All wrapped up in wool

Not quite my usual type of post today, but I have something to share which I have been working on since the spring! I don’t do much knitting because I have struggled to find the patience, but having made a cardigan for Toby when he was small (it still fits!), I decided I should at least attempt to make one for this baby too.

I used the same West Yorkshire Spinners Bo Peep yarn as Toby’s cardigan, but this time in a really cute green and grey self striping colourway called magic. I thought that the pastel green was a good option for either boy or girl, and the range of colours made knitting it satisfying, watching the colour change as I continued.

Toby’s ‘Lil Dreamer’ cardigan came from a book of knitting patterns, and was a fairly basic design with just ribbing and stockingette stitch for the majority of the knitting. That made it very achievable for a fairly novice knitter, but didn’t help with my boredom in the stockingette sections! This time I wanted to find something with a bit more interest throughout and thought that some kind of lace knitting pattern might help. I found this free pattern on Ravelry called ‘the gift’ which seemed like a good option to keep me more engaged in the project!

This required me to learn quite a few new things fairly quickly! Unlike the previous cardigan, this one is knitted top down and all in one, so there is no sewing up to do at the end. There are new to me stitches in the lace pattern, including yarn over’s to make the little holes and a variety of different ways of combining and decreasing stitches too. I really enjoyed the challenge though of learning something new and keeping to the pattern, though I did have a couple of frustrating moments when I needed to unknit sections because I had missed a yarn over and the mistake would have been very visible in the pattern.

Even the stockinette section seemed to go fairly quickly, thought that might have been partially because I made the smallest 3 month size this time so that it hopefully fits over the winter. The bottom ribbing and cuffs are quite fun, because they also have a lace effect to mirror the pattern in the yoke.

The final new skill was knitting in the round for the sleeves, which took a few rows to get my head around, but is really cool once it is working. You Tube has definitely been my friend at various points in this knitting, but the instructions in the pattern were very good too. The one point at which I got a little confused was the button band and buttonholes, and the pattern designer very kindly helped me out when I messaged them too.

I’m really pleased with how this has come together. The self striping yarn works really well with a pattern that doesn’t need sewing up at the end because the colour changes can continue seamlessly across. It would be much more difficult to try to match the stripes if each section was a different piece.

I wanted the patterning of the knitting to be the standout feature, so I went with very simple buttons. To try to protect the knitting from being pulled and strained by them I sewed each button with a backing button to help share the load.

I’m hoping that this little cardigan will get lots of wear, and should co-ordinate nicely with the grey and green outfits that I have sewn up too. I have a full ball of yarn left over, which I think would make a really lovely hat, and maybe some booties too. I might try to find out about knitting a hat in the round too!

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