A Cardigan for the Autumn

It's finished!  The buttons are on, and the camera is still being thrown into confusion by the colour.  To photograph it I put it on an old curtain on the floor near a window, and when editing the colour I could not get the dark red right without the green of the background turning out too bright.  The red varies a lot depending on the light, looking really drab in electric light and interesting and cheerful in sunshine, so perhaps I should not complain too much about the camera throwing a temper.

 

Here are the yarns I used - the Sirdar Harrap Tweed (a wool and synthetic mix) for the ribbing and background colour, and the lovely varied pure wool yarn, hand dyed by Charmaine at YarnTings, for the pattern rows.  I used up two skeins of of the varied yarn with only a tiny amount left over.  Thinking I was going to run out, I ordered an extra skein, which came in handy for the photo and will be set aside for another project

The stitch is an easy eight row sequence:-

Row 1 - background, knit

Row 2 - background, purl

Row 3 - contrast, k2, p2

Row 4 - contrast , k2, p2

Row 5 - background, knit

Row 6 - background, purl

Row 7 - contrast, p2, k2

Row 8 - contrast, p2, k2

It gives a basket weave effect with a lovely warm texture, and the reverse stocking stitch squares showing on the right side give a mottled effect to the varied colours of the contrast yarn.

Another great advantage to this stitch is that it is easy to look at a finished item and count the rows and the stitches, so you can make another and adjust the number of rows or stitches if needed.

Here is a toddler sized cardie (patiently waiting for its buttons) laid over mine, which presented another photo editing nightmare.  To get the blues right I had to reconcile myself to inaccurate red and screaming green.  It is made in the same stitch, but the body proportions are quite different, with the sleeves being the same length as the body.  It is so long since I knitted an adult sized garment that I had forgotten how much longer the sleeves needed to be.

Finally, the buttons.  I love them!  Just the right shade of dark red, with a gold circle for emphasis.  I'm pleased that the gold colour isn't on the surface where it could end up wearing off, but safely embedded under a layer of transparent plastic.

Now the cardigan is put away, and much as I want to wear it, I hope I don't need it until late September at least!

Still Knitting

Well it's been a long time since I last posted, so long I daren't even look at the date of the previous post, but here I am, still busy with the knitting needles, and the sewing machine is still idle.  So in the short term, this will be a knitting blog, and will at some point in the not too distant future transform itself into a knitting and sewing blog.

We have just spent a few days staying with with my brother, and while we were there he presented me with a repair job - a jumper I made for him, which was the third or fourth jumper I ever made.  It had come unravelled at the front of the neck and around one of the cuffs, so I have already repaired the worst damage.  The other cuff is hanging on by a thread, and the bottom edge of the back and front is also looking fragile, so I shall reinforce all along the casting on.  Apart from that, the jumper is in good shape and still has plenty of wear in it.  There is a photo of my brother wearing the jumper, taken in 1967, a mere 57 years ago.  Taking into account that I had already been knitting a few years when I made it, I am now going to ignore the fact that telling you makes me feel exceedingly ancient, and just blurt out that it is now some 63 years since I learnt to knit.

Here is my latest project, a cardigan for the autumn, or earlier if summer never arrives, in proper old lady tweedy shades of dark red.  I had a dickens of a job with the camera, which seemed to go into a flat panic trying to capture the correct shades, but this photo is more or less accurate.  I am using two different yarns - a dark red/brown with occasional coloured flecks (on the right hand needle) and a multi coloured yarn which puts in shades of mauve, grey, pink, brown, maroon and rust (on the left).  I have just reached the stage where I shall need to go shopping for buttons, so I can keep all that excitement for the next post.  Let's hope I find the perfect match!