The Everyday Cardigan is blocking!
I took her off the table three times before I just gave up.
I have a confession. I didn’t finish this cardigan the way the pattern wanted me to. I tried. I really did. I un-bound the left button band three times in my indecision. They wanted me to purl a row on the RS after having 2×2 ribbed for 5 rows. That struck me as unnatural. I (finally) ribbed the last row and bound off.* When I got to the collar, I realized why they wanted me to purl that last row. The top half of the collar is supposed to be in stockinette (on top of an inch ribbing) so that it rolls away from one’s neck. This is why I am the Poster Child for Not Reading The Pattern All The Way Through. Needless to say, I didn’t make the collar the way the pattern wanted me to either. I ribbed it all the way up so that it stands up in the back and sort of falls forward in the front. I think it works. Y’all can be the judge as soon as the thing dries, Betty moves and I can get some pictures taken.
After all of this, I stared another cardigan. This one is from an actual vintage pattern I found in my Great Gran-Mother’s stuff.
There she is again!
I like it ’cause it’s girly! I’ve ended up with some of Brown Sheep’s Nature Spun in Chuck Berry (teehee). Bear Brand’s “Nylo Germantown” is Very Discontinued so I looked it up in this handy Vintage Yarn resource and did some math. The internet is so cool.
*I love how the pattern does the buttonholes! Not so much how they’re made but where the pattern tells you to put them: “…work 8 sts, make button hole, work 7 sts…” It was refreshing to not have to measure and mark, re-measure just in case you stretched, pull the whole thing out after three rows becuase you stretched in spite of all the measuring, wad the sweater into a ball and throw it into the corner only to later find out (after a “cooling off” period) that the cat is sleeping in it.
Thank you Emily for posting your political comment. My sentiments exactly!
BTW, I love your everyday cardigan. I’m working on one too. Can’t wait to see yours off the blocking table.
hey Emily – I just finished a “real” vintage pattern from the 50s – a tight little cardigan – I love the sense of connection with the original buyer – in my case my grandmother’s best friend for the last 50 years. I wish she still had her cardigan so we could compare them!
Have to say I am a rabid west-coast Democrat, but your blog entry about your political beliefs was the most level-headed and well-written Republican paragraph I have read in months. Still disagree with you on just about everything to do with Bush, but have a bit more understanding of why Reds voted “red.” Thanks for that.