Tag Archive | knit

Cabled Cardigan Inspo

Okay, is anyone else watching Bad Sisters on Apple TV+? I’m midway through season two so no spoilers but please let’s talk about the knitwear!! The sweaters are amazing. The hats too – Angelica was wearing a yellow hat that looks much like one I knit ages ago – but I’m obsessed with the sweaters. Apparently some of them are from IrelandsEye and I could buy them…or I could spend around the same amount of money and devote months of my time to knitting them! I know which route I’m going, what about you?

This one is my favorite. I adore that gorgeous vivid green and I’m so glad I saw it on the show because the way they styled it on Eva is so much more appealing to me than the model on the website. I am not typically a big fan of knitting cables. Cables are fiddly and most of the time I want my knitting to be not fiddly. (Some people would question my statement, given how much lace I knit and whether lace is considered fiddly or not. Maybe it is just a brand of fiddly I am on board with.)

HOWEVER, Eva has convinced me that I NEED to make this sweater. I have already done some trolling for patterns and found this Book Club Cardigan on Ravelry. I would modify the bottom hem to be thicker like Eva’s sweater, and I could modify the sleeves to be that balloon style, but I’m not sure I’m going to.

The biggest question now is yarn. I don’t tend to stash sweater quantities unless I have a pattern in mind. I had a couple of possibilities from past projects, but those yarns are discontinued, so I’m on the hunt. Since it’s a cardigan and won’t be against my skin, I don’t have to worry as much about the itch factor, but I don’t want it to be so rustic/earthy that it’s unpleasant to knit with. I think I might want to go non-superwash with this one. I should probably go with something affordable like Cascade 220 (maybe the Christmas green here??) although the last cardigan I knit with that yarn pilled like crazy.

So, I’m taking suggestions! What are your favorite budget-friendly yarns for something like a cabled cardigan?

Knitting as a Calling

Mar21

I find myself missing writing, or this type of writing anyway. There have been a couple of times over the last month where I caught myself composing posts in my head. So, why not compose them here, I guess? I’ve got the blog, might as well use it when the mood hits, although I stopped paying for the fancier subscription so photos will be few and far between. I did post this on Substack but that doesn’t feel like home yet, not like this does. Fun fact: apparently today is my blogiversary – I registered the blog 11 years ago!

I recently revisited an old journal in a fit of nostalgia and 25 years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, I wrote that I wished I knew how to knit or crochet. I didn’t necessarily want to make something for the baby – I was just restless one night and nothing sounded appealing. I have no idea how or why knitting came to mind because nobody in my world was a knitter or crocheter.

I didn’t take the initiative to learn at that point. I wish I had. I think knitting would have helped my mental state a lot when I was struggling with motherhood, and with balancing motherhood with a job or marriage or just being my own person. I cycled through other hobbies – scrapbooking, jewelry making – but they didn’t stick. And they never had the same restorative, meditative qualities that knitting does. Maybe that’s why they didn’t stick?

When it comes to hobbies – and I even struggle to call it a hobby because it feels more important than that – knitting is The One for me. It completes me, soothes me, supports me, inspires me. I’ve been knitting for 12 years now and never gotten tired of it.

It’s given me a way to play with colors and patterns and textures in a tactile way. I’ve tried drawing and painting and those are not my talents. This, though, the pairing of yarn and pattern, this comes naturally to me, and the whole process brings me so much joy.

It’s given me an amazing community, a place where I feel accepted and encouraged. I love knitters so much. I love how so many of them have leaned into being truly, authentically themselves. Many of us knitters are weird, and I say that as a compliment because I love weird. I love being “weird” because it means accepting how I’m different – not just accepting but embracing. I have to thank the wild, powerful world of knitters for helping me gain that confidence

I love who I am now, and I think knitting has contributed so much to that. I wish young Bonny had had even a tiny bit of that 25 years ago.

Estonian Lace Cowl

Sep16

I spent the last three days working on donation knitting, but today I need to share a cowl I finished over a week ago! I was just really slow taking pretty photos. This is my Estonian Medallion Lace Cowl.

This is some of my most recent vacation yarn from Colorado, from a local dyer called Herd of Cats. If I read the tag right, the base is Streets, and this might be the Champion Street colorway. Because it was only around 181 yards, I had to modify the pattern a little bit, just by casting on fewer stitches. Toward the end, I was afraid I was going to run out of yarn so I only did 2.5 repeats of the lace instead of three. (Probably could have done all three, though.)

Anyway, the important thing is that the yarn is delicious! It’s thick and squooshy and so soft that I really thought it had some cashmere or silk, but it’s all merino. I believe they sell under the name Road Trip Sock Yarn on Etsy, and this looks like what I had. But also, if you’re ever in Denver, stop by the LambShoppe and check out their yarns!