yoke cardigan

 

 

I've never tried a cardigan before, let alone a top down yoke style, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm sort of following a pattern, sort of 'making this up as I go', since what I wanted was to feature the colored yarn without any Fair isle, lace, or stranded color work.  

 

The yoke of the sweater is the left overs from the mitered square project, the colored section of the sweater beginning with the full size skein of yarn I created out of the bits of malabrigo's sample nuggets of Rasta (a single stranded yarn for those of you not in the know), purchased from Jimmy Bean's wool, and then moving onto the less fuzzy, multi-stranded (plied) yarns from malabrigo (Rios?), Wonderland yarns, Patton's, and others I don't know the brand for. I'm still actually collecting bits and pieces for that blanket project, so this sweater may be stalled for a bit, or at least until I get the yoke to the correct size. The body of the sweater is going to be a Patton's worsted wool in navy blue, and it's possible I might include little bands of color around the bottom edge of the cuffs and hem, depending. Depending on a lot of things.

My last adult sized sweater was a disaster, and I can't say the baby pullover I made was much better. Baby cardigans are the way to go, people.

2/14/2021

This project has actually been less onerous than the last sweater I made. The problem I have run into has nothing to do with the sweater, rather the yarn. I bought several balls of the navy blue on sale and thought I had enough for the project until I got to the last ball of yarn and realized I was going to have a cropped sweater. I wasn't concerned initially because I knew I had another ball of navy yarn; it was a different brand but surely this wouldn't be a problem. 

It's a problem. They're not actually the same color. I wouldn't even call brand B navy, I'd call it 18th century French Marine, as it isn't dark enough to be what I've always thought of as navy. When I thought I would solve the problem by ordering another ball of the original Brand A yarn I have been using on line... turns out that is a problem, too. Brand A has changed the packaging as well as the dye lot; their new navy isn't as dark as the original either. The color shift shown is from the combination of the original yarn and Brand B, and is difficult to notice unless viewed in bright lighting. It is enough of a change that I'm not sure how I want to proceed at this point. Kool-aid dying might be in my future. 

The Larkin and Smith English gown(s)

 I started these bad boys back in 2018 when I was nannying for a friend, who still has an amazing fabric stash for projects. (I'm more the person who says, ooo, I want that fabric for this specific project. She, on the other hand, just buys the fabric, and worries about the project later). 

Part of my remuneration for watching her kids was yardage and yardage and yardage of a beautiful yellow and mauve linen stripe and a mauve worsted wool. I never knew wool could feel like this. It's not scratchy. It's wonderfully smooth. I've been watching Burnley and Trowbridge for another worsted, and I think I may need to purchase the Aurora lightweight stuffs - it's like the color of peach skin.  

Anyway. I've been bungling my way through these gowns for the last two years. I got busy with work, with grad school, and then COVID happened, and suddenly I found myself with a lot more time on my hands than I anticipated. It didn't hurt that I was able to meet up with friends for a sewing weekend and ask questions about construction that frankly, I couldn't figure out from reading the instructions. 

They're mixed parts of hand and machine sewn - I did blind hems on the linen gown and petticoat so I could have one of the gowns for sure ready for the coming weekend. 

 

Update: It's the end of January, and I'm almost done sewing the wool worsted! It looks like I made a mistake with the sleeves, which I have to go back and fix, but it's not a big deal. What is unfortunate is that I have these two finished gowns and no events to wear them to, thanks to COVID!

March 27 - I was a fool and didn't line the sleeves, and am having a devil of a time finishing off the sleeve hems. I don't want to have to take the sleeves off and construct them in the period manner and put them back on, but it's looking like that's the best solution. Why didn't I in the first place? I was on a weekend sewing retreat when I cut the sleeves, pressed for time, it was Sunday, there wasn't linen to make linings... I could go on. I should have waited. 

I did actually get to wear the linen gown during Read Across America week, it was "Different Decade Thursday" so I freaked the kids out and went with a different century entirely. A few of the parents thought I was Amish.