Knitting Fever
Workshops, a pattern, and inexplicable eyelets
The healing qualities of knitting abound. Research papers have been dedicated to the study of its effects. On slow days (how I yearn for a few more of those!), it even manages to make the news. Anyone who’s been interrupted while counting stitches may hold the supposed benefit of ‘reduced stress’ in dubious regard, but even then, it’s with affection.
Is there any limit to this miracle cure? Well, okay, yes. I ran up against it in great style just recently, though in knitting’s defence, it was more my own limits I was running up against. If anything, trying to knit through them showed me just where they are.
Ignoring them came at the peril of this month’s swatch. After trudging up to bed with a fever high enough to smell colours and propel me into the 5th dimension, I decided it would be a great opportunity to get ahead on my swatching. I couldn’t possibly just lie down and go to sleep when I could be doing something, could I?
As it turns out, yes, I could, and really probably should have done, because that initial swatch had errors from start to finish. Usually, I’m a big advocate of learning to love each project’s unique imperfections, but I couldn’t exactly present you all a swatch with the wrong pattern!
I considered unraveling it, or at the least slipping it quietly into The Drawer Of Miscellaneous Oblivion, never to be seen or heard from again. Instead, it’s been washed and blocked, and is the star of this week’s newsletter. Primarily because, for all its errors, it’s still a lovely example of a particularly lovely colour (Yeavering Bell in Flodden). It seemed a terrible shame not to show it off.
But, also, because it’s a good reminder to keep around. If I’d just had a proper rest that night, I wouldn’t have had to redo all my work. Trying to outwit yourself always ends up going sideways.
Perhaps I should frame it, and hang it embroidered with the big red words - ‘GO TO BED!’
A quick announcement before I get into this week’s pattern:
Workshop bookings will go live on Friday! Alice’s newsletter this Friday will have all the details, so if you’re not already subscribed and you’re interested in upcoming events at Whistlebare, now’s the perfect time!
The Garden Cardigan by Ankestrick is a seamless open cardigan, with all-over vertical stripes of rickrack eyelets. Finished bust circumferences range from 102 cm/40” to 164 cm/64½”. It has a top-down construction, starting at the upper back, with front pieces picked up from the cast-on edge and worked in the opposite direction. At the bottom of the armholes, the pieces are all joined together and worked as one to the hem.
Integrated with the front and knit as you go, the placket begins with an overlap to create a beautiful detail at the back of the neck. It’s essentially a reversed shawl collar, but flipping around the anchor point is used to quite remarkable effect!
The arms are picked up and knit in the round, and the pattern gives the option of two decrease methods to suit your preferred look/complexity level - either staying in pattern, or in stocking stitch portions.
There’s also an optional internal patch pocket, which is knitted separately and sewn in to sit discreetly along the junction between hem and placket.
The designer suggests a positive ease of 10” or less at the bust - you may find this a useful metric if you’re planning on wearing it with a shawl pin closure, as there will be some overlapping fabric to factor in.
Otherwise, if you plan on wearing it open, it needn’t be too exact. You may find bicep circumference an equally useful guide to choosing the most comfortable size; the sleeves are the only fully enclosed area, so the particulars of the fit there are more fixed.
The pattern does come with a schematic that breaks these measurements down! I’d recommend picking up the pattern first and having a good nose through the additional fit details to help decide what suits you best.
My two successful swatches were knitted to an identical template, to show off the different qualities of the yarns when they’re side by side.
The Cheviot Marsh sample is in the colour Turning Tide, an understated mid-blue. The lofty bounce of the lambswool really picks out and exaggerates the line of rickrack stitches between the eyelets, and gives crisp columns of stocking stitch.
The Yeavering Bell sample is in the colour Will O’ The Wisp, a gleaming, silvery grey. In the mohair, it’s the eyelets themselves that really get shown off - this is after blocking, but it wasn’t pinned out all that ferociously. A bit of light tension at the edges was all it needed to shine!
The original swatch! It’s another Yeavering Bell sample, this time in the colour Flodden, an earthy olive green.
I’m usually pretty decent at reading a piece of knitting, but even I’m not sure what I did here. I think I was wrapping the eyelets the wrong way, but only, inexplicably, on the left side. The ones on the right hand side are just fine - which means it had to have been a conscious decision, as I dutifully repeated this mistake through every single repeat.
It’s still a pretty thing, I think! It may not be the pattern called for, but it works if you take it for what it is (and don’t look too hard for the things it isn’t!).
If you’d like to knit your own Garden Cardigan in Whistlebare Yeavering Bell DK or Cheviot Marsh DK, you’ll need:
5 (5, 6, 7, 7, 7) 100g skeins
as corresponds to finished bust circumference:
102 (114, 126, 140, 152, 164) cm // 40 (45, 49½, 55, 60, 64½)”
Note: The quantity given for size 6 will provide approximately 10m more than the designer’s recommended amount - if in doubt, you can always omit the pocket. If you’d still like to include one and find your projects often eat bit more yarn than expected, or you just prefer to have a bigger buffer zone for larger swatches/repairs etc, you might benefit from an extra skein.
There’s every chance you may not end up breaking into it, so I didn’t want to give it as a blanket recommendation - some knitters are delighted when they have an extra bit left over, and some get a thrill out of finishing a project with a palm full of scraps to spare. You know yourselves better than I ever could, so I leave it to your discretion!
A warm welcome awaits at Whistlebare Fold from 8.45am - 5pm every day, and online orders remain open as ever.
If you’d like to visit, you can find us at: 17A Bridge St, Berwick-upon-Tweed, TD15 1ES
Workshop bookings will go live on Friday, Alice’s newsletter this Friday will have all the details!
As always, thank you for your company this week. And, of course - if you’ve been inspired, we’d love to see your wonderful creations!
Wishing you all the happiest of knitting,
Claire
Garden Cardigan (pattern and garment sample photos) © ANKESTRiCK
That is one beautiful cardigan! And although that inital swatch was not what it was supposed to be, it is just as beautiful as the other ones. A happy mistake one might call it.