the tale of a cardigan...

 

 

...I hope I'm finding all of you in good spirits after a great holiday break... As per what seems my usual at this time of year, I've been lying low in a bit of a hibernating state, recharging after a busy but very fun Christmas holiday; of course, that doesn't really apply to my hands as they have been busy finishing up crochet projects I started prior to the holidays, such as the cardigan featured in this post...

 

 

Back in November, I decided that I would crochet a sweater as a Christmas gift for one of my daughters and, while perusing a bunch of past issues of Inside Crochet, I came across the cardigan on the cover of the issue above, the Jessica Cardigan, which I immediately fell in love with; I decided then and there that I had to make one of these for myself... I should mention here that since my time in Scotland last year where I picked up three very bonny woolly cardigans made in Scotland, I have become a cozy cardigan kind of person, wearing them all the time in cool weather, indoors and out. So, despite having a zillion other things to do at that time (like making a Christmas sweater for my daughter!), I itched to try out this cardigan pattern and I did just that...

 

 

However, I decided that I would make it without buying any new yarn, digging into my yarn stash, which I might add (as well as I'm sure every member of my family...) is rather plentiful!... A big chunk of my yarn collection comes from my visits to thrift shops over the years where I always keep my eye out for yarn, mostly of the 100% wool variety; nothing excites me more than when I come across a lot of the same type of lovely vintage yarn packaged with some quaint labels of years ago!... Of course, I am also always ready to give a new home to single balls or skeins as long as they are yummy and woolly so, yes, I have also amassed a nice assortment of strays!...

 

 

The Jessica Cardigan pattern calls for "a heavy 4 ply/sport weight to light DK weight wool yarn" and one main yarn colour of about 1200 m. So, I pulled out all suitable yarn from my collection and came to the conclusion that, while I had a lot of options for the complementary coloured yarn, I only had one for the main: a lovely thrift shop find, an alpaca merino blend in a rather bright turquoise colour... Hmmm...

 

 

Well, the turquoise colour would not normally be my first choice for a cardigan, but given the lovely nature of the blend, I decided to stick to my guns about not buying any new yarn and try to work with the brightness of the colour. While the cardigan in the magazine uses one type of yarn as the secondary yarn, albeit self-striping to make it seem like different colours are being used for those rows, I decided to jump deeply into my stash and use different yarns, solids and heathers, for these rows; the use of a wide range of different yarns of varied textures and colours I thought would soften the very bright turquoise colour by offering it a ton of contrast... Admittedly, using different yarns for every second row also seemed much more fun to me than sticking to one yarn type...

 

 

So, off I started with the pattern by crocheting the body of the cardigan, from bottom up, dipping into my basket of different coloured strays,...

 

 

...feeling a bit like a painter with a blank canvas and many lovely colours on my paint palette!...

 

 

Slowly but surely, a colour scheme started to emerge which really spoke to me... Initially, I thought I would use a different yarn for each of the non-turquoise rows, but as I went along, I realized that I did not have enough different balls of yarn in my basket to do so while still keeping to the lovely colour scheme that was emerging in front of my eyes; so, as you can see in the photo below, I did a repeat of the sequence of coloured yarn rows...

 

 

Now, while I love the look of this cardigan and in particular the cluster stitch used, I have to admit that I really struggled with the pattern; honestly, if it hadn't been for the fact that I really had a crush on the cardigan and the way it was shaping up as I was crocheting it, I would not have persevered with the pattern and would have definitely dropped the whole thing. I do think it took me twice as long to make it simply because of how many times I had to rip parts of it and start again due to instructions that seemed very unclear to me... And of course, while I discovered that the pattern had had corrections made to it included in Inside Crochet's errata section, I didn't clue into that until I was deep into the making of the cardigan! However, I also think that those corrections are not comprehensive as there were more things I noticed which were not quite right as I went along and which were not included in the magazine's errata section. Anyhow, I was determined to finish the cardigan despite my frustrations and, with the help of the photos of the finished cardigan included in the pattern which became very useful whenever the instructions seemed a bit fuzzy to me, I did just that...

