From tiny acorns
This cardigan is probably the closest I'm ever going to get to the 'Sheep-to-Sweater' full project, in that the process began with a dyeing session, and not just a purchase. Stylecraft's Ethical Twist was (while it was available) one of my favourite yarns - I used it to make Manu (in cream) and Georgie (in the natural grey). [Oh, and apparently I have no decent photos of either of these - I will rectify this.]
Having a bit of the grey left over, I decided to use it in a design with stripes (of which more at some point), only to discover that I didn't quite have enough. And it had been discontinued. Having searched the country's stashes, I found a small stock of the cream was still available, and persuaded Juliet to dye some of the 1kg bag I happened to come away with to match the grey.
Which left me with 800g of beautiful cream wool/alpaca DK. The only problem was the colour - however much I like the idea of natural undyed cream, I find I very rarely wear the garments I knit from it. Time to visit Juliet again, and play...
Meanwhile, an unexpected online raffle win from the Knitter slipped Coastal Knits onto my bookshelves, and a plan came together. So here, nine months after the yarn became green, and three months after I finished it, is my Gnarled Oak Cardigan. I really enjoyed knitting this - the only downsides were the three inches to be added to the body and sleeves (as usual), the ephemeral frustration of the bobble rows with a whole jumper hanging off your knitting needles, and my inability to make buttonhole rows work out, which resulted in a small fudge in order to have a buttonhole at the top neck-edge.
Having a bit of the grey left over, I decided to use it in a design with stripes (of which more at some point), only to discover that I didn't quite have enough. And it had been discontinued. Having searched the country's stashes, I found a small stock of the cream was still available, and persuaded Juliet to dye some of the 1kg bag I happened to come away with to match the grey.
Which left me with 800g of beautiful cream wool/alpaca DK. The only problem was the colour - however much I like the idea of natural undyed cream, I find I very rarely wear the garments I knit from it. Time to visit Juliet again, and play...
Meanwhile, an unexpected online raffle win from the Knitter slipped Coastal Knits onto my bookshelves, and a plan came together. So here, nine months after the yarn became green, and three months after I finished it, is my Gnarled Oak Cardigan. I really enjoyed knitting this - the only downsides were the three inches to be added to the body and sleeves (as usual), the ephemeral frustration of the bobble rows with a whole jumper hanging off your knitting needles, and my inability to make buttonhole rows work out, which resulted in a small fudge in order to have a buttonhole at the top neck-edge.
Comments
Your cardigan is so, so beautiful and I simply had to pop in and tell you how much I am thinking about you and missing you.
Hugs from (not so) afar,
Stephanie