Rosie Cardigans

A few weeks ago I received the Spring issue of a gift subscription to the Canadian needlework journal, A Needle Pulling Thread.

A subscription takes about 13 weeks to come from Canada, but since the seasons are out of kilter with Australia's it doesn't much matter, except at Christmas time!



A Needle Pulling Thread covers a wide range of projects - including knitting, rug-hooking, quilting and contemporary fibre arts.

I have found the knitting projects of particular interest.



This issue includes a child's 'sweater' - that I am calling a cardigan - for up to 5 year-olds. It is designed for cotton, which is what I especially liked. I have decided to make one each for my twin granddaughters using some Bendigo Woollen Mill's Harmony yarn I have in my stash. It is a blend of cotton, wool and a little lycra.

I have the yarn in sufficient quantities in a green, a blue or a pinky-mauve. The girls chose (somewhat to my surprise!) the green and the blue.



This is what is is supposed to look like. Will mine look the same?








I decided to knit the two piece for piece,beginning with the backs. I began  with the blue, and found my purl rows were very loose. I undid it back to the flowers and redid it, looping my wool under the needle in purl rows instead of over the needle. Much improved.

I have also simplified the flowers - using only one shade of pink instead of two, mainly because I have three colours in this yarn. For the same reason, the leaves on the green cardigan are blue!

It has worked quite well. Knitting the two at the same time means it is a longer time until you have anything finished, but it means I can show the girls the progress and is preferable to finishing one, then having a whole repeat to do.







                                                                                                               

There are a couple of small errors in the pattern, so I had to concentrate the first time, but it became much easier on the repeats.







                                                                               

I am pleased with the result, and I think the girls are too! The hats are underway and hopefully will match up.