 

 

If you should ever try out this pattern or have tried this pattern, I'd love to hear what you think of it... If you do decide to do so and run into a few "fuzzy parts" like I did, I could definitely give you a few tips with it. In the end, I don't really know whether I made it in the exact same way as the designer made it, but that really doesn't matter to me as, through hook or by crook, I managed to finish it and love how it turned out!

 

 

Now, when I first spotted the Jessica Cardigan and first thought about how it was put together, one realization which nearly put me off from making it came to me: every single row of the cardigan, body and sleeves,  results in ends which need to be woven in at the end... Yikes, that seemed like an awful lot of ends!! And, let me tell you, it was, but after many, many hours of weaving in ends, I can very definitely say that it was well worth it! I have to also admit that in the end, I do find the process of weaving in ends rather rewarding because from something which looks like a big mess -- especially in this case with so many ends sticking out of everywhere -- something so lovely in its neat finishing emerges!

 

 

You may have noticed that this cardigan pattern calls for a lot of buttons (10), something that definitely endears me to the cardigan; I love that look with buttons right on the top all the way to the bottom...

 

 

In choosing the10 buttons needed, I decided to stay true to how I chose the yarn: no new purchases allowed! However, when I looked at my button collection, also somewhat extensive (some would say...) and, in large part, happily found in thrift shops over the years, I couldn't come up with 10 buttons being suitable and all the same...

 

 

So, that led me to think that it might be fun to use 10 similar looking buttons but not exactly the same with a few repeats, or 4 different types of buttons randomly placed; I then laid out the buttons against the cardigan and absolutely loved the way it looked, sewed them in place, et voilà,...

 

 

...a finished cardigan made with a bunch of odds and ends lovingly collected over the years which, best of all,  I've been happily living in every day since finishing it!... And, now that I've figured out how to make one of these, I'm contemplating making another one with some Shetland wool I came across on on a recent thrift shop jaunt -- I'll keep you posted... I hope you've enjoyed all this cardigan love and I do hope your New Year has been good to you so far! ... As always, thank you so much for popping by!...

 

 

 

Comments

[Marcille]

It's gorgeous!

[Sue J]

It's lovely! Your color combos look great and your idea with the buttons worked perfectly.

[Lorrie]

It's really beautiful. I'm in awe at your perseverance!

[Vivi]

Felicitaciones es realmente hermoso !!!!!!

[Vivi]

Hola como puedo obtener el patrón ?? soy de Argentina Te quedó realmente hermoso te felicito !!!! 💟💟

[Barbara Seiver]

Magnificent! For example, after seeing this sweater, 10 matching buttons would be boring. I'm so glad you settled on a stripe repeat. It looks interesting, but orderly. Well done!

[Nathalie]

Nice work! Great colours! Lovely cardigan!

[Emily]

It's such a beautiful cardigan. Love the colours, so beautiful.
have a lovely day.

Sweet greetings,
Emily

[Claire Robinson]

Oh, it's a beautiful cardy. I was tempted as soon as I saw it too, though yet to make. Your choice of colours is gorgeous too! Happy cardy wearing January...

[Jacqueline]

Your cardigan is beautiful, I have a similar one in hibernation at the moment, so I am encouraged to finish it, after seeing your completed one.

[Mac]

Love your version of the cardigan. I have plans to make it too from my thrifted wool. I will now add thrifted buttons. Thanks for the reminder about errors and the inspiration to make a start.

[Lindyloufromoz]

I've just come across the lovely cardigan you crocheted. The colours are just lovely, muted and calmer than the one in Inside Crochet. And a great way to use up all the odds and ends we collect as makers. I love the way you have used different, but similar, buttons. It adds a whole lot of style to the cardigan. Bravo for continuing until the end!