sweater #13 2016

I’m knitting this cardigan quite unexpectedly: my brother has just arrived from Australia for a few weeks and it’s sparked a memory that his wife told me how much she liked the Esme pattern. As he’s in the UK now, I thought I’d try to get a cardigan knitted up for their daughter Rose to take back with him. She’s my youngest niece at 9, so hopefully the sizing will be about right.

I’m still on a stashbuster mission, so I thought I’d use up some odd balls in blue, pink and white to make a striped Esme, seamlessly (I realised how easy this would be when I knitted the pattern before). Hoping I will get it knitted in time, otherwise it’ll be punitive postage charges…

Mods: knitted as a piece, bottom up; sleeves in the round, then added at bottom yoke level. I’ve winged it a bit with the raglan shaping, but it all looks ok. I’ve mattress-stitched the underarm seams. Yarn-wise, I’ve tried to maximise the odds balls I had in terms of how they would work as stripes. The blues and pinks were very slightly different in shade, so I’ve had to factor that in as well.

FO: it’s kind of a mish-mash, but it looks very sweet and feminine, which is how Rose looks to me, with her flaxen curls and baby-blue eyes. I hope it meets with her approval! and it doesn’t look like I will avoid the punitive postage charges, as brother has gone off to visit a friend before he returns home, whereabouts unknown. Ah well, it was worth a try, and it’s galvanised me to continue as Madame Stashbuster.