Finally…I started this in the summer and it is finished in mid winter, just the time for three quarter length sleeves and lace.  I was knitting the sleeves at the Winter Solstice.

It is a bit lovely though isn’t it?

The pattern is called Lace Cardigan by Simona Merchant-Dest. It made perfect use of a stash of Patons Bluebell Merino 5ply I had bought years and years ago for $3.00 a ball.  Sometimes stashing works out like destiny. I think I used about 7 balls, approximately  875 m but I kind of lost count along the way. Ravelled here.

The only mods I made were to the button holes.  The pattern called for a two row button hole but I couldn’t make this work for me, so I did a standard yarn over button hole that is just fine.  The buttons were bought at last year’s Wool Show from The Button Lady.

It is lovely to wear and that mauve seems to unite a lot of my wardrobe. My only concern is that the Bluebell is quite a dense heavy yarn and as the cardigan was knit in the round, it lacks any kind of structure for the lace to hang off.  When you put the cardigan on, the lace feels like it just wants to keep opening up and up. If I was to make this again. I would make it in pieces, at least the sleeves and seam them together.  The raglan seams would hold the lace panels like a spine.

The actual knitting was an extraordinary pleasure.  After the initial challenge of working across three different charts, the work developed its own momentum and the right stitches seemed to suggest themselves.  At times, all I could see, were the number patterns. It was not like knitting at all but like seeing into the matrix, seeing only code!  Those moments were pure bliss and then I would lose my head and need to go back a bit and put the right stitches in! Eurphoria and hubris in one garment.  You cannot ask for a better knitting experience.