sustainablemum: Finished

I finally got round to finishing off two knitting projects that had been languishing in a drawer needing some attention. It is so much easier to cast on a new one and exciting than to weave in ends, block and sew up seams. After taking stock of how many Christmas projects I still had on my to do list I realised that if I did not pay some attention to my two large projects that I had finished knitting they would be ignored until January. If I left them that long then, in the case of the jumper for my youngest, it wouldn't fit anymore!

Both these projects were my first attempt at cables. I have long loved the patterns you can create with cabling one of my favourite jumpers is one that my granny knitted me for my eighteenth birthday, a traditional aran jumper. I had always thought that knitting cables would be too difficult for me, that I would never reach those heady heights how wrong I was.

The purple jumper is taken from the book Easy Kids Knits by Claire Montgomerie and is my sixth project from this book. As with all knitting patterns they are a matter of personal taste and this book is one I love. I had to adapt the pattern slightly to get it to fit. The body and sleeves are knitted to the wearers length but at the raglan opening you are meant to sew the buttons straight onto the raglan shaping on the sleeves without making a button band. When I tried this garment on for size there was a gap between the buttonhole band and the top of the sleeve. I had blocked it quite hard as I was worried it would not fit in this area but despite being a good fit everywhere else it was to small around the shoulders. Luckily for me the addition of a button band on the edge of each sleeve fixed that and it now fits. I am hoping that my daughter does no grow any wider in this area over the coming months as it won't fit her, if she doesn't then it may even fit her next autumn and winter too as the sleeves and the body have some growing room! You can read my Ravelry notes here.

The green cardigan is a pattern from Tin Can Knits which you can buy on Ravelry. The cables on this project were more complicated as was the structure. The jumper was knitted as pieces which were sewn together, this cardigan was knitted in the round joining the sleeves in and then completing the cabled yoke. This was not a portable project especially towards the end! I love the way the cables create a beautiful yoke, this is defiantly a shape which suits me and a style I like. The sizing of this pattern means that I could make them for my children too which I would love to one day. Again this pattern was written so that you knit the sleeves and body to fit the wearer, I find that garments I buy are too long in the body and too short in the arms it is great to have a cardigan that covers my wrists! I bought some beautiful blue yarn in the same sale that I bought the purple yarn used to knit the jumper I am really tempted to use it to knit another one of these for myself! You can read my Ravelry notes here.