I’m quite sad to be writing this, as the cardigan-making has come to an end! It’s finished and fabulous, and I’m kind of hoping it stays cooler for a while, so I can wear it for a while before we warm up for Summer.
This has been a really rewarding piece to make, for so many different reasons. Firstly, I’ve got the satisfaction that it’s made from leftover yarns, and I didn’t need to purchase anything new to make it, but have a really cosy, warm cardigan to wear, rather than a drawer full of scrappy pieces. The colour combinations have been very interesting, but overall it’s made a really pretty, colourful fabric, and I’m really pleased with how it looks.
This was a very slow make, due to my lumbering slow method of knitting colourwork, and the huge number of ends to sew in, but taking my time has been a great exercise in patience and practising mindfulness. An unexpected pleasure has been the flood of memories that have come back, thinking of what those little scrappy balls were leftover from, some many years ago. There was some lovely plum-coloured 4ply, that I used in this cardigan held double, that was left over from the first cardigan I made myself as an adult, and lots of oddments from clothes I made Charis when I was pregnant with her, all the way back in 1995. So the cardigan means more to me than just the sum of its scraps, its had knitted into it lots of memories of making those things - the baby clothes I made when I wasn’t very good at knitting, the red poncho I made for myself then unpicked the whole thing because I hated it, the bright blue I used to make a dress for Mary in a never-finished Nativity set (I got fed up after making Mary, Joseph & Jesus!) the tea cosy I made for Luke in the shape of a tank, back when we first met and I was trying to impress him with my crafty skills!
I started out making this cardigan, thinking it would just be a one-off project, an exercise in restraint and patience for Lent, but I ended up getting a lot more from it than I thought. I’ve also had a request from Charis & Fig, to make some for them. I’ve not agreed yet, but maybe I will, when I’ve got over having to sew all those ends in, and maybe I’ll write up the pattern too, in case anyone else, like me, has a little hidden stash of old bits and pieces, that if mixed together would make a wonderfully colourful and cosy cardigan.
-Michelle xx
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