I've been knitting all week like it was Christmas Eve!

Because I needed to finish this:
Untitled
. . . before my daughter got on the plane to Italy this morning.

In fact, knitting for a departing traveller is more intense than knitting for a gift.  I have never been too ashamed of wrapping a partly finished project (or even yarn) with a picture and a note, and giving the gift when I finish.  But once she leaves, my daughter is gone till April.  It's expensive to mail parcels, not to mention the risk I'd take, mailing something hand-made.  Plus we've heard enough stories about parcels held by customs in Italy to make us think we'd be better off not mailing anything but letters.  So, I had a true, hard deadline.

And I made it.
Untitled

The sweater is Dilys, from the Rowan Tweed book by Marie Wallin.

I love this design - someone else on Ravelry called it their Reims sweater, and I think that's a perfect name.  The cables are delicate gothic arches of knitting, and then the yoke is the rose window of stained glass, er, tweed yarn.  I was so glad when my daughter said she not only liked it too, but wanted one.  It was fun to use the Rowan yarn the pattern called for, though we tweaked the colors a bit.  One of the things I love about Rowan color ranges is that their yarns work well together - I also used a Rowan yarn for the Counting Pane afghan I made a few years ago.

We substituted the red and brown colors for the more subdued mossy greens of the original, but kept the oatmeal color (actually called Arncliffe) for the body, and a darker beige as one of the yoke colors. By the way, this yarn is greatly improved with the first washing.  I washed my gauge swatch and was glad I did - both to see how pretty it was when the yarn relaxed and bloomed,  and also because the gauge was different after washing. 

Dilys by Marie Wallin
  • Rowan Tweed yarn, 100% wool, dk weight, colors Arncliffe, Bainbridge, Keld, and Bedale.  
  • Size 4 and 2 needles (US)
  • leather buttons I've been hoarding for years (still have a few left too.)
  • On Ravelry here (more construction details, too)
I wish we could have gotten some pictures in natural daylight, but by the time the knitting was finished (Wednesday night), the ends woven in (Thursday afternoon) and the sweater was washed, blocked and (nearly) dried (Thursday night late), there was no daylight left before the departure.   Still, it's done.  I love the wedge shaped button bands - made with short rows. Actually, I love pretty much everything about this cardigan. 

Now the sweater and my daughter are somewhere over the Atlantic, and I'm missing them both.  But isn't it nice they're on this trip together? 

Comments

  1. Very beautiful!
    I want one!
    Love, Mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. Absolutely stunning, Pam! It is wonderful! (And how exciting for your daughter -- the semester in Italy AND the sweater.)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts