Sunday, December 13, 2009

Celtic Braid Cardigan

In October, I made the now yearly pilgrimage to Rhinebeck for the NY State Sheep and Wool Festival. What a euphoric extravaganza of delightful fiber! It was fantastic to walk through the vendors offerings, touching and fondling and oohing and ahhing. I found a glorious skein of beautiful brilliant blue yarn at the Decadent Fibers booth, and I had to have it. This skein was 490 yards, huge, but to make the sweater I envisioned, with cables and flourishes, I thought I'd need 3 skeins probably. They happened to have 3, and although they were hand dyed by the same dyers, of course it is very challenging to get them exactly the same, so there were differences in the intensity and value of the color. However, I didn't care, so I bought them! This yarn is 50%merino, 30% silk and 20% mohair. I was a little worried about the itchiness of the mohair, which I usually don't like, but this yarn was soft and slightly fuzzy with a bit of a sheen.
This cardigan was fun to knit. I started with a top down raglan with some idea of the cables I wanted to use ( mainly the saxon braid and a simple 4 stitch cable) and kind of winged it from there, trying on as I went, to get the fit. It was a lot of fun to design, and despite the slightly differing colors of the skeins, it is fine to my eye. The zipper makes it a close hug of a sweater, perfect for those cold days, but the comfortable yarn makes it soft and light weight. And of course, it is blue! I ended up using only about 1200 yards, so I still have around 300 left.





3 comments:

Karen said...

Love that big braid down the back! Gorgeous!

Elizabeth Rosenberg said...

OMG! Delicious, delightful and dynamite! Your sweaters keep getting better and better and better and better! Oh, and the photo is pretty darned hot, too!
Love ya, Elizabeth

Kay Koeper Sorensen said...

Another Perfect sweater!