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So I have been trying to finish knitting a cardigan over the past week instead of doing any more sewing. Actually maybe I'm still only about 80% decided on making a skirt with that other length of wool? I've played around with the idea a lot but I haven't found any idea better than cutting the pinstripes (they're big sort of chalky broken stripes, not really pinstripes, but they're widely spaced on charcoal gray - so I feel like pinstripe conveys that image more than just saying striped? There might be a somewhat obsolete term that I just don't know) on the bias so that they create a chevron front and back, probably in a half circle rather than a full circle, but I'm not ENTIRELY sure that I want to do it, still. On the other hand, I am a bit eager to make another skirt because I feel like I learned a few things last time, and I want to see if my feeling that the next one would be easier and better is accurate.
Or we could go and try to buy some fabric more cheaply at the big warehouse store in the next town over, which is like a twenty minute drive, so a big expedition with the car. Buying exactly what you want in fabric might work very well online usually - with the exception of color matching - but linen and wool are expensive fabrics and I am not willing to make early, expensive projects out of them using things bought at full price. Will I make some cotton stuff in the meanwhile too? Sure! There is cotton in the stash for that. But it's too cold to actually wear a skirt made with any of the stuff in the stash right now.
Also the other vintage wool skirt I ordered got stuck in Helsinki and sent back to the sender because of 'lacking address information' which, needless to say, is not my fault, because none of the other packages I've bought from Etsy have had any trouble arriving from, you know, Poland, Ukraine, Ireland, Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, France, or Latvia. And I didn't get any messages from the seller at that stage! Could just mean that the Finnish post didn't successfully contact them. But anyway, the skirt turned itself around and went back to sender there so my beautiful forest green wool skirt has not arrived. I'm very disappointed about that. So I only have my one pleated tartan skirt and the gathered heather gray one that I made. I still hope to get this one, though... fingers crossed. Meanwhile I wore a wool skirt (with my kinda inferior flannel bloomers and wool-blend stockings held up with cotton twill tape ribbon garters under the knee)(and also with my big snow boots and ice cleats) three days last week when the temperature was right around the freezing point because it's just much more comfortable and cozy both indoors and outdoors.
Anyway! The cardigan that I'm making, as I mentioned before, is a Guernsey or gansey cardigan. This refers to the British island, or rather to the traditional and characteristic style of knitted wool sweaters (pullover fishermen's sweaters) made there. The word has drifted around in meaning and is not only spelled the latter way (phoneticized) but also has (in certain places and times) been used to refer to sweaters or pullovers in general. The traditional Guernsey gansey can be read about here at Wikipedia - it has a fascinating history with early modern trading and royal charters and is still made there today. It can also be seen there in its most traditional form, a square dark navy blue wool pullover with the top half or so of the torso decorated with a textured pattern made entirely of knit and purl stitches, unlike the cable technique typical of the later Irish "Aran". The stitch patterns were originally passed down from mother to daughter, and it's the use of these motifs that is typically meant when people talk about guernsey or guernsey-style sweaters today. You can see a good closeup of the stitch motifs on the cover of this vintage book on Ravelry: The Complete Book of Traditional Guernsey and Jersey Knitting by Rae Compton (1985). I've included links to the pattern I'm using before, which, however, don't include really clear photos of the result anyway. My cardigan is made of a soft light alpaca with a muted heather dye, and so the stitch definition isn't very great and the pattern is a subtle effect. You need thicker or denser or more tightly spun yarn, knitted more tightly, or at least one of those attributes, to get crisp stitch definition. The result I'm getting is very beautiful though! And I've almost finished the body, which will be about half of the project.
Also here's Snookums helping and Tristana hindering (she needed my hands to pay attention to her instead of knitting).
Or we could go and try to buy some fabric more cheaply at the big warehouse store in the next town over, which is like a twenty minute drive, so a big expedition with the car. Buying exactly what you want in fabric might work very well online usually - with the exception of color matching - but linen and wool are expensive fabrics and I am not willing to make early, expensive projects out of them using things bought at full price. Will I make some cotton stuff in the meanwhile too? Sure! There is cotton in the stash for that. But it's too cold to actually wear a skirt made with any of the stuff in the stash right now.
Also the other vintage wool skirt I ordered got stuck in Helsinki and sent back to the sender because of 'lacking address information' which, needless to say, is not my fault, because none of the other packages I've bought from Etsy have had any trouble arriving from, you know, Poland, Ukraine, Ireland, Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, France, or Latvia. And I didn't get any messages from the seller at that stage! Could just mean that the Finnish post didn't successfully contact them. But anyway, the skirt turned itself around and went back to sender there so my beautiful forest green wool skirt has not arrived. I'm very disappointed about that. So I only have my one pleated tartan skirt and the gathered heather gray one that I made. I still hope to get this one, though... fingers crossed. Meanwhile I wore a wool skirt (with my kinda inferior flannel bloomers and wool-blend stockings held up with cotton twill tape ribbon garters under the knee)(and also with my big snow boots and ice cleats) three days last week when the temperature was right around the freezing point because it's just much more comfortable and cozy both indoors and outdoors.
Anyway! The cardigan that I'm making, as I mentioned before, is a Guernsey or gansey cardigan. This refers to the British island, or rather to the traditional and characteristic style of knitted wool sweaters (pullover fishermen's sweaters) made there. The word has drifted around in meaning and is not only spelled the latter way (phoneticized) but also has (in certain places and times) been used to refer to sweaters or pullovers in general. The traditional Guernsey gansey can be read about here at Wikipedia - it has a fascinating history with early modern trading and royal charters and is still made there today. It can also be seen there in its most traditional form, a square dark navy blue wool pullover with the top half or so of the torso decorated with a textured pattern made entirely of knit and purl stitches, unlike the cable technique typical of the later Irish "Aran". The stitch patterns were originally passed down from mother to daughter, and it's the use of these motifs that is typically meant when people talk about guernsey or guernsey-style sweaters today. You can see a good closeup of the stitch motifs on the cover of this vintage book on Ravelry: The Complete Book of Traditional Guernsey and Jersey Knitting by Rae Compton (1985). I've included links to the pattern I'm using before, which, however, don't include really clear photos of the result anyway. My cardigan is made of a soft light alpaca with a muted heather dye, and so the stitch definition isn't very great and the pattern is a subtle effect. You need thicker or denser or more tightly spun yarn, knitted more tightly, or at least one of those attributes, to get crisp stitch definition. The result I'm getting is very beautiful though! And I've almost finished the body, which will be about half of the project.
Also here's Snookums helping and Tristana hindering (she needed my hands to pay attention to her instead of knitting).
