Full Force
I've been obsessed with making a yoked cardigan for months.
And I mean obsessed: like, staring at yoked sweaters on the street obsessed, doodling endless concentric circles in book margins obsessed, losing myself in the contemplation of a lemon cross section obsessed. Posessed, maybe. I blame Adrian, mostly, who's been cranking out glorious sweaters like it's the easiest thing in the world. Jess isn't helping, either. The construction looks so clean and fresh and elegantly simple; the finished products are wonderfully detailed, but eminently wearable.
I originally wanted colorwork, maybe in the Bohus style. Then, I was thinking that I might miraculously manage to spin the pounds of natural-colored Rambouillet I've got socked away, and do some Norwegian-style colorwork. Then, I wanted to spin some lovely green Merino I've got, and do a crazy damask pattern in two-end knitting. I kept planning bigger and bigger.
Then, a brainwave, spurred by an appealing yarn - a subtle, beautifully heathered inside-of-a-scallop pinky lavender shade of Harrisville New England Shetland (an unobtrusively pretty yarn, you see, that would not compete in the patterned sections - but would not look flat and boring in the long stockinette sections, either). I knit the longest swatch known to man - nearly a full ball of yarn - settled on the motifs, and drew a little sketch, just to get an idea of where things might go.
Here's what I am thinking: a very simple, stripped-down cardigan with three-quarter sleeves and a single cable motif lying around the shoulders like a broad torc, with smaller echoing motifs at body and sleeve hems. The motif is based on a simple, often-seen border in Celtic imagery: two key-style lines wrapping in and out of each other sinuously (the horizontal orientation of the band makes it enormously tedious to work - but the result is pretty, I think). As you might have guessed, the operating principle ended up being simplicity: this final iteration is really a plain-jane garment in a sturdy, workhorse yarn, with just enough rich, delicate detail to make it a little something different.
Three days have brought me to the joining point for the sleeves. Can you tell that I'm having fun?
