The Long Tale of the Cardigan

A Bit of Knitting and Crocheting

For the last 4 years, 3 months and a couple of weeks I have been knitting (on and off) a cardigan for M. As I only learnt to knit and crochet about 5 years ago I think, in retrospect, this was perhaps a big ask. However, yesterday I finally completed this mammoth project and after much anticipation M was eventually able to wear his new cardigan. I had begun a little post about this journey about 2 years ago so I thought it was about time to finish this up and share this sometimes emotional and desperate tale.

2015

During a visit to the Knitting and Stitching Show with mum in 2013 I chose a cardigan pattern and purchased some lovely natural brown wool. After about 2 years I had completed the back and made a start on the front right. As a novice the pattern changes combined with increases and decreases slowed my progress significantly - then we moved house!

Unfortunately this was as far as I got before having to abandon the cardigan. Either in the old house or perhaps since we moved the moths somehow got at all my wool for the cardigan and I ended up having to break and restart almost every 2 rows. In the end I didn't think I would have enough wool to finish it; I just couldn't take it anymore and so decided to start again with a different wool.

So the brown cardigan became a charcoal grey cardigan as I was determined not to give up on the pattern. Although both of the wools are described as Aran weight this blue was slightly thinner and so I decided to make the cardigan larger just in case it was a bit tight. At least this time it seemed to be coming along a lot quicker and I was hopeful it wouldn't take me another 2 years to complete it.

      

One major reason for the slow progress of M's cardigan was been my obsession with making blankets. I visited Lucy again at Attic 24 and decided to do a Coastal Ripple blanket (centre picture). I loved this one so much that I made another as a gift in a variety of pinks and purples. My latest blanket was for M in slightly more masculine colours, it's the corner to corner stripe from Heather at The Patchwork Heart. I love making blankets but I'm not sure we really need anymore so back to the cardigan.

Latest Update - November 2017

By now I was 4 years along the production line in the ongoing cardigan saga and I could almost feel the end in sight.

   

Along the way I also managed to fit in the top cross stitch from start to finish while completing the Venice one too.

Last November I gathered up my wool and needles and decided I would make a concerted effort to finish the cardigan by Christmas. Once I had a look at the pattern I realised why I hadn't touched it for a year - I had got completely stuck. In a random attempt to get some help I posted a picture of the pattern on a knit and natter facebook page where I asked for some help. After only a few minutes I had a reply from a lovely lady who helped me to understand the bit of the pattern I was struggling with. Now there was progress, I finished the back, front right and one sleeve. By Christmas I was thrilled to have completed all the component parts of the cardigan and after the holidays set about working out how to sew them together.

Then disaster struck: I realised that I had completed the right and left front parts using the original row count that I had been using for the brown wool. Aagh!!! I was about 21 rows short on the front. So I had to rip them right back to the start of the sleeve decrease and knit them again. I'm proud to say at this point I didn't cry but took a very deep breath and a few weeks later was pleased to say I was ready to sew it together.

      

All the bits ready to go, they were the same colour but looked very different in different light levels.

      

My craft room can be quite cold so it took a few weeks to get to the point when I had something resembling a cardigan. In the meantime I had a go at crocheting a couple of beanies, a cotton dishcloth and my new obsession - I have learnt to knit socks. More about the sock knitting later as it deserves a post all to itself!

Anyway back to the cardigan and a couple of weeks later all the bits were connected and I just had to wait for some buttons to be delivered.

This was yesterday (before the Six Nations Rugby of course) when I got the buttons sewn on and was able to say I knitted a garment.

It is with a huge sense of relief that I can post a picture of M in his new cardigan, it almost fits although the sleeves are a little long so he's had to turn the cuffs up. However, I can now jump up and down in joy shouting 'I did it'; perseverance and a whole lot of patience paid off. Note to self though, an intermediate pattern is definitely too hard for a beginner 😃

Looking Forward To 2017

 


Well, I hope you all had a wonderful relaxing Christmas and a great start to the New Year. We had a very quiet time which was lovely although the days seemed to fly by. Maybe it's because we're getting older or maybe it's because the build up to Christmas begins earlier each year that the actual day just whizzes past in a bit of a blur.

We were hammered by Storm Barbara just before Christmas which was followed very closely by Storm Conor. Hopefully none of you were too badly hit by the storms; outside we were mostly unaffected except for a rotten gatepost which finally succumbed and a couple of uprooted small silver birch trees in the woods. Unfortunately the biggest casualty was an electrical box associated with the wind turbine; part of it melted on Christmas Eve and we had to turn off the internal generator box. You can probably tell I'm not really familiar with all the technical terms but essentially we were able to watch the turbine turning merrily away while we couldn't use the electricity. Slightly annoying but hey ho I guess that's just one of those things we'll get sorted sometime soon.

