In between the Lemon printed Penny dress and the Lewis & Irene printed cotton Sundress was project #37. This has taken a while to come to the blog as it is a hand-knitted cropped cardigan.I found the Bronte pattern by Martin Storey on Ravelry and it fitted my criteria of 1) double knitting yarn, 2) Cropped length 3) interesting texture with cables and moss stitch features.
I ordered the Light Stone-coloured yarn from Knitters Network and set off making the back. This part was a relatively quick knit as it featured the fancy rib followed by a lacy band and then double moss stitch for the main part. Next came the fronts. I was especially looking forward to these as they featured the textured cables and a diamond pattern. Again once I had mastered the pattern, working for the first time from a chart, the fronts were quickly completed.
Now onto the sleeves. I knitted the first sleeve exactly to the instructions, increasing and decreasing as directed. The sleeve turned out very long – we are talking orangutans! Now I know that I have short arms but this was ridiculous.
I knew that I would have to change the increasing so that the underarm sleeve was no longer than 17 inches and even that was generous for my arms. Having altered the rate of increasing so that I still ended up with the correct number of stitches when ready to knit the top of the sleeves I completed my 2nd sleeve. This worked out really well. So now I had two sleeves, one very long and one just right. I unpicked the 1st sleeve back to the rib and then re-knit according to my revised plan. Lovely – two matching sleeves!
Once I had completed the 2nd/3rd sleeve I was ready to stitch the cardigan together for which I used a back stitch.
I have a particular dislike of picking up stitches for front bands and so I knitted two separate bands featuring a couple of the faux cables. I did have to pick up some stitches for the neckband, but only a few and continued with the faux cable pattern.
I love how this brings all the design features together. I don’t know if I will add buttons but in any event, buttonholes are not required as I can slip the buttons through the faux cable pattern.
I have enjoyed this project so much that I have already started on version 2 using a darker Brown-coloured yarn which should be just right for the Autumn.
Project #37 cpmpleted 28th July 2020