Beautiful, graceful and big….these adjectives have been invented to describe a dear friend. She is gracious and stylish too. I have never seen her with a hair out of place, and I have never heard a raised voice or seen a grim face on her. We are good friends from the opposite ends of the spectrum, and that is what makes us click.
So, when this graceful and stylish big friend asked me to get a cardigan knitted for her, it had to be perfect in every way. Nothing but the best had to be made. The yarn was a beautiful wool blend from Lion in shades of brown and grey, and there seemed to be way too many skeins of that delicious stuff. Before departing for the plains, she dropped a pattern which had taken her fancy. She wanted that cardigan to emerge, but with wider and full length sleeves.
It seemed simple enough….miles of stocking stitch and a loose neck, no button-bands, but wait…the sleeves were extensions of the body and they were straight and shapeless! Here was a classic case of a smartly taken picture..the drape was visible, but not the excess bits hiding around the arm or hanging at the back . My big friend would look like a walking tent in this!
Out came the books, the calculator and the Mala brain got working. So how did the cardigan emerge?
- The front and back parts were knitted in one piece till the armholes.
- Stitches for the arms were cast on provisionally, and added to the main piece.
- Yolk shaping happened by reducing stitches at 4 levels…EZ style.
- Arm stitches were unraveled and sleeves knitted down with some shaping and completed with a garter border.
- Garter borders for the front opening were knitted and stitched six times before I got it right. Grrr!!! and finally,Phew!!
After blocking the cardigan for two days, I am really really happy with the final result. Trying to model the big brown beauty on my scrawny shoulders was a disaster, but I know it will fit my friend the way she had envisaged it.
While waiting for the blocked cardigan to dry completely, I have been completely ensnared by this book. More about it later, but I had to use my new-found wisdom to fold this beauty and find it’s” sweet spot”–when it stands as a vertical unit.
It looks good, doesn’t it?!
And then, on the subject of looking good, here is Peppu and her rock-star hen…
Gosh, that hen! Love that hen!