In a perfect world, we would have the time, energy and resources to indulge in every single hobby that takes our fancy. But we do not live in a perfect world. We have work. We have lives to live. And we also have a limited amount of mental bandwidth to dispense with. Some of our hobbies stay with us throughout our lives. Others gradually fall by the wayside as new interests, responsibilities and priorities take their place. Every now and then, though, something prompts us to revisit them. For me, that prompt has been facing the prospect of re-entering the job market and the need to have something that keeps me grounded when the job hunt inevitably gets underway. Some of these have been sitting patiently in the background for years. Others are more recent additions to the “I should really get back to that” pile. Either way, these are…
I think that it goes without saying that my holy grail cardigan pattern is PetiteKnit’s April Cardigan. I’ve made so many of them that I’ve had to put a few of them into storage for the time being. Even though most of my outerwear knits have been cardigans, I’m not entirely opposed to trying the odd sweater pattern. Over the years, I’ve become very particular about sweater patterns, favouring those with a v-neck. Yet, for all of the sweater patterns that I’ve pulled up, there haven’t been too many that were simple (a la PetiteKnits) and featured a v-neck. Then it occurred to me: why not try modifying a pattern I know and love? The April Cardigan already ticked most of the boxes. I knew the fit suited me, I liked the construction, and I’d knitted enough of them to feel comfortable making adjustments. Converting it into a sweater seemed…
You know how you have that itch to retry a project when the previous attempt doesn’t work out the way you want it to? Yeah. This iteration of the Moondancer Shawl by Dominique Trad was one of those projects. The very first bash at the project was a yellow-and-grey number, which was made so I could wear it to the Harry Potter Feast event. Yes. I was a Hufflepuff at the time. And no, it was not worth the money I shelled out for the ticket to that event. Since then, a couple of things have happened. Firstly, I found myself in posession of more yarn than I had proper storage for (and needed to use up). Second (and most importantly), I am no longer a Hufflepuff. Yes. I am now rocking the red and gold of Gryffindor house. Which means that a) the Hufflepuff-inspired shawl is no longer appropriate…
Dear Diary, It’s safe to say that the April Cardigan from PeiteKnits has become my go to cardigan pattern. Because it’s on the simpler end of the spectrum for cardigan patterns, it’s really easy to adapt the pattern to suit your own tastes. Take, for example, this iteration. (Yes, I have made more than one of this pattern) Instead of going for the solid block of colour that the original pattern calls for, I went for a series of stripes around the bottom edge of the body and the sleeve cuffs. Originally, I was angling for a gentle pink to green gradient, but the striped effect turned out ok. This was also the first interation where I tried the “perfect” 1×1 ribbing. The end result was that the cuffs and bottom band were a lot snugger than previous iterations. That, and the buttonholes were smaller. As for the placement of…