February Lady Sweater

I'm still knitting away on the jumper for my Dad's birthday (one sleeve and the body both up to the armhole divide and the other sleeve on it's way) but acres of blue ribbed fabric don't make for interesting blogging so here's (as they say on Blue Peter) one I made earlier...


This is the February Lady Sweater, designed by Pamela Wynne, adapted from a baby pattern by the immortal EZ.


I've knitted it in Fyberspates Blue-faced Leicester Aran in the Spring Greens colourway on 5.5mm needles. The colour is best represented in the first two photos here. This yarn is lovely and springy and I've been wearing this cardigan over a vest top and it's not at all itchy on the skin. I cast on for the third smallest size and knitted 20 repeats of the lace pattern in the body and 16 in the arms.


This was actually cast off several weeks ago, but I didn't get round to getting buttons for it for ages (due to varied car problems). I did try digging in my button box (which is not yet a thing of limitless possibility and more a work in progress) for something suitable and came up with the most beautiful and perfect ceramic buttons (above), but sadly I only had two and this pattern calls for three. Eventually I found the bronze-look ones that I used in John Lewis and I think that they work pretty well.


Finally, I borrowed a technique that I saw Lene Alve use a couple of weeks back and used smaller plain buttons (from the button box this time) on the back of the fabric to support the bigger buttons on the front. I like the finish this gives - it looks very professional!

Startitis

Apologies for the break in service - I've spent the last week trying to get my head around Proteomics Bioinformatics on one of the Wellcome Trust's Advanced Courses at Hinxton Hall in Cambridgeshire. Needless to say my head now hurts but I think I've learned some useful stuff.

Before I left, I suffered from a spate of Startitis, something I don't usually succumb to but which I have a bad case of at the moment.

First I cast on with the Fyberspates Aran for a February Lady Sweater...


This is a great pattern and I think that I will adapt the top-down raglan for my own patterns in the future as it ensures a great fit with little guess work.


I also cast on for a hot water bottle cover with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran...


The pattern is loosely based on Jessie by Rowan (which I've used before as written) but I've ditched the intarsia heart this time and added some cables. I'm also using a contrasting colour for the edges.

Finally I cast on for some baby socks for a friend...


The yarn is some left-over Regia Bamboo Colour sock yarn.

Not content with this plethora of projects, I took some yarn and needles with me on the course and started (and finished) a forth project - but more on that another time.

A little after-thought... an incident from the course I went on just goes to show how universal patterns have become due to the internet. I was walking from the dining room to the teaching room one morning thinking that the sweater being worn by the girl in front of me (a scientist from New Zealand) looked very like a Central Park Hoodie and that her hat looked pretty like Odessa. The more I looked, the more I was sure, but was unwilling to ask as non-knitters can take it pretty badly if you ask if their jumper is hand-knitted. The next lunchtime, I had just resolved to ask her when she came up to me to ask if the scarf I was wearing two days earlier was Clapotis! Apparently I'm not the only knitter to go round pattern spotting!