Ups and Downs

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past week. There has been some knitting, and a sick toddler. Annette doesn’t get sick very often at all, but when she does, she’s really miserable. She’s got the flu now, the poor thing… I can hear her coughing many times during the night, and in the morning she wakes up much earlier than usual, with a piercing scream too. Oh dear…

On the knitting front, the back on Buttercup is done, and now I’m progressing along the first front piece.

You see the 6 stitches hanging on the ‘stitch holder’? They will become the moss-stitch buttonhole band, to be knitted after the front piece itself is done, and then seamed to the front piece. A matching button band will similarly be done this way on the other front piece. This is the first time I encountered such construction. My initial reaction was, Why?? Why can’t I just knit the button bands at the same time as the front pieces and avoid extra seaming? Granted, with Buttercup the pattern says to make the button bands using a needle size smaller. So… maybe that’s why? Because the gauge for the button bands is different from the main body? Or is there any other reason for this? Better garment structure?? Well I decided to follow as per pattern, extra seaming and all, entrusting my sanity to the infinite wisdom of the pattern designer… hehee… well, the patterns in this book haven’t let me down so far… And I do want to learn how this construction would turn out.

I’ve also got yarn for my mum’s cardigan. I wanted a cotton blend, so that it can get some wear even on warm climate. And what do you know, I found Rowan’s All Seasons Cotton on sale at Jannette’s Rare Yarns. Well, the discontinued shades anyway. I bought some of the Purr shade, it’s a light mauve/purple colour, which is just what my mum wanted. Great!

As for the pattern, mum said these two are her favourites (I emailed her the pics of Jess, Shelagh, and several cardi patterns from Garnstudio/Drops Design):

Left: Jess, by Anna Bell. Right: Pattern 71-1 from Garnstudio/Drops Design.

Mum’s first preference is Jess. So I quickly swatched, but the result was… ugh… The fabric just doesn’t look right, the drape doesn’t look right. It’s just way to drapey (probably just what you get when you substitute cotton instead of wool), and you can’t see the basketweave pattern very well. I don’t think this would work…

(Actually, I have swatched with the recommended yarn for this pattern (Elle Pure New Wool). I have some leftover balls from a previous project, which I bought a long time ago at Lincraft. I got gauge, and I loved the way the basketweave pattern looked. I totally would have used this yarn to make Jess, except that when I went to Lincraft I found that they have discontinued it, and now have none left!! Grrrr… And I haven’t been able to find it anywhere else so far… sobs.. I loved that yarn, it was very soft, versatile, nice colours, and very affordable too. Ok, end of rant.)

So I told mum about the situation, and she’s ok with that. She’s happy with the Drops cardi pattern as well, so I’ll go ahead with that. Hopefully better luck with this one…