Candid :: Knitting wip of 3 years

Can-did
–adjective

1. frank; outspoken; open and sincere: a candid critic.
2. free from reservation, disguise, or subterfuge
3. straightforward: a candid opinion.
4. informal; unposed: a candid photo.
5. honest; impartial: a candid mind.
6. Archaic. white.
7. Archaic. clear; pure.

And that’s exactly what this cardigan is. It’s exactly what I want and need. No frills, just the beauty of the yarn.

This is a sweater that has been on hold for a long time. The yarn is beautiful. The best yarn I will have for a long time to knit a whole sweater with. It’s a baby alpaca silk blend by catalina yarn. Warm, good drape, luscious. It was payment for knitting them a sweater to model. I would never have been able to afford this yarn otherwise.

So what sweater to make. At first I was going to do a simple cabled kind of deal and after finishing the back and the front frogged it. I think it was from Interweave Fall 2007, not relevant though, It just wasn’t my style.

And then I decided on a top down deal in the round. wider neckline. Good to go. I got to the point where I knew I would need to measure. So I stopped. It was decision making time. Do I join it in the round for a pull over? Keep going to for a cardigan? Do some kind of fancy stitch like a broken rib for the waist?

Too many options. On top of that I had forgotten to put in the last too buttons holes. I was in knitting oblivion at that point. I had started this sweater my last fall semester of school (that’s over a year ago now!) and had been distracted and hung up on a million other things.

(the picture is blown out, I’ll take a better one once the sun comes back out)

So how to fix the button hole and resolve my knitting indecisiveness.

Awhile ago – while suffering from food poisoning and general lethargy I looked through all my pattern books. I looked through all of ravelry. I looked through all of flickr. All for ideas on what to do for the bottom half of the sweater.

At the end of it I realized two things. 1) My favorite sweaters have always been plain stockinette stitch cardigans with pockets – so since I most likely won’t be making a sweater from yarn this nice for awhile I should totally make something that I will wear all the time and love. 2) I decided to sew and cut the button band right off and make a different one by picking up stitches. So I bound off all but 2 stitch of the button band and am cruising right along.

Finally. Time for some great mindless knitting.

Last month I finished the body and it was time to deal with the button band, after talking it through with a friend I decided to just pick up the stitches and knit out, do a double folded styled button band similar to the hem. On Saturday I completely finished the button band and sewed he buttons on at the Sewing Rebellion on Sunday. I really like the way it’s hemmed and turned under so it’s double thick.

I had a bunch of these buttons and they are all similar, but are actually different. They are and opaque off white glass and I love them.

Now it’s time to make the sleeves (no problem there, I have a plan) and decide on the collar. I want to do a hood I think and will have to see if I have enough yarn for that once I finish the sleeves. I may just do a double thick collar to match the style of the button band. Oh and of course I need to finish sewing on the pockets, haha.

I’m also keeping track of how I make this and i’m hoping to write it up into a pattern for everyone – including myself so I can make more. You see this is the sweater of my dreams, and I want at least two more with slight variations – inset pockets for one, either a hood or collar, cotton or linen vs the alpaca silk of this one, black or brown to go with everything, and or course one in blue – my favorite color. I’m sure after all of them I will have a great pattern, haha.

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So that concludes the three quick posts of the day (this last one not as quick as the others). I’ll have more to post tomorrow as I am working all day in the studio on things I will be able to share with you Hooray to that!

Oh and some good news! I have a project on the Craftzine blog for their Crafting with Nature month! Check it out here.

And I’ve been accepted to the Maker’s Faire and will be a Maker representing Craft Leftovers and the Sewing Rebellion! And Frau Fiber has agreed to come down for it so she will be co-hosting the workshop with me and giving demos on mending while I’ll be demoing all sorts of sewing skills and small scale projects! It’s going to be so fun!

See you all soon!

Kristin

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Tags: alpaca, craft_leftovers, knit, knitting, maker_faire, raglan, silk, sweater, top_down