Due to the strong winds we took our Christmas beach walk on the 23rd rather than Christmas day. M took a little video from the top of the sand dunes where we were trying to shelter from the wind but I think it captures the sound of the approaching storm pretty well. Surprisingly we weren't the only crazy people out for a walk and although it was hard going we all (possibly Jess and Finn more) felt thoroughly revitalised and refreshed afterwards.

M's birthday lies between Christmas and New Year and we managed to get a table at our favourite restaurant just a few minutes away. The food is glorious and we have discovered (from previous experience) that we can only handle one course so it was steak for the birthday boy and a very posh chicken burger for me - totally delicious. 

New Adventures

After all the fun of Christmas I always find that it is quite cathartic to clear away all the decorations and get the house back to some form of normality and properly cleaned. Thankfully this only normally takes us a few hours so it's not an arduous task but it feels very rewarding.

January can feel like a really frustrating time of year for me, I am desperate to get outside after all the dark evenings and start sowing seeds in anticipation of lighter and warmer spring days. But I have to take a deep breath and acknowledge that it's still too early and too cold for pretty much all seed sowing. So January is the time to open the new diary and look forward to the year ahead. I love the Dairy Diary as it shows each week over 2 pages, has just enough room for me to jot down everything we have been up to and it also has some beautiful weekly recipes. This is where I got the recipe for the totally amazing cheese and chorizo scones, now M's favourite snack.

I will have to content myself with evenings curled up by the fire, catching up on some knitting projects and planning the flower, fruit and veg plots for the year ahead. One of my aims this month is to finish off some of the many half finished projects I have accumulated over the past 10 years. I'm feeling quite chuffed that I managed to finish this scarf which I found at the bottom of a plastic bag. I have no idea when I started this but eventually, it's done - yay!! Now onto the next one.....

I've been following Christine's sockalong and Winwick Mum blog for a while and have been desperately wanting to have a go at knitting some socks; I even got as far as buying some sock wool and circular needles last October. I got this book for Christmas and cannot wait to get started; I just need to keep telling myself that I need to finish off some other items before I begin. Hopefully it won't be too long before I have some photos of socks in progress.

For a long time M has talked of having a go at some wood whittling and given the large amount of wood we have it only took a little nudge to get him going. He got a book on whittling for Christmas and off he went, one little owl and a beautiful tactile letter opener. I suspect this is not the end of this hobby.

As I write this we are in the midst of another horrible storm although for some reason it hasn't got a name. We are being pelted by rain, hail and sleet with 50mph winds and expect to see our first snowfall of the year tomorrow. So as we snuggle down with the fire lit to continue our journey through the Wallander box set I wish you all a very Happy New Year.  

Crafty beginnings

Needlework

For as long as I can remember my mum has knitted, crocheted and sewn, she is an amazingly crafty woman who will try any kind of craft at least once. I have yet to reach her skills levels in any craft and for many years my only form of crafting was needlework, mainly cross stitch. I had planned to tell you about how I've recently embarked on new crafts but I got a bit carried away in a period of reminiscing and found lots of my old projects. So I thought I'd indulge myself for a few minutes but I'll keep this short and sweet.

 

These were the first cross stitches I ever did, I can't remember quite when that was but I was probably about 11 or 12 years old. They were little kits that really didn't take too long to complete and got me used to working with an embroidery hoop.

This was the first big needlework picture I completed and mum and dad very kindly got it framed for me. It was a wool tapestry; as a child I always loved having this on my bedroom wall and it now hangs proudly in my little craft room.

I have always done cross stitch in fits and spurts, becoming obsessed with it and then leaving projects for months and sometimes years before returning to them. I have quite a few which still haven't been framed and to be honest I'd almost forgotten about them. I love elephants and really enjoyed this cross stitch (again another kit) and maybe one day it will hang on our wall.

 

Sometimes I find it difficult to complete some projects and found these little kits which took no time at all to finish, long before I got distracted by other projects.

This was one of the most difficult cross stitches I have ever done. Instead of counted cross stitch it was printed on cotton and was so time consuming trying to find exactly where the needle should go. I did finally get it finished but perhaps I should have ironed it before taking the picture.

One of the nicest cross stitches I have done was one of the county of Worcestershire which I gifted to a lovely couple on their 40th wedding anniversary, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it framed.

 

I started a couple of cross stitches a few years ago and they have become a bit of a standing joke in our house. One was an engagement picture which I bought when we got engaged and another of Venice where we spent our honeymoon 12 years ago. Unfortunately, as you can probably tell, they have been folded up and kept in a bag for quite a while.

 

Hopefully one day I may find the enthusiasm to get them finished. I'm embarrassed to say that I also found another few half completed needlework projects which I had forgotten about, including this long stitch wool tapestry. I received a beautiful cross stitch of a black Labrador for my birthday last month and can feel the urge to return to my first ever form of craft. Obviously I have lots to catch up on and get finished off.