I Did It

 

This is a first for me, unravelling a newly knitted cardigan! Thanks to everyone who commented on my  previous post about the cardigan. There is a backstory to the decision to undo it. Early in 2023 I knitted myself a cardigan to wear as my every day, at home, winter warmer. You can see it here. It became very shapeless, falling off my shoulders all the time. I blame my self because I didn't get the hang of the yoke pattern and fudged it. But I really don't want to spend another winter tugging at a cardigan that doesn't hang properly and keeps falling off my shoulders. 

Before I undid the mauve cardigan I found another pattern that worked to the right gauge. It's also a Drops Design pattern,  Rows of Lavender, but it has set in sleeves rather than raglan. I'm hoping that  means it will stay put. I've made a start:

Bead Knitting Revisited

 

I've been meaning to have another go at beaded knitting. In 2019 I learnt a lot, preparing to make a beaded bag for a competition, but I haven't done any beaded knitting since. My first step was to read my own instructions - there's a link on the side bar of this page, so that was easy. I used part of the cross stitch pattern that I've used before. You can read all about it here.  I like it. I may do more beaded knitting. 

Not Sure

 

I've finished knitting my cardigan, Early May by Drops Design. I'm not sure. I like the sleeves and the lace pattern on them. But I should have made a bigger size and yesterday the fronts hung so badly that I thought I should just unravel the whole thing and use a different pattern. Today I tried it on again and made an effort to position the shoulders correctly and it didn't seem so bad. I have a friend who regularly unravels things and reknits them. Should I take a leaf out of Dorie's book? 

Thanks and Happy New Year

 Thanks very much to everyone who read my blog during 2025 and especially to those who took the time to comment. I know that blogs are less popular now than they once were, but I like to have a record of what I've been crafting and enjoy the contact with other crafters, so I shall continue. May 2026 be a good year for you all. 

Sleeves

 

I've finished knitting one sleeve of my cardigan and started on the next. I was glad I'd done a swatch of the lace pattern so I was familiar with it by the time I had to start sliding stitches back and forth for the magic loop technique of knitting in the round. It turned out that knitting four together was easier than I anticipated, but knitting four together through the back of the loops, not so much. I'm using a fine crochet hook to hoik the yarn through the stitches and that works well. 

A Cardigan For Me

 

 I bought some yarn last week to knit myself a cardigan. The yarn is called Classic Wool, though it's 20% wool and 80% acrylic, which seems a bit of a cheek to me. But I've used it before and know it's a nice yarn to work with and wear. 

I bought the yarn without a specific pattern in mind. I had a look at some of my knitting books and did several swatches for patterns in The Country Diary Book of Knitting, by Annette Mitchell, but none of them made gauge. So I had a look at the patterns I'd saved on Pinterest and eventually settled on a Drops Design pattern, Early May. 

The body of the cardigan is plain stocking stitch while the sleeves are lacy. The chart for the lace baffled me a bit; what does 'knit 4 stitches twisted together' mean? So I worked a sample last night and I think it means to knit 4 together through the back of the loops. That's what I'm going to do anyway. The garment is knitted all in one from the bottom up. I've got to the armholes, now have to knit the sleeves separately and then join all together for the yoke. So there won't be any sewing up to do. 

Merry Christmas