprise present, and I'll wrap them up and give them to her for her birthday, with is the 7th of July. I really like how they came out, and it is a pattern I would make again, maybe as a charity knit. And now my needles are free. I'll do some charity knitting until I see Rachey, (hopefully Tuesday) because I want to measure her up for the cardigan I'm going to knit for he r. This has turned into a bit of a year of knitting f...

I knit Andrea Morwry's Winter's Beach cardigan , mainly because it was chosen by the Richmond Knitters as one of our Bendigo 2021 Knit-a-long choices, and you all know how much I love a knit-a-long.  The yarn was bought from a destash and smells deliciously sheepy. I could have dyed it, but decided to leave it in the slight natural off white colour it came in. I worried that it would look kind of old-lady rather than classic. I'm still not 100 percent sure if I shouldn't have turned it a very, very pale brown. The pattern was well written with every direction clearly articulated. The only problem I had (repeatedly) was loosing my place in the chart. I don't know how, since I was using highlighter tape, but it happened. I followed the pattern exactly. Even the sleeve and body lengths, which I rarely do, since I ma quite short. The sleeves have 20 centimetres of ribbing, including long fold-over cuffs, and I really like the body length. The only change I made was to ...

This cardigan is named after the Kildalton Cross on Islay. Leon and I went there because Kate Davies told us about it -we went on a Sunday, and there was no way to get there, so we took a taxi, and ran back. It was beautiful. When we actually got there, my first through was "I thought it would be bigger".   But it was one of those places that felt sacred and beautiful.(I just checked and it's actually 2.6 meters, so not small)  So, the cardigan. I had a rant about Kate's instructions the other week . well, she topped that by the blocking instructions "if you want your cardigan to have a nice shape like the one in the pictures, block it on a dress form".  Really? there are miles of reverse stocking stitch where we could have done actual shaping, like grown ups. anyway. I do quite like my cardigan. I cropped it shorter than the pattern, and wish I had done that shaping, since it's a little loose at the bottom. It's perfect at the ...