Thursday, April 26, 2007

Frost Flowers and Leaves Cardigan




I finally finished my Frost Flowers and Leaves Cardigan. I'm so pleased at how it turned out. I used the basic structure of the lace from the square Shawl by Eugen Beugler in "A Gathering of Lace" , but first adapted it for a triangular shawl from the instructions worked out by Kat LeFevre and documented in the Yahoo group on the web, : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/frostflowersandleaves/ . It was knit with 9 skeins of Cotton Classic on size 6 needles. The design is based on my diagonal sweater pattern, but here I used the FF&L pattern to create the fabric, so the knitting is on the diagonal. I wanted the leaves motif to run down the front, back, and top of shoulders and sleeves, so the construction followed the pattern nicely. The biggest puzzle was how to create the opening for the neck, and I was delighted to discover that the gague was such that I could move the start of the neck over one repeat, and then short- row along the shoulder edge to get the fronts to line up with the back. Once I understood how the pattern worked, it was fun to figure out how to knit it in the round as well as flat, but it took a lot of concentration and was not something I could do while watching TV. LOL. I really enjoyed making this sweater, and learned a lot during the process. I suppose my only regret was using a garter stitch edging for the front neckline, as it doesn't stretch as much as the rest of the fabric. I am too lazy to try to redo this, but I was tempted! It is comfortable to wear and a great summer concoction. Will I do it again? Perhaps....

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely gorgeous! I am continually amazed at the inventiveness and creativity of the knitters in the blogiverse. It would never even have occurred to me that I could turn a stunning shawl pattern into such an incredible sweater -- and in COTTON no less! I'm sure you'll get a ton of compliments when you were it. Congrats!

Kat said...

WOW, that is stunning!!! You did a fabulous job, and I wouldn't have ever thought to make that shawl into a cardigan.

Great sweater!!!

Fudge said...

Perhaps your next rendition could be the color of leaves? Like a copper, perhaps? Even though that would be a departure from your love of blue.

Barbara said...

Hey - no fair - I want to see it modeled by the creator - creatrix?

Anyway - you know what I mean.

Romi said...

It looks great!

Julie said...

It's lovely! When the pattern first came out (in IK?) I thought I'd like to turn it into a cardigan, but haven't gotten much beyond some sketching. My version would have been more like a rectangular version of the shawl with sleeves stuck on, I think. After awhile, I chucked it in the "too hard" box. I do have the yarn to make the shawl, and someday I will get around to it!

Anonymous said...

I came here via the Laceknitters group to say - WOW! You did a really good job on the adaptation, well done!

Anonymous said...

Hey jeri,

You willing to write up instructions on how to convert the shawl to a sweater?? Cause I'd love to see them.... This sweater is one of the most beautiful sweaters I've seen....

Brooklynne

N. Maria said...

Wow! You do beautiful work!