Tuesday 31 August 2010

Ceci n'est pas une pipe, and I am not a knitwear designer

OK. So, I wanted to make a downloadable pattern pdf in case anyone wanted to knit my Chunky Cable Cardigan, but, drumroll, Blogger doesn't let you host pdfs. Who knew? So, not to be defeated, I have made my pdf downloadable from Ravelry, here (also link in sidebar), even though it isn't a proper design, I am definitely no knitwear designer, and I am scared someone on Ravelry will look at it and tell me off for being rubbish at writing patterns. However I have been brave, and I have conquered this fear to share the Chunky Cable Cardigan with the world.
Two for the price of one: Chunky Cable Cardigan + recycled tie skirt! Don't look closely at the hem, it isn't finished
I knitted this last year and it was very quick to knit (and I am not quick, so if I say it was quick you can trust me). I love the green wool I made it out of, which is Araucania Nature Wool Chunky and is very smart. I obviously have to warn you here that if you wear green you risk upsetting the fairies, but the fairies don't seem too unhappy with me at the moment so you might be able to get away with it.
I love a good cable. Don't you? Don't you love a good cable?
For those of you who hang out on Ravelry you might perhaps recognise that this is a Buttony made a bit shorter and with a cable added. You are right! It is based on Buttony (and I have attributed it accordingly in the pattern). However, I had to think about how to place the sleeves/ front pieces etc so that the cable would come out dead central, so if you want not to have to do that, do feel free to download my pattern. You can substitute your own cable design – I have calculated for a cable about 20 stitches wide (mine was 18 stitches with an edge stitch on each side) – if yours is different to that you will have to recalculate. Sorry. You can see that the cable does pull it in a bit at the top and bottom but I don't think this looks bad, I think it looks charmingly rustic. You can knit this with only 4 skeins of yarn which, drumroll, is discounted at Stash Fine Yarns (no connection, just that this is where I got mine from and I thought the service was good). So, go knit chunky cardigans if you want to, and I promise you that if you wear something reasonably fitted underneath you won't look like a barrel. You really won't.

3 comments:

pip said...

... I love your green (sorry fairies!) cardigan :)

Oh Miss West said...

Susie! That's awesome! It's so awesome, I might even try it, and I'm terrified of cardigans (well, knitting them, not wearing them. I love wearing them)

Susie said...

Oh, thank you! - I'm terrified of knitting anything you wear that's meant to actually fit, but - and I want someone to quote this back at me if they try the cardigan and it goes terribly wrong - you're always ok with a top-down raglan, they always turn out more or less wearable.

I've jinxed it now, haven't I? ;-)