A new cardigan - for me!

It is raining at the moment. I am waiting for it to stop to walk the dogs but so far no luck. I don't mind the rain but Miss Tina does not like her sweater to be wet and little Ruusu gets cold easily, thus we are forced to wait.

First of all I want to thank you for all the comments of the baby cardigan. I have a new one on the needles but there have been some difficulties with it. I'll tell you about them later on. I took the pictures of the cardigan on a little baby quilt I made a long time ago, most simple one, but here is the picture of it.

My best sweater ever is a simple boxy raglan sweater knitted with 3 mm needles. It is the sweater I live in through the winter months. It is the one I grab when I need extra insulation when taking the dogs for a walk. It is the one I look for in the evenings when I feel chilly. It is the one that is always lying around and whenever I am in the need of warmth, I follow my tracks to find it, it might be in the kitchen, or by my desk or on the sofa where Mr Cat might be sleeping on it. I know it sounds quite bad, it has cat and dog hair all over it. Of all the sweaters I have been knitting during the past years, this is the one and only I truly love. I could give away just about any other sweater but not this one.
So what is it that is so right about it? The answer is simple, it is easy to wear and it is light. (It is also blue which happens to be my color, but be it brown or grey or red, I am sure I would love it.) It is raglan which means that there is plenty of room around shoulders but no extra bulk under arms. It is very loose fitting, which means that although it is warm, it lets your body breathe and does not hug it to death (to sweat).  There is not much in the construction to talk about, but if that is my kind of sweater, maybe I should replicate it, I mean, there is no use of knitting to stuff the closets.

I don't remember for what reason I have bought this Pima Cotton DK by Rowan but I have it in three colors, almost in equal amounts, about 300 grams of each, plenty for a sweater in all, but too little of one color. (My colors are discontinued, I just checked the color chart. Pima cotton is premium cotton fiber, it has long staple length and the yarn spun from it is soft and fine.)

I have been swatching to find out how this yarn feels and I quite like it even though it is not wool and does not have the joyful qualities wool.

The ball band recommends using 4 mm needles, but knowing me and how I like dense fabrics, I tried with 3,5 mm needles first. I ripped it all quite quickly, I did not like the outcome, little too loose and had my other go with 3,25 mm needles.  I still thought that is was too loose and went down a little bit more, down to 3 mm needle and I am quite happy with the gauge now. While trying to decide the needle size, I also tried out three kinds of needles. This yarn splits, so lace needles with sharp points were out. I tried with wooden ones, but did not like the way I had to work with the stitches to get them moving on the needles, so they were out. I finally settled into addis with blunt points and they seem to be perfect. 

While making the swatches I had trouble getting the edges neat and nice, they tended to look loose and sloppy. Cotton is merciless yarn, it does not forgive you anything, so I really have to concentrate on the first and last stitches of the row  and knit them very carefully and tightly to avoid any extra yarn in the edges. And since cotton is merciless, it will show every single sloppy stitch that won't fit into the row.

At the moment, I am aiming for an A-shaped stockinette cardigan with wide stripes and raglan sleeves. All the other details, like neck shaping or sleeve length are under serious thought. If I cannot decide, I will return to the baby cardigan and will let this rest.

So cotton for a change, but the mail brought me some beautiful wool today, I am truly head over heels in love with it and will tell you about it next time.

Wool with you,

Lene

I have to share one link with you. I was looking for some information and I ended up in V&A's site and there happened to spot an interview of Yohji Yamamoto, the poet of black.

Some success, a momentary happiness and a new beginning

While May works its magic outside; there has been some snow, some sunshine and some rain, I keep busy at my beloved craft. It always rounds up to knitting. When there is a huge knitting failure, I keep thinking that I have had it with the craft. I often find myself thinking that - I know this is very true at some point but is not the whole truth - I fail in some projects because I am not concentrating and I am not concentrating because I am not enthusiastic any more: I just wish that whatever I am working on, will turn out beautifully, but I really never stop to think or to pay attention, and, dear friends, wishful thinking very seldom produces lovely finished items. Okey, the above mentioned happens way too often but really is not true with this project.

I was thrilled, I was prepared and I pushed myself to do my best, but alas! my best was not enough. And the truth bites. While it hurts, it really can work its way to benefit the craft too because now I am left with a feeling that I should be able to do better and I will need to prove that to me and that means more knitting.

It all started with an idea: baby cardigan with some crochet, combining some traditional features from the old Finnish sweater. (I discovered the joy of wee wools couple of years ago: new, lovely fingering weight wools and small gauge, colors I would not wear myself, details that would not suit my own clothing and the projects would not take forever and these small cardigans could act as swatches, laboratories for various techniques.)

 I drew the outline of the cardigan in a small scale, I picked the motif for the border, made a pattern for the cardigan in full scale, made a swatch, washed it, counted my stitches and set my gauge. I even tried some finishing techniques of the little cardi. What I did not do and what I should have done, is to take a closer look at the seaming process, decide what techniques I was going to use and then knit accordingly. So I failed in this area big time. I should have checked my notes of my previous seamed work (I keep journal of my work and analyze at times what went wrong and what I should be aware of next time).

The little lacy bit around the collar is there because I had to cover some of the mistakes (bad ones!). We will ignore the wonky edgings in the front.

The way I attached the sleeves is bad craftsmandship, I had no intention to draw any attention to the upper sleeves. The shoulder seams I am not even going to let you see at this point... nor the inside of the cardigan. There is only that much one can share and you just have to take my word for it when I say that it is totally ugh!!

I hate it when I have to say to myself that I cannot do something. (That is in my craft, there are plenty of things outside knitting that I cannot do, but after forty and some years of knitting, saying that I cannot do something, irritates me.) Some years ago I did not know how to do stranded knitting well enough, and so I practiced and now I am quite happy with it, quite, and this means stranding in the round. But carrying two yarns when purling felt odd and resulted in wonky stitches. I was going to tackle this in this cardigan, this is a small piece of clothing, having the bulk of steeks was not an option, so I had to learn to strand in the purl side as well. The outcome is not perfect, the sleeves (done in the round) are better but the main part is okay, I am fine with it and again, practice will do its magic one day, I hope. This learning opportunity really sparked my inspiration in the beginning, it was frustrating at some point, yes, it involved lots of tinking, but finally I finished the item, so I give some credit of that to me. While I was learning color knitting in purling, I totally ignored many crucial points in the piece.

I had a hard time finishing this little knit because I grew aware of the mishaps along the way but I really wanted to finish, not to have my bitter cup full, but to see the whole project through to be able to learn. There were many moments when I had to put it down, go walk the dogs, come back and pick it up the again. I am really happy I did that, because all in all it is a cute little cardigan and it taught me a lot and quitting it would not have taught me all that I know now.

The success is that I pushed to the end and that made me happy for a bit. The new beginning is the part where I am starting all over again. While making this little Dancing Girls cardigan, my mind has been working on a new design, same elements, new motif, my own this time. And this time I am going to pay attention to seams and picking up stitches neatly. It really is very inspiring, the ability to start over and always thrive for the better. Isn't that really the best part?

Wool with you,

Lene

(The buttons are missing at this point. Have not found any good ones yet.)