Ocean Waves Cardigan

If you had asked me a month ago, I would have told you I am a knitter first and foremost.  I've only recently returned to sewing, and it was a distant second hobby.  But now?  I can't decide.  Luckily, I don't have to, I can love them both and they are both available to me at different times, in different ways and offering different kinds of satisfaction.

That said, it is lovely to post my first knitting project on this blog.  Ravelry has done such a first rate job of providing a way for knitters to catalogue their work that if there had been a sewing equivalent (that is up to the job), I would not have started a blog at all.

This cardigan is part of the birthday gift / outfit that I have been working on through August for Little One.  I had started a whole different knitting project for her that was working up way too small.  I put that aside, found a different yarn in my (extensive) stash and searched Ravelry for a girls, sleeveless, lace, cotton, cardigan.

What I found was this Drops Design design.  It worked out great, really great.  The yarn, pattern, sizing, stitches, lack of mistakes, everything, all came together to make this one of my best ever knits.

When I first browsed the project gallery on Ravelry, I wasn't wild about all the ridges in the pattern.  I eliminated half of them in the lower half of the garment and I think it makes the lace eyelets show up better.  I could have played around with an ever-decreasing number of ridges to get even more of a wave effect but, in knitting, I never know quite how many rows I'll be doing (or even quite where I am at any given point), so unless I were to make this exact cardigan again (unlikely to impossible), it's not going to happen.

I have never made a scalloped edge before and it actually was really easy - isn't it great when an easy technique looks so much more impressive than it is?  (Better than the other way around!)

My Ravelry notes, including the pattern and yarn, are here.  The yarn is Debbie Bliss Prima, a bamboo/merino blend which is now discontinued.  I got it on sale, loved the colour and was going to make a top for myself.  But I didn't have enough and I am so glad I decided to put it to better use.

I ended up doing a single button fastening, because, you guessed it, I have hardly any matching buttons in my jar and this mother of pearl button was too perfect not to use.

Fittingly, I was knitting these ocean waves while we were on holiday at the seaside.  I am not a fast knitter and I knew I had to devote all my spare holiday time to getting this finished.  I did not read one book, magazine or blog post and I was that lady you saw on the beach / in the car / on the ferry / in the cafe, knitting, knitting, knitting.  I cast off on the journey home and sewed the button on that evening, just in time for the birthday the next day.  Thank goodness I rarely knit to a deadline.

Little One liked her birthday cardigan and it should grow with her for a year or two.

Finally, I had to share this behind the scenes shot, taken by my assistant photographer!

(One day, I'll have to write more about how guilty I feel about my children thinking that the reason anyone takes photos is "for the website" and the fact I have more photos of the stuff I've made than I do of them.)