Your very own Night At The Opera in glamorous downtown Roma, a winter performance of Rigoletto, performed in a Burne-Jones chapel, the night air catching your breath as you step out into the deserted piazza.

The rushing of the Trevi fountain, the strolling violinist who offers you his very last rose, the ancient romance of Italia, gaggia, grappa, nibbles of sweetest almond cake, the entwined lovers spiraling home to sit at grandmama’s hearth.

A recipe adapting some, none, or all of the elements as seen in Brunello Cucinelli’s catwalk cape/poncho/capelet design, and making it our own. Front and back smocking cables give comforting warmth, and are complemented by a band of stocking or 1x1 rib across the shoulders and down each of the sides.

You will need to be a confident beginner, or experienced knitter, able or willing to knit in the round, make cables, and to do the swatching and maths required to make the garment fit, and be happy to work from a recipe, rather than a detailed pattern.

But it’s an lot easier than it looks! There’s new sewing, no sleeves to make, no complicated body shaping.

If you can knit, purl, and fancy a go at smocking cables, this could be for you.

{more photographs to come as we complete these garments}

There’s a Knit-Along here. Please feel free to join us!