Once upon a time I made this cardigan:
It's Foxglove from Rowan 41 and it is a well written pattern and very pretty. I love the colour, the yarn and the softness of the knitted fabric. I even learnt to make crochet flowers for this project.
There's just one hitch. It doesn't fit me, and I haven't really worn it. Essentially it is too big across the shoulders and it has very narrow shoulders so it was always falling off and I always spent far too long adding little buttons and tweaks to hold it in place. To suit me it needed to be double the front width at bust level and structured so that the side fixing was at empire line level; in short, it needed the fit of my Ether wrap (which I love).
Perhaps it is madness, or perhaps it is a sign of growth as a knitter that I took a long, hard look at this cardi ...
...and got out the seam ripper. That's two sleeves, two fronts, a back and a whole heap of crochet flowers.
I haven't frogged the flowers any further but the rest have had a dip with some amphibians. One a side note I found the easiest way to frog was to enlist the help of my captive slave, sorry, I mean willing husband - he pulled out the knitting and at the same time I wound it onto my swift.
All the skeins and mini skeins had a dunk in some warm water and were left to dry.
And now I have this:
Plus a ball and a half that I had spare from the original. The great thing is that I know exactly what this is going to be - the Phyllo Yoked Pullover from Knitting Nature.
I've swatched on the suggested 4.5mm needles and my gauge is a little tighter than in the pattern but I like the fabric much more than the fabric I got on 5mm needles for Foxglove so I'm just going to knit up a size and see how it fits.
My other plan is to knit the body and sleeves in the round and then join everything together for the yoke so that I can keep an eye on the fit and possibly add a little waist shaping along the way. Ideally I want the same sort of fit as my current favourite (shop bought) jumper which was a Christmas present from my in-laws and is loose without being baggy so I'm planning on measuring one against t'other as I knit to get the right fit.
If all goes well I'll end up with a jumper that I love and wear all the time, if not - well I could always frog it!
You need a niddy noddy Ms Spinner. It is THE thing for making skeins, whether it be handspun off a bobbin or zig zag yarn from a sweater.
ReplyDeleteNice ripping job, the flowers would look good on a felted bag.
Can I just say how impressed I am that you actually ripped that sweater. I just don't know if I could do it. I think I'd give it away before ripping hours of work! BUT...I think the Phyllo Yoked Pullover is a beautiful pattern so I can't wait to see you progress on it!
ReplyDeleteA great way to reuse, recycle yarn, i love this method as there is a few old piece laying in the box which i think i can make better use of them, and by the way, what a sweet husband.
ReplyDelete