Felix Cardigan

Felix is a jumper pattern by US designer Amy Christoffers. I like Amy's patterns, they bob in and out of my queue (one day I will knit a Larch cardigan). Anyway, this one popped up in my Ravelry pattern recommendations list, along with a cardigan variation, to which I thought "ooh!". A quick browse through my stash unearthed 4 hanks of gorgeous Berroco Alpaca Classic worsted weight yarn I had bought to knit a shrug in 2018 - Felix cardigan was happening.
I've been methodically finishing all my projects-in-progress recently, working towards a clean slate. I've found that as I've settled down and am feeling less stressed that I have less of a burning desire to cast things on "right now!". I worked this cardigan up alongside my current crochet project, the fabulous Matisse cardigan - it's always good to have some plain knitting to bundle into a bag. Matisse isn't quite as readily portable due to my working method which requires that I bring MANY colour options for the next round, but I'll share my progress/method in a separate post at some point.

Here's the finished cardigan, all ruckled up on one side, still, you can see how good it is for layering. I knit the first size as it gave me 3" positive ease (currently) although once my bust returns to its usual size this will mean the cardigan will fit with the recommended 6" of positive ease. The sleeves seemed small once I had cast on the underarm stitches and knit a few inches. I decided to cast on an extra 6 stitches (I was knitting them flat, top-down) and then I knit a small rectangular panel  to fill the subsequent gap and stitched it all together once I had cast off. Of course I only needed to do this bodging on the first sleeve, the second one had the addition of 6 stitches to the recommended underarm cast-on number right from the get-go. You can't see the fix really as I'm fortunately good at seaming stocking stitch, I quite enjoy it!

The colour is a little less vibrant in real life, it seems to have more of a pastel sherbet feel to it instead (I love it). I was a little worried it might be slightly itchy due to the alpaca content of the yarn but it's next to the skin soft for me. I'm a little fussy about yarn softness, I find that I don't wear the garments I have knit from so-called 'itchy' yarns (which many people find to be not itchy at all!), a good example here would be Istex Lettlopi which is beautiful stuff, lovely to knit with, just not as soft as Shetland wool (my favourite).

I found some pictures of my other Amy cardigans, above, Pomme de Pin, a cardigan I knit in cotton yarn and which would have been LOVELY knit with wool.

And the lovely Maxfield cardigan, finished just before Oliver was born in 2013. This pattern used a variegated yarn for the CC and was the first time I had seen a pattern I liked which used variegated yarn (I used to really dislike the look). I have to say, my preference remains with 'flat' uniform colours, although sometimes they're a little less fun to knit with.

Greis

I started a Greis dress (pattern by Kate Davies, part of her Knitting Season club) after feeling quite swept up in the enthusiasm of Stacy who had been planning her version ever since she saw a photo of Kate wearing the dress at an awards evening. Stacy's dress is absolutely perfect, as is the version knit by Beverley, both knitters have added very useful notes to their projects - I love useful notes, I get annoyed when people on Ravelry leave a low star rating for a pattern and no notes to explain why/warn others of a pattern issue, thanks for that! (not).
Anyway, I wasn't about to buy more yarn to knit this one, luckily I had a cone of J&S 2-ply jumper weight in a lovely rich tea biscuit sort of a shade. Perfect! Knitting began during all the uncertainty about starting university and was quite a comfort.

I've decided to frog the finished garment (I know...) only because it is so massive. I assumed I had chosen my usual needles, sadly I had not and had instead knit the entire garment on 4mm needles. Being a horribly "whatever!" sort of a knitter, I'm OK with this, the yarn will be re-purposed, I had the enjoyment of knitting the design, the comfort of the colours and the wool. Knitting did its job.

Looks fine here doesn't it? Certainly hides the protruding stomach. Well I can tell you, it's way too big, it's like a big sack! A big beautiful sack and even with the temporary baby-related bust enlargement it's not doing me any favours (in my opinion). I'm absolutely NOT fishing for compliments here, just sharing my opinion on my own finished project and the mistake I made/the result. Gauge, tension, swatch, swatch, swatch. I just wrote those final words in the full knowledge that I'll likely not swatch any future projects. I may check the gauge as I'm knitting though!

The Big Marl again

I made a big marl in 2018 as I had splurged on lots of hand-dyed yarn I had no idea what to do with, also because it looked so cosy, also because it is garter stitch! I love garter stitch! The blanket worked up fast, I remember taking it along with me to a wedding reception and working on it both en route (was a long drive) and while we waited for the food to be served.

I gave this first Big Marl to my sister Sam but it ended up downstairs as my mum also likes to use it, when Josie visits she also likes to curl up underneath it (Josie is the most nesh person I've ever known!). As Josie really liked the blanket I decided to knit her one for her 30th birthday present.

I've used more colours than I first intended. Josie is really fussy about colour, loves lemon yellow, dislikes mustard... I had forgotten just how much yarn this blanket takes to knit however and ended up just having fun with it and using colours I felt worked fairly well together. I added pom poms because Josie likes that sort of thing :-)
It's been a good project to be finishing up over the last 48 hours after the boiler broke, it's been lovely and warm on my lap... Every year the boiler breaks, always when we really need it, it never likes to break in the Summer! Unfortunately replacing it (as I would like to do) isn't up to us as the house is rented. I can't tell you how much I hate renting, everything simply being left to break before it gets fixed or replaced. The carpets.... The carpets are always the cheapest thinnest carpets and always seem to have been fitted by an odd-job man (because it's cheaper) and they subsequently ruckle up because fitting carpets is similar to stretching a canvas, they need stretching and fixing into place by a professional! Oh well. I have to remind myself that life isn't about home ownership (although that is one of the reasons I am re-training, so we can get a flaming mortgage).

But the Big Marl! The pattern is a free Hedgehog Fibres one, the only modification I made was the increases, I did a single increase per row into the second stitch, decreased the same way (into the second stitch of each row) and I omitted the I-cord edging.

Eunice Cardigan

I can't remember where I spotted this design, I think it was probably on Instagram and as often seems to be the case with me, it proved to be a 'must cast on now' sort of project. It's been quite a long-term project, I find colourwork cardigans often are (I lose steam with them). The pattern is by Mary Henderson and is called Eunice Cardigan (The Knitter, Issue 136 - available digitally).

It is such a warm and cosy cardigan, I'm absolutely delighted with the finished garment! You can see the deep corrugated rib edging, this took ages but I started using a technique mentioned by Constance on her podcast (Stitching Over the Days), said technique simply involves working on a particular project for 30 minutes a day. I think Constance said she learnt of this idea from another podcast and found it really helpful - as have I! A row of the corrugated rib took me half an hour, so it was quite slow-going but I found that as I chipped away at it that the cast-off began to loom! Hooray!

I think I mentioned before that this cardigan was inspired by my return to education as a mature student and by my time at the wonderful Leek College. I had intended to get this cardigan done to wear during my first term at university this October, however my unplanned pregnancy put paid to that. I'm loath to describe it as being a disappointment as I am aware just how lucky I am, I think it was more the practicalities, plan changes and worries that I'm going to be spread a bit thin this time next year.

I have been thinking about my plan to knit loads of dresses over the next year and shaking my head at my queue as I have been planning lots of cardigans instead! I recently stumbled upon the fabulous designs of Helene Arnesen, aka Fabel Knitwear... Uh oh, I want to knit ALL of her patterns, they are so chic and feminine. Helene has a podcast too, if you search Fabel Knitwear on YouTube. I don't watch many podcasts but I like hers very much.