Diamond Cardigan

The coincidence of getting “French Girl Knits” in the mail the same day I had lunch with a friend wearing a marvelous cabled sweater instigated this sweater. I wanted to use my stash of lovely blue Reynolds Andean Alpaca Regal yarn( which I had used for the mittens and had 8 skeins left!) , and Kristeen Griffin-Grimess' top down, set-in-sleeve pattern “Viola” was so well written that it just flowed together. I used the “X-in-a-diamond” single cable from Barbara Walker’s First Treasury (pg 287) to give added texture, and also made long sleeves. As I knit a different yarn at a tighter gauge ( 16 per inch on a size 9 needle) than the pattern was written for, I used the numbers for the 44 inch size. I am very happy with this cardigan, although I think the zipper is a bit too long and may re-do it when the mood hits me. It is warm and soft and has the right shade of blue.

Plus, it went very fast! I watched "John Adams" and a few other shows and it was done in 2 weeks!

Achieving Bliss

Lately I've been asking myself, why knit? I have lots of clothes, admittedly none of them are exactly right for every occasion, some I never wear but they lie in wait for the perfect opportunity ( a combination of temperature, venue, slenderness and time of day), some were great for a specific occasion and some are favorites that I reach for over and over but are wearing out. I suppose I'm always dreaming of some piece of clothing that will be just right, but never found. I knit for the challenge of it, or to realize an idea that just might work. Sometimes the yarn is so beautiful it begs to be knit into some article that will show its beauty to best advantage,sometimes this goal is achieved, and sometimes not. This sweater began as a bag of 10 skeins of Debbie Bliss Merino Aran, a discontinued yarn in a perfect shade of teal blue, bought at Webs in the back room. It sat in bags for a while, was swatched, but never seemed to materialize. Finally I thought I'd try a top down cable and rib sweater, as I only had 10 balls. I knitted the whole thing, only to find I'd miscalculated and it was too tight. I scoured Ebay and Ravelry, only to buy 2 balls of same color number but different dye lot which were noticably different in color. I ripped out some , reknit, and found it was too short. Finally I though I'd sacrifice the sleeves and rip some more, reknitting from the waist down and having a short sleeved cowl necked vest/sweater. I love the result, and finally achieved some measure of Bliss..