Mica cardigan

Inspired by this cardigan, I made this with madelinetosh sock yarn (the pattern is designed for aran weight) which was an impulse purchase bought at same time as the Button Jar Blue DK for my daughter's Winter Breton jumper.  I liked the look of the colourway (another discontinued one) in the photo on the website and was pleased to see that the wool looked like the photo when it arrived!  It's always a bit of a leap of faith buying sight unseen.

This was an easy lace pattern to knit, I modified it slightly from the one used in Kristenhamn, and I only put patterning on the front of the cardigan, the back is stocking stitch.  There is some waist shaping in the back and at the sides and I picked up the sleeves and knitted them top down.

I've worn this a fair bit since finishing it, it goes with quite a few of my dresses and is equally at home being worn with jeans.

Forest Canopy and Cloud Illusions

Having not knitted a shawl for ages (the last one I knitted was in early 2013) two come along at once!

The first one is a Cloud Illusions to replace one which I'd knitted in a similar colour and subsequently gave to my sister.  The yarn (Posh Yarn Natasha) I used for this version popped up in a destash and I thought would be ideal to use for this, and it was.  This is an easy pattern to knit although the knitting slows considerably as the lace rows get longer.  It's worth it though, I think it's a very pretty pattern and this colour looks great with black, navy and royal blue (and probably other colours too).  I'm a big fan of mustard yellow.

The second shawl is a Forest Canopy.  My sister asked me to knit her a shawl which she could wear with a pale pink coat, so I had a rummage through my stash and she chose this (Skein Queen Wisp).  This is the fourth shawl I've knitted from this pattern - it's very easy to follow.  Since I don't have a pale pink coat myself I've photographed it with a black one.

Suffragette City

I'd been wanting to knit another Your Victory jumper for a while but not necessarily in red white and blue.  I love purple and green together so I tried a couple of stripe sequences and decided the one on the left looked better so that's the one I went with.  The name is a nod to both the colour combo and David Bowie.

This is such an easy pattern to knit.  My first version had long sleeves but this colour combination made me think of spring so I decided to do short sleeves this time round.  I had to change the rate of increases on the sleeves to get the right number of stitches at the point of casting off for the armholes, and I picked up and knitted the neckband in the round.  Other than that I followed the pattern.

I really like this and may well knit another one - there are lots of lovely versions on Ravelry with different colour combinations.

Patina cardigan

This is another self-designed cardigan - the lace pattern is from Arielle, which is pretty much the same as the Swiss Fan pattern in the second Barbara Walker Treasury book.

I used Malabrigo Sock which is sooo soft.  I only had two skeins of the ochre colourway so I decided to pair it with the navy (colourway name Cote d'Azure) and I love how it's turned out.  It really does look like it has an aged patina to it (well to me anyway!)

The buttons are from The Swagman's Daughter.

Winter Breton jumper

I'd seen a fair few designs for Breton jumpers appearing on Ravelry and decided I needed one!  Initially I'd though about using stripes in different colours, but in the end settled on using just one colour - Madeline Tosh Button Jar Blue.

The style was vaguely based on my Sparks in the Stream jumper, but I put some waist shaping into this one and also the stitchcount was different because this is knitted with skinnier yarn.  I've knitted quite a lot of garments with Drops Baby Merino and really like it - I found this colourway was not quite as soft as the others I've used though.  Only a marginal difference, but still different.  I used Madeline Tosh Unicorn Tails for the stripes and needed just over three.  The cuffs, hem and neckline are finished with i-cord.

My daughter saw me knitting this and asked me to knit her one the same, so this second version is hers.  I already had the Drops Extrafine Merino in stash (DK, lighter shade of grey than mine) but had to get some of the Button Jar Blue in DK to knit the stripes.  Luckily Meadow Yarn came up trumps (and while I was there I bought some Tosh sock yarn shhhh...)

Because this was a DK version it knitted up more quickly than mine, particularly the sleeves were much quicker to knit than with 4 ply.  She is really pleased with it which makes me happy :-).

Casbah cardigan

This cardigan came about because I decided I wanted to stripe the variegated yarn with the semi-solid.  I used my usual construction method for self-designed cardigans - bottom up, body in one piece to armholes then split for the front and back.  Sleeves top down.  I used a knitted on i-cord buttonband because the buttons I chose to use are small and I think would have got lost on a ribbed buttonband (and probably wouldn't have stayed done up either).

I bought the yarn from Purlescence, although she has very little in stock at the moment.  The buttons are vintage but I can't remember now whether I bought them at Camberwell or Hammersmith vintage fair.

I love fact that they are all slightly different from each other and I have enough left to use for another project.

Honeybee cardigan no 2

I love this pattern, I think the lace is just so pretty.  This is the second version I have knit - I knitted the first one in spring 2013 (pre this blog) and as far as I can remember followed the pattern to the letter for that one.  This time round though I just used the lace panel on the front and did the sleeves top down (rather than from the bottom up and then join at the underarms and knit up from there all in one, which is how the pattern is written).

The yarn is Madelinetosh Sock in Button Jar Blue - I absolutely love this colourway - it's a shame it's been discontinued.

I spent a while trying to decide which buttons to use - toning or contrasting.  As you can see I went for contrasting in the end - I bought these in John Lewis.

I love this cardigan, the colour just makes me smile :-)