I’m not very fond of Winter, I don’t like the dark and I don’t like the cold.  As silly as it may sound, even though I’ve been producing huge quantities of knitted garments I rarely knit for myself.  There are only so many knitting hours in the day and I need to keep most of my knitting in good condition so they can be used a samples for display.

However this cardigan is different, I knit it just for me!  I used snuggly warm Donegal Yarns Aran Tweed and it has a nice high collar to keep my neck warm and snug.  I find jumpers (or sweaters!) warmer as it covers across the front but when I spend so much time going in and out of cars, shopping centers and schools I wanted it to be easier to take off.  So this is as warm as a jumper due to a side closure but much easier to take off due to the snaps.

As this was just for me I went ahead and experimented with a technique that I haven’t used before – steeking.  For anyone who hasn’t come across this term before it involves CUTTING your knitting.  Sounds really scary but it’s actually not!  I used a crochet steek (great details on Eunny’s Blog), which as I discovered even a non-crocheter can master.  It creates a wonderful neat finish that just folds into place (you should be able to see from the photos the slip stitch edge I used for a neat fold).  This yarn is great for a crochet steek as it has a good amount of ‘stick’ to help the yarn hold itself together.

Usually I have a terrible time coming up with design names but this time it just fell in place  – Carrageen.  The ribbing stitch I am using in the cardigan is a variation on the Seaweed Rib from Barbara Walker and as Carrageen is after all seaweed it seemed like a good match.

This cardigan won’t be released for a little while (needs to join the queue!) but I wanted to put some photos up before I started wearing it into the ground.  It uses one of my favourite constructions methods, it is worked from the bottom up in the round, joined at the shoulder seam and then set-in sleeves worked from the top down using short rows.

This gives you the simplicity of one-piece construction with the flattering effect of a set-in sleeve, which really can’t be beat!