OAL 2017 - Robin's Egg Vandyke cardigan

So, having written about the two dresses I made for this challenge, I thought I'd jump the post queue with this cardigan, to keep the three OAL items together.  (In addition to the two OAL dresses I've already written about, I made six dresses during the time it took me to finish knitting this - I sew more quickly than I knit!)

I knew I wanted to use this wool (Madelinetosh sock in Robin's Egg) and so the fabric choices for the dresses came after I'd decided on the wool.  I also knew the shape of cardigan I wanted to knit (fitted, v-neck and waist-length), but spent some time scouring my stitch dictionaries and knitting some tension squares to see how the potential lace patterns knitted up with this particular wool.

I settled on using this stitch pattern (which is the top pattern in the swatch above) from the lace and eyelet stitches Harmony Guide.

As I was knitting, the first and third skeins I used bled colour a bit onto my hands and needles (although the second skein didn't...), so I was very pleased to find that the birds on dress number 2 were a great colour match.

Buttons were in my stash, but originally from Textile Garden

I've worn this cardigan a few times since I made it (thanks grotty English summer weather which necessitated wool cardigan wearing) and the colour didn't come off onto my (bare) arms - or the dress underneath it - but I haven't chanced wearing it with the Homemaker dress.  I still love it though, and I have plenty of other clothes I can wear it with.

Then, as a lovely surprise at the end of the OAL, a benevolent random number generator chose me as one of this year's winners!  And Lauren said some very lovely things about my cardigan on her blog - cue warm glow inside :-)  It took me a little while to choose the patterns which were the prize (two knitting patterns from Andi Satterlund, and two sewing patterns from indiestitches but I settled on Blaster and Mary Mead for the knitting patterns, and Stockholm and Emery for the sewing.

I'm not sure when I'll get around to knitting up either of Andi's patterns, I have a list as long as your arm of vintage patterns I want to knit (in addition to the ideas in my head and knitting for the family), and also I prefer to use 4-ply or thinner wool.  But I like the style of them so I might get around to them eventually.  The Emery is to replace the one I've got which has got a bit frayed around the edges from use, and the Stockholm jacket pattern is from a new-to-me company and I liked the shape of both jackets.