For the time being I decided to get yarn for two cardigans. So now I have plenty of yarn for the 1960 cardigan plus another cardigan that I noticed when I was browsing the knitting magazines.
In fact the two magazines I've bought have four potential candidates for future knitting, provided the first two cardigans go well.
I started knitting right away when we got home from the yarn shop. Prior to our trip I had already done a rather large swatch for the 1960 cardigan. As it turns out, I did need to go down two needle sizes, but that's normal for the technique I use.
A major difference for me, compared to knitting socks, is the tension. The tension required for a cardigan is much tighter than I'm used to. Another reason why I went down two needle sizes.
And it felt so weird to use only two needles instead of the usual five when I knit a sock.
On another note, I'm nearly done knitting the back of the 1960 cardigan.
Here's a picture:
If it seems too narrow to you, don't worry, because it's being knitted in ribbing stitch entirely. I can assure you that it's quite stretchy. As you can see, I've just started the armhole. I now need to work 8" as is, then proceed with the rest of the armhole.
Well, at least the largest piece of the cardigan is nearly done. At least the other pieces have far less stitches, so in theory they should go faster, or at least appear to, ;-))
The yarn is called Bingo, and it's from Lana Grossa.
Of course I couldn't wait to see how the other yarn would look like, so I knitted a swatch. I have no idea how the stitch is called, as it wasn't specified in the directions, but I sure like the look of it.
See picture:
It's a cardigan pattern as well, made entirely in that stitch. This yarn too is Lana Grossa, and it's called Royal Tweed. I find it a little harder to knit with, but it's very pretty and the stitch is so fun to do.
My sister advised me to do at least one cardigan from a magazine, because you can use the exact same yarn as used in the design, making it more likely that the result will look the same.
I have no picture of the design, but it's a very simple long cardigan with straight sleeves and a collar.
Oh, I can show you some finished knitting as well. When I bought the vintage cardigan patterns on Etsy I also bought this irresistible pattern for dishcloths.
And I've already made a pair:
They were so much fun to make! Cheerful, aren't they?
Lastly, I'm still contemplating what to do about a quilt for my draughty bedroom. I've decided that hand quilting would be too time consuming. After all I'm still hand quilting the lap quilt for my sister. I would prefer not to start another hand quilting project while hers isn't finished yet.
I've looked at quilts in shops, but I can't find any color I like. All the colors are ever so boring: greys, taupe, white..... bleh.
But how would I go about machine quilting?
Free motion quilting is out. It would take me too long to learn. Most likely I could do a large quilt by hand faster than attempting to get a remotely decent result by free motion quilting.
Besides, I would have to do it on my Pfaff, because my vintage Singers are hand cranks. Plus, if I use a vintage Singer for the patchwork top, I would prefer not to use an electric machine to quilt it, It just doesn't seem right somehow.
So the solution might be to quilt in the ditch by machine. If I do a log cabin top, all I would need to do is stitch the outlines of each block. Meaning I would have to do straight lines only, lengthwise and crosswise. I suppose it won't be easy anyway, because I'm not used to handling such an amount of fabric with any machine, but since it'd be straight lines it might work.
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