despite appearances to the contrary (ie, it not being cold), i hear that winter approacheth. i realised the other day that my snails pace on the leaving cardigan would mean No New Cardigan come the the cooler weather. dont get me wrong, i love Leaving. look at it, whats not to love?
gorgeous madeline tosh pashmina in the now discontinued ‘vintage frame’ colourway (mwahahah, i have seven skeins!), and a wonderfully detailed and elegant pattern. its going to be a very classy piece, if it ever gets finished. the issue is two fold. firstly, that wonderfully detailed and elegant pattern requires looking at the chart for every row. there are no rest rows. there are 32 rows in that pattern repeat, and they are all different. i can follow along to a point, but i still need to look. secondly, im alternating three balls at once (due to colour variations).
this does not make for transportable knitting. its stay at home knitting. its also not mindless knitting. so, its slow. i have been trying to be something like project monogamous, that is, knitting one thing for at least a few days at a time in order to make some kind of dent in each thing (thats monogamous, isnt it?!), and i had wanted to finish this cardigan before i moved onto the next one, which i knew would be in the berroco ultra alpaca light i grabbed at that fantastic looped yarn works store in DC. but it occured to me that i actually needed a black cardigan more than any other knitted object right now, and i was going to need it soon.
so i consulted the brains trust, and then ignored everyones suggestions, and cast on this:
its the greenfield cardigan from new england knits. i wanted a top down raglan but ive done lily twice and thats enough. and i wanted one with good sizing and shaping, and something that was a little bit pretty. greenfield seemed to fit the bill. i was a bit worried about garter stitch, i normally use stocking stitch for garments to keep the bulk down, but the alpaca light is only a sport weight, and is going to have lots of stretch in it which will make it block pretty flat anyway, so the garter stitch seemed safe. i also modified the neck line to reduce the fall-off-the-shoulder risk.
it feels great to be knitting a black top down raglan again. i think im just going to have to make a new one every year! on that note, could it just hurry up and be winter already?
kxx
a room of my own 
March 29th, 2011 at 10:46 am
Oh Leaving. It’s stunning. What a show stopper it’s going to be but yeah, not conducive to being ready any time soon. Greenfields is a good choice. I need that book.
March 29th, 2011 at 10:47 am
i love my new england knits. i want to knit everything in that book, and that doesn’t happen too often. my old port pullover is growing at a rate of knots, and your greenfield looks like it’s just going to be beautiful. i can’t wait to see how it turns out.
and your leaving. sigh. stunning. 🙂
March 29th, 2011 at 11:48 am
Leaving is gorgeous and just stunning
and greenfields is on my list too – I am thinking a grey would be nice – but I am partial to grey nes pas?
March 29th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
I think you’re practicing what anthropologists label serial monogamy.
I love ‘greenfields’ – it hadn’t yet entered my somewhat limited acquaintance with cardi patterns. They seem so daunting. I’m full of admiration for even partially-finished cardigans.
March 29th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
The Leaving is just stunning. Cannot wait to see how greenfields goes.
March 29th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Both gorgeous patterns and both in my queue … does that mean you are actually making them for me (she says hopefully??!)
March 29th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Gorgeous! I feel your pain about alternating skeins, I seem to be rearranging yarn more than knitting it at the moment.
March 29th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Leaving will be great, but you can’t have enough black cardigans, surely?
March 29th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
I have that pattern in my queue, I am waiting for the book to come, I saw a green one on The Ravelry with buttons all the way down the front and I am in love with it. Yours will be so nice, I was a bit worried about the garter stitch but you have calmed me!!
Leaving is so nice and will probably totally understand you leaving it alone for a while!! Oh alternating three different balls???
March 29th, 2011 at 9:01 pm
The Leaving cardigan looks gorgeous. It doesnt sound like a very portable project though so another one is always handy. I too have the New England Knits book and love that pattern but didnt like how far down the neckline came. Would you have notes on your ravelry page of how you adjusted yours so perhaps I can do that on my one!
March 31st, 2011 at 6:59 am
hi sue, i just used the instructions that wolliversmum on ravelry gave: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/wolliversum/greenfield-cardigan. i thought for a minute it might be too high, but better too high than always falling off the shoulders! k xx
March 29th, 2011 at 11:08 pm
I was thinking of serial monogamy,too. Nothing wrong with that as long as you give all the wips some attention so that no one gets jealous.
I love the pattern and understand the semi-frustration of not being able to just knit (but there’s a kind of fascination with having to look at the chart and knitting something complicated, too).
March 30th, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Pretty cardigans and that Tosh yarn is such a pretty colour 🙂
…and YES bring winter on ! 😀
March 31st, 2011 at 9:52 am
Far out I love your yarn stash. Such great projects too. I’ve just cast on a cardi I hope to be wearing this season. Go on I dare you to finish Greenfields and Evening Stockins by the time the cooler weather gets going!
March 31st, 2011 at 8:01 pm
that is one jaw-droppingly gorgeous garment in progress. And on ignoring advice, isn’t it funny how asking people for advice sometimes just makes it really clear you already know what you want to do?