Hello! Sitting down at my computer to write this, it occurs to me that every story can be told from different angles. I could choose to make today’s post into a blood-curdling story, with ghost rows (boo!), yarn the colour of blood, a ripped-off limb and nightmare-inducing toadstools. But I think the world is scary enough as it is without me adding to it, so I’m choosing to write a comforting tale instead.
Once upon a time, in a small low-lying country, there was a woman who was feeling miserable on a personal level and filled with worries about the world. Blue was her favourite colour, followed by green and pink, but now she was suddenly longing for something red.
Well, yes, that’s lovely, but not exactly what she meant.
Very nice, too, but that wasn’t what she meant either.
What she was longing for was red yarn for something simple and comforting to knit. Fortunately she knew that if she climbed the stairs in her very own home, turned right and then left at the top, she’d come to a portal leading to a secret hoard of yarny treasures. And lo and behold, she found exactly what she wanted – six 100-gram skeins of worsted-weight red wool. With a little techno-wizardry, the perfect pattern landed in her in-box and she could start knitting.
The pattern designer said this top-down and seamless cardigan could be knit in 4 days, but the woman in our story didn’t have magic flying needles and it took her a couple of weeks longer. Partly because after she’d knit the first sleeve she realized it was far too tight, had to rip it out and re-knit it using a larger needle. Would she never learn that she always needed to go up a needle size for sleeves knit in the round? Still, fairly quickly it was finished.
But, oh, how disappointing. It didn’t look nearly as nice as the designer’s cardi and the front bands seemed far too short. Maybe it needed a good soak and some blocking magic?
Ah, yes, much better. Now the wave pattern along the fronts looked lovely, and the front bands were the right length, too.
The cardigan is designed to be worn open, with quite a large gap between the fronts. The woman in our story wanted a little more coverage and made hers one size larger than recommended. She also lengthened the cardi by approx. 5 cm/2.5” and gave it long sleeves instead of ¾-length ones. Even though she didn’t feel in the least like a fairy-tale princess, she thought it would be useful to have her picture taken to show you what it looks like when worn:
Unable to get the correct row gauge (instead of 24, she got 27 rows to 10 cm/4”), the woman inserted several extra rows without increases (called ‘ghost rows’ by the designer) into the raglan, because otherwise it would be too tight. She was afraid these rows would spoil the nice and regular raglan slant, but they didn’t show at all.
Blue would always remain the woman’s favourite colour, but red was just right for this cardi – and for this time of the year, too.
Knitting the red cardigan had not magicked all the woes and worries of the world away, but at least it had been peaceful and its gentle magic had made the woman feel better inside.
In case you could use some of this kind of magic, too, here are some links:
- Cardigan pattern: Stillwater by Marie Greene on Ravelry and on the designer’s website.
- Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted (100% wool; 100g/200m/218yds), shade 124 Rich Red.
- Marie Greene’s thoughts on the importance of row gauge can be read here.
- The toadstool stitch marker is from a small Canadian studio called Firefly Notes. I found mine in this brick-and-mortar shop that I wrote about in this blogpost.
Prachtig vest! En het rood staat natuurlijk prachtig bij al je blauw. Het zijn moeilijke tijden. Rood is energie, kracht, we geven niet op, en ook liefde, passie en verbondenheid. ❤️
Prachtig geworden!