Secret Garden cardigan
Recipient: Niece
Designer: Alice Starmore
Pattern: Secret Garden
Source: Children's Collection
Completed: October 25, 2005
Colours: Khaki
Yarn: New Zealand wool, worsted weight
Completed status: Mailed mid-December
Pictures:
front
back
detail of pattern
detail of button and collar
Other Secret Gardens:
at Wool Flowers
- 2005-Oct-28
- This is now dry. But I'm waiting until I have natural sunlight streaming into the house before I take pictures.
- 2005-Oct-26
- Ahhh. Done. Monday saw the completion of the left front edging, the right front edging, the weaving in of all ends, the choosing of a button (gorgeous, and from my own button stash to boot: mother-of-pearl set in a brushed nickel rim...or, if it's totally fake, that's at least what it looks like) and the sewing on of said button. Tuesday evening I soaked it in Eucalan to soften it up and then blocked it. The blocking was a bit of a challenge because the cardigan was way bigger than the blocking measurements said it should be. Oh, well. The child is not going to stop growing, so I'm guaranteed that it will fit her some time...even if that day is years in the future. Anyway, who cares, it's finished. I am revelling.
More and better pictures when the thing is actually dry. Yes, over 24 hours later, it's still pretty damp. Stay tuned.
(And sorry about the electric green. Those are our 'crap towels,' which I put to use for less noble purposes than drying off the bodies of my family.)
- 2005-Oct-24
- After this morning's commute, I'm close to being halfway done on the left front edging. I expect to complete it before the day is out and maybe even get a fair ways into the right front edging. The end is near!
- 2005-Oct-19
- Still not done, but very, very close. The shoulder and sleeve seams have been sewn, the sleeves have been sewn in, the collar is done, and many ends inside the cardigan have been snipped. Ain't it purty?
All that's left are the edgings, the button sewings, weaving in a few ends, and the blocking. Home stretch.
- 2005-Oct-16
- Friday morning, both sleeves looked like this:
Within minutes of starting the Friday commute home, both sleeves were finished:
And that's where I ran out of steam. I had foolishly brought along no backup knitting for when the sleeves got done. I hadn't even brought the body of the cardigan with me so I could start the next stage of sewing things together (which would have meant doing the naughty thing and not blocking them beforehand, but I often ignore details like blocking in my eagerness to finish). Fortunately, I had some extra yarn and needles in my bag, so I practiced combined knitting the rest of the way home instead of going nuts from boredom.
However, this project has kind of stalled, and I'm not going to fulfill this week's goal of finishing the cardigan by tonight. The good news is that I'm not far off since all that's left is the making up, collar, front bands and button sewing. I'll probably start doing that tomorrow.
- 2005-Oct-14
- This is bee-yew-tifully on schedule. After this morning's commute, I am very close to finishing up the sleeves. After that, it's just sewing, edging, making the collar, and blocking. Okay, there's also the small matter of finding a button which works with the cardigan and sewing it on. But I'm very hopeful that The Perfect Button can be found in my (kind of meagre) button stash. I'm keeping my fingers crossed about that.
- 2005-Oct-10
- I finished the body of the cardigan on Saturday:
Then I began the sleeves. I am doing the intelligent thing and am knitting both sleeves simultaneously. This means it takes longer to see sleeve progress, but the advantage is that there will be no Second Sleeve Letdown, which I despise. The sleeves currently look like this:
Nothing exciting yet, I've still got about 30 rows to go until the cap shaping, but hey, progress is progress.
- 2005-Oct-5
- This continues to move forward very well. In fact, in just one day at home - not even spending all my time knitting, since DD was home sick from daycare - I made big progress.
Both fronts of the yoke are finished, and I'm working on the back. This bodes very well indeed for how much Schedule catch-up I'll be able to accomplish on my knitting vacation later this month.
- 2005-Oct-4
- I brought this to work yesterday. I realise that The Schedule would have been more pleased if I'd brought something that more desperately needed to be worked on, but while packing for the day, I took a look at the ball I'm using for the Stornaway sweater. It was very small. I therefore concluded that there was a risk I could run out before I got home. Since I didn't have time before departure to wind more, I instead took a project for which I did have enough yarn for a day's work. Result: What with yesterday's commutes and today's bedrest, I have begun the yoke. It looks great.
- 2005-Oct-2
- This is bee-yew-tifully on schedule. I was supposed to have half of the body done by the end of today, and I believe I accomplished this by Thursday. It looks really nice. The following photo was taken earlier in the week - the cardigan is a bit bigger now, but this will still give you a good idea of how it's coming along:
- 2005-Sep-26
- I wanted to make absolutely sure that my next attempt of this project would actually produce a garment big enough to fit my niece. To that end, I've been emailing my SIL to get an idea of the right measurements. It turns out that although my niece is tall enough for the 4-5 year size, her chest will probably be swimming in it. Sigh. However, as I told my SIL, better too big than too small. I know she's gonna grow, but she sure as heck ain't gonna shrink. :) So I decided upon the 4-5 year size (the cardigan is for the child's third birthday, by the way - she came out at 10lbs 1oz and just kept going) and cast on this weekend. I'm not quite as far along as The Schedule says I should be at this point, but I'm not too badly behind, either.
Things are going well.
- 2005-Apr-4
- I heaved a big sigh this weekend and frogged the whole thing. It now looks like this:
A few minutes into the frogging, DH wandered by and freaked right out. "What are you doing?!?" He calmed down after hearing my logical explanation, especially since there was still enough of the cardigan left that I could show him just how ridiculously small it was. He was still sad that I had to eliminate all my good work, though. And he mused on how strange it was that it takes so long to knit something, but so little time to rip it out. I agree.
- 2005-Feb-10
- No progress, but I did take a picture. I know I'm just going to frog this and re-start the thing in a bigger size, but I wanted to record how lovely it is before I did that:
- 2004-Dec-30
- I think I've changed my mind. I don't think I'm going to finish this project right now. We'll get her a bunch of cool books instead and I will set this aside, perhaps for her next birthday. I just really don't think it's going to fit her well, and what with so many other projects I want to get to, it seems silly to complete it when I know I'm going to have to re-do it. But I definitely want to do this eventually - the yarn suits the pattern bee-yew-tifully and the finished product will be gorgeous.
- 2004-Dec-29
- Started this on Christmas Eve, and it's coming along very nicely. I'm almost done the body, and will probably be able to start a sleeve before the day is out. Unfortunately, the more I work on it, the more I'm thinking it's going to be much too small. Argh! I'm making the 2-3 year size. My niece is about to turn 2, and she's a very big girl (started out at 10lbs 1oz and kept going from there). And the 2-3 year size is looking like it would only just fit my 19-month-old daughter. Maybe they grow kids kinda small where Alice Starmore comes from. :) However, I'm still going to finish it and send it off ASAP, with a note that if it's too small, I will happily make the next size up. It's a fun, quick pattern, so this is no big deal.
- 2004-Dec-16
- I've been thinking more about this project and I think I'm going to start it immediately after Christmas (more like on Christmas day, actually - maybe even on Christmas Eve!) in the hopes of getting it done in time for Madison's birthday at the beginning of January. It will be a helluva rush job, I guarantee that. On the other hand, I have Christmas weekend and the two days of holiday after that to make significant progress. If I can't get it done in time, well, I guess it will be off to Toys R Us for something "boughten". We shall see.
- 2004-Dec-09
- Posting yesterday that there were only 16 days until I had to have my Christmas knitting done really brought it home that I am in a knitting crunch. It is extremely doubtful that this will even get started before Christmas, let alone finished. But perhaps I can make it in time for her birthday a few weeks later? We shall see.
- 2004-Dec-06
- Yes, another new project. Yes, I'm insane. But! This project is only a potential one. If I finish the two Christmas gifts for my MIL and BIL ahead of time, I'll see if I can get this done for my niece for Christmas. I've got a lovely khaki New Zealand wool in the right gauge which should work well with her fair colouring. It's the Alice Starmore "Secret Garden" pattern from The Children's Collection, which is a gorgeous single-button cardigan with lots of lovely texture patterning